Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboy Baseball To Face Arkansas State Tuesday
April 01, 2002 | Cowboy Baseball
April 1, 2002
What's On Tap
Oklahoma State, winners of nine of its last 11 contests, will host Sun Belt Conference foe Arkansas State Tuesday at 3 p.m. at Reynolds Stadium. This will be the first meeting between the two schools since the 1995 season.
On The Mound
The Cowboys will use several pitchers on the mound Tuesday. Righthanders Justin Meccage, Mike Miller and lefty Jason Kramer are a few of the hurlers slated to see action against the Indians.
About Arkansas State
Arkansas State is 9-17 on the year after getting swept by Western Kentucky in league doubleheader action on Sunday.
The Indians are led offensively by second baseman Brock Cunningham who is hitting at a .408 clip in 26 games with eight doubles and 12 RBIs. As a team ASU is batting .270 with 143 runs in 26 contests.
Southpaw Jody Petty is the workhorse of the staff with a 4-4 record and 5.45 ERA in eight starts this season. The pitching staff as a whole sports a 4.74 ERA with 156 strikeouts in 222.1 innings pitched.
Recapping Kansas
Oklahoma State capped off its most successful week of the year with a three-game conference series sweep of Kansas over the weekend. OSU went 5-0 last week with a pair of mid-week wins over Memphis before taking care of the Jayhawks.
Centerfielder Jeff Salazar was the hero in the Cowboys 10-7 win over KU on Friday, as he blasted a walk-off three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to win the game.
Freshman Josh Fields was one of the hitting stars on Saturday as he went 2-for-2 with three RBIs in the 12-5 victory. Shortstop Rob Watson went 2-for-3 with three runs scored and Salazar went 2-for-5 with two runs scored to help lead the way.
Junior Chris Reilly picked up his second win of the week and improved to 5-0 on the year in the Pokes 10-2 win on Sunday. The Bound Brook, N.J., native got off to a rocky start by giving up a two-run homer in the first, but settled down to blank the Jayhawks for the next six innings. Second baseman Nebasett Brown led OSU with a 4-for-5 day at the plate with four runs scored.
Cowboys-Sooners Tied For First In Big 12
With the series sweep of Kansas, Oklahoma State moved into a first place tie with Oklahoma as both teams finished the weekend at 6-3 in league play. The Sooners took two of three from Baylor in Norman which dropped the league-leading Bears to third in the conference. The Cowboys will take on Baylor this weekend in Waco while Oklahoma will face Nebraska in Lincoln in pivotal Big 12 matchups. OSU is vying for its first conferene championship since winning the Big Eight Tournament in 1996.
On Deck
Oklahoma State heads down to Waco, Texas to face Baylor in a key conference series this weekend. The Bears are 20-11 overall and 9-6 in Big 12 play after dropping two of three to OU last weekend. The teams will open the series on Friday at 7 p.m. at the Baylor Ballpark. Saturday and Sunday's contests are both slated for 2 p.m. starts. The Cowboys next home game will be against San Francisco on April 9 at 7 p.m.
Cates Comes Through At The Plate
Junior Zach Cates made the most of five starts last week as he went 8-for-14 (.571) with two doubles, a homer and six RBIs to lead the Pokes to a 5-0 week. He made four starts at first base and started at designated hitter on Sunday. With the stellar week, Cates is now batting .421 on the year with two homers and 11 RBIs in 19 games.
Oklahoma State Picks Up Win 2,000
Oklahoma State's 16-6 victory over Kansas State on March 22 marked the Cowboys 2,000th win in the 89-year history of the program. OSU is now 2,006-963-4 all-time which is the 22nd best record in the history of Division I baseball. The Cowboys .674 winning percentage is second among Big 12 schools behind Texas' .761 mark.
Cowboys To Be On Television
The April 6 Oklahoma State-Baylor contest in Waco will be shown regionally on Fox Sports Southwest the Big 12 office announced. The game time has been moved up an hour, from 3 p.m. to 2 p.m. in order to accomodate Fox programming. This will be the first Big 12 contest of the year to be broadcast on television.
The Polls
The Cowboys are ranked No. 19 in the Baseball Weekly/ESPN Coaches Poll and No. 21 in Collegiate Baseball this week. OSU is one of seven Big 12 teams ranked in the Top 30 in the country by the various polls. The highest ranking Big 12 team in any of the polls is Texas at No. 11 by the ESPN/Baseball Weekly Coaches Poll.
Life of Reilly
Junior Chris Reilly transferred to Oklahoma State from Seton Hall over the summer because he wanted a chance to contribute to a team with a chance to go to Omaha. He has proven throughout his career that he is a pitcher with a knack for winning games.
Last week Reilly went 2-0 with a pair wins over Memphis and Kansas to improve to 5-0 on the year. He had a 10-1 record heading into the 2002 season after going 3-0 as a freshman and 7-1 as a sophomore for the Pirates in 2000-01.
Reilly leads the Cowboys in wins (5), ERA (2.06), innings pitched (35.0), and strikeouts (31). After starting the season as a midweek starter, the Bound Brook, N.J., product has solidified his spot in the weekend rotation.
Ali Modami's Baseball Diaries
Senior first baseman Ali Modami is keeping a running journal throughout the 2002 season. The diary will be published on Oklahoma State's official website: www.okstate.com usually every Thursday and Monday throughout the year, Ali's schedule permitting. The most recent journal entry has Ali discussing the Cowboys 5-0 record last week aswell as Opening Day in major league baseball.
Cowboys On The Air
Every game for the rest of the 2002 Oklahoma State baseball season will be broadcast on Stillwater Radio 93.7 KSPI.
In addition, fans outside of the Stillwater area can listen to the games on the internet by going to Oklahoma State's official athletic website: www.okstate.com. Calling the action in his 20th year with Oklahoma State baseball is Rex Holt, of the famous Oklahoma Holts. He will be joined once again this year by former Cowboy player Ryan Folmar who welcomed a new addition to his family, son Kade, who was born on Jan. 4.
Cowboy Notes
With a triple against Kansas on Sunday, second baseman Nebasett Brown moved into a tie for fourth place (Ronnie Bennett) on the school's all-time list with 13 three-baggers in his career ... Rob Watson has been hit by eight pitches this season which puts him seventh on the OSU single-season list ... Oklahoma State's .329 team batting average currently leads the Big 12 ... 12 of the Cowboy's next 15 games will be played in Oklahoma (11 in Stillwater, 1 in Tulsa) ... The Cowboys are one game short of the NCAA maximum of 56 games, meaning the team will be looking for a makeup game sometime in the future ... Over the last 15 years Oklahoma State has made the College World Series every third year dating back to 1987 (87, 90, 93, 96, 99, 02?).
