Oklahoma State University Athletics
Oklahoma State Faces Kansas State
April 05, 2001 | Cowboy Baseball
April 5, 2001
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No. 22 (BW/ESPN) Oklahoma State Cowboys (24-10, 8-7)
vs.
Kansas State Wildcats (11-18, 3-12), Friday-6 p.m., Saturday-3 p.m.,
Sunday-2 p.m.
Allie P. Reynolds Stadium -- Stillwater, Oklahoma
THE WEEK AHEAD
Oklahoma State will host a conference series for the first time in three
weeks when the Kansas State Wildcats come to town for a trio of games. The
two squads will open play under the lights on Friday at 6 p.m. and are set
to square off Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. before closing out the weekend
with a 2 p.m. tilt on Sunday.
SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
The Wildcats will bring a four-game losing streak to Stillwater after
dropping three games to Baylor last weekend and an 11-3 decision to Oral
Roberts on Wednesday. K-State owns a win over then-No. 3 Louisiana State in
Baton Rouge.
The Wildcats will send a pair of righthanders in Luke Robertson (4-4, 5.78 ERA) and Kevin Melcher (0-2, 3.70 ERA) to the mound along with southpaw Brock Smith (1-2, 8.14 ERA) this weekend.
Offensively, Nick Sorensen paces KSU with a .333 average. The junior outfielder has 31 hits in 93 plate appearances and leads the squad with a slugging percentage of .516 and 48 total bases.
Last season, the Wildcats took two-of-three contests from the Cowboys in Manhattan, winning the last two games of the series 15-9 and 14-7 after dropping the opener 8-4. However, OSU leads the all-time series 129-35.
PROBABLES ON THE MOUND
Senior Josh Merrigan will be looking to rebound from his series-opening
loss last weekend at Iowa State. On the season, the southpaw is 4-4 with a
3.99 ERA. In 49.2 innings, Merrigan has struck out 46 batters while walking
20.
Freshman Scott Baker will look to extend a personal two-game winning streak and improve upon his 6-1 ledger. The righthander has worked a team-best 50.1 innings this season and is sporting an ERA of 3.40 while holding the opposition to a .213 batting average.
Junior righthander Nick McCurdy will bring a 4-3 mark and a 3.83 ERA into the weekend. The transfer from Jefferson Davis Junior College has tossed 40 innings in nine appearances this season.
LOOKING BACK
OSU had a pair of mid-week games against Arkansas-Little Rock scrapped
due to inclement weather before traveling to Ames, Iowa for a three-game set
with the Iowa State Cyclones last weekend, where the Pokes dropped
two-of-three games. In the opener, the Cowboys could not take advantage of
12 walks and stranded 13 runners en route to losing a 9-4 decision. Due to
inclement weather, Saturday's contest was moved to Sunday, forcing a
get-away day doubleheader. Freshman righthander Scott Baker continued to
impress, improving to 6-1 on the season after working six innings and
scattering six hits. Jake Bollig also had a break-out game after missing
time due to a broken hand. The designated hitter went 3-for-4 with two RBI
and a run scored and helped the Cowboys hang on for a 7-6 triumph. In the
finale, Nick McCurdy tossed 5.2 innings and gave up two runs, which proved
to be too much as the Cowboy offense never got on track against Alan Bomer
who gave up one run in nine innings of work while striking out eight,
propelling the Cyclones to a 4-1 win.
Despite splitting a mid-week series with Santa Clara on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Cowboys got their offense back on track, scoring 20 runs in the two games. After falling behind 8-0 in game one, the Cowboys mounted a late charge and just came up short, falling 12-8. OSU evened the series with a 12-2 triumph in the series finale. Freshman Jimmy Rhodes upped his mark to 3-0 on the season after working five innings.
