2009 Preview: Cory will bring his competitive nature and willingness to do whatever it takes for the team to the field in 2009 for what will be his third season as an everyday starter ... he has already topped 100 career starts at second base and he is a 58-game starter against Big Ten Conference competition ... he is experienced and he will be a leader as one of the team’s upper classmen ... he ranks second among current Buckeyes with 107 hits and 70 runs scored ... has a career batting average of .307 with a .292 average against Big Ten teams.
2008 (Sophomore): Cory played in 54 games and made a team-high (tie) 53 starts ... made a 35 percentage improvement in his overall batting average from freshman year ... .324 average was third on the team and 45 runs scored was second highest figure ... hit team-best .375 with bases empty and reached base 69 percent of the time when leading off an inning ... led the team with 37 walks, a figure that was fifth-most in the Big Ten ... also led the team with an on-base pct. of .441 and with six sacrifice flies ... hit .625 on spring break trip (15-for-24 with eight runs scored) and was named Big Ten player of the week ... kept hitting after spring break and hitting streak reached career-high 11 games, including eight consecutive games with multiple hits at one point ... had four hits and three runs scored in win over Kansas ... collected 100th career hit in G3 at Michigan ... walked four times and scored four runs vs. Buffalo ... named to Big Ten tournament team after recording three hits and scoring three runs in two games ... played for Delaware of the GLCBL this summer.
2007 (Freshman): Played in 55 games as a true freshman and started 50 times at second base and once at third ... selected as an honorable mention Ping! Baseball freshman All-American after hitting .289 for the season and fielding at a .964 rate ... improved average 40 points to .330 in Big Ten Conference games, the third-highest Big Ten average on the team ... also hit .301 with runners in scoring position ... a type of player who makes things happen, he reached base almost 50 percent of the time (17-for-38) when leading off an inning ... also hit .600 with runners on third and less than two outs (9-for-16) and he was second on the team in sac bunts (7) and hit-by-pitches (8) ... delivered 12 multi-hit games with high of three hits four times (in games vs. Iowa, Indiana, Purdue and Minnesota) ... hit .357 vs. Iowa (5-for-14), .555 vs. Indiana (5-for-9 with four runs scored) and .461 vs. Purdue (6-for-13) ... played for Delaware of the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League.
Worthington Kilbourne H.S.: Earned first team all-Ohio Capital Conference and Central District honors ... finished career with a .491 on-base percentage and stole 45 of 47 bases ... maintained a perfect fielding percentage in 110 chances to set the school record ... Kilbourne was 61-19 while Cory played and won the district title in 2006 ... combined with his brother to hit back-to-back triples to win the 2004 state sectional ... earned three letters ... also was a three-year letterwinner in football ... was a two-time conference and district honoree ... played in the Division I state semifinals in 2005 ... active in Young Life.
Personal: Cory is the son of Dave and Linda Kovanda ... has one brother, Chris, and one sister Kimberly ... brother, Chris, plays baseball at Otterbein College ... high school teammate of current Buckeyes Ryan Dew and Jared Strayer ... has known Dew since fourth grade ... was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as a 12-year-old ... heard Olympic swimming gold medal winner Gary Hall Jr., who also has Type 1 diabetes, say “diabetes was never going to run his life” ... Hall and that phrase have been an inspiration to Kovanda since.
Overall AVG G/GS AB R H HR RBI BB SO
2007 .289 55/51 166 25 48 0 17 16 20
2008 .324 54/53 182 45 59 1 20 37 24
Totals .307 109/104 348 70 107 1 37 53 44
Big Ten AVG G/GS AB R H HR RBI BB SO
2007 .330 29/29 88 13 29 0 8 8 7
2008 .256 30/29 90 18 23 1 12 21 15
Totals .292 59/58 178 31 52 1 20 29 22
Postseason AVG G AB R H HR RBI BB SO
Big Ten Tour. .136 6 22 3 3 0 2 2 4
NCAA Tour. .273 3 11 1 3 0 0 1 1
Totals .181 9 33 4 6 0 2 3 5
