2010 Overview: Cory, a slick-fielding second baseman and 2010 co-captain, is the most experienced Buckeye on the 2010 roster, playing in 162 career games, 16 in the postseason. A four-year starter who has never played in less than 54 games in a season, Kovanda sports a .320 career batting average and has perhaps the best eye on the team as he as walked 86 times to just 69 strikeouts in his three years at Ohio State. Cory is also one of the most clutch players on the team, batting .415 with runners in scoring position in 2009.

2009 (Junior): Played in 59 games, starting 56 ... named second-team All-Big Ten Conference and the Big Ten Conference Sportsmanship honoree ... led the Buckeyes with a .431 on-base percentage ... ranked third on the team in runs scored (55) and triples (3) ... fifth on the team with a .341 batting average and 75 hits ... tied for seventh in the Big Ten with 33 walks ... tied for fourth on the team with 12 multiple RBI games and fifth on the team with 20 multi-hit games ... had a 12-game (2/27-3/15) and a 13-game (4/15-5/5) hitting streak ... one of the Buckeyes' most clutch hitters, batted .415 (27-for-65) with runners in scoring position and .722 (13-for-18) with a runner on third base and less than two outs ... batted .368 (7-for-19) with a pair of doubles and seven runs scored in the RussMatt Baseball Invitational ... hit .533 (8-for-15) with three triples, a double and six runs scored in the Palm Beach Classic ... tripled twice against North Dakota State ... went 4-for-7 (.571) with two RBI and three runs scored in the Penn State series ... batted .500 (7-for-14) with four RBI and three runs scored in the Illinois series ... hit .467 (7-for-15) with an RBI and two runs scored in the Big Ten Tournament.

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, played 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.