Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboy Baseball Hosts Miami (Ohio)
March 06, 2003 | Cowboy Baseball
March 6, 2003
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
What's On Tap
Oklahoma State opens its 2002 home campaign this weekend against Miami (OH) in a three-game series beginning on Friday at 3 p.m. The teams will meet at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday and at noon on Sunday to close out the set.
Home Openers
The Cowboys have enjoyed great success in home openers over the years and enter Friday's matchup with a record of 52-13 since 1935. The Pokes have won 17 of its last 18 openers at Reynolds Stadium dating back to 1984. OSU played its first 12 games on the road and the March 7 opener marks the latest home opener since the 1986 campaign when Rice came to town on March 17.
About Miami (OH)
Miami University, located in Oxford, Ohio, enters this weekend with a 3-2 record after splitting a doubleheader against Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne and Indiana State in Nashville, Tenn., over the weekend.
The RedHawks return eight starters from last year's 31-28 squad that finished in third place in the Mid-American Conference.
Freshman infielder Will Reynolds leads the team with a .318 average in the early going while senior outfielder Michael Carlin is the lone power source thus far, having recorded all three MU homers this year.
Freshman righthander Matt Long has thrown the most innings for the RedHawks, having made two starts with 10 strikeouts in 11 innings pitched. As a team Miami enters the weekend with a 4.60 ERA.
Rhodes Makes Strides
Junior righthander Jimmy Rhodes has made significant strides on the mound in his first three starts of the year. Rhodes, coming off of a sophomore campaign in which he posted a 2-4 ledger with a 6.59 ERA in 13 appearances, worked on his conditioning in the offseason and looked to get off to a fast start in 2003. The Sheperdstown, W.V., native has done that and is 1-0 with a team best 2.30 ERA in three starts. He had his best regular season performance against Grambling on March 1, striking out a career-high eight batters in six innings of work. Rhodes allowed just one run on four hits, but did not factor in the decision as the team went into extra innings before pulling out a 2-1 win.
Urick Gets Hot
First baseman John Urick entered the season as a highly touted junior college All-American at Cowley County College after hitting 20 homers a year ago. The junior got off to a slow start in the Cowboys two games in Florida, going 0-for-7 at the plate. He has since rebounded in a big way and is one of the more consistent offensive performers in the Oklahoma State lineup. In his last nine games, Urick is batting .364 with a homer and seven RBIs. He has also proven to be a fine fielder at first, boasting a sparkling 1.000 fielding percentage in 111 chances on the year.
Virgil's Clutch Hitting Maintains Streak
Senior Jos? Virgil was 0-for-3 entering his 10th inning at-bat against Grambling on March 1. The game was tied at 1-1 with a runner at first and Virgil's eight game hitting streak was on the line. The Phoenix, Ariz., native came through in the clutch, wrapping a double to the base of the leftfield wall that brought in the winning run and extended his streak to nine games. After going 1-for-4 in the team's 17-1 pasting of Nicholls State last Saturday night, Virgil again hit in the clutch, this time breaking open a 2-2 tie in the sixth inning against Nicholls, with a three-run blast over the rightfield wall. He finished the four-game weekend off, going 2-for-3 with another homer against Grambling that pushed his hitting streak to 12 games.
Pitching Staff Leads The Big 12
Entering the season, the Cowboy coaching staff believed that pitching would be one of the strengths of this year's team and that has proven to be true through the first 12 games. After outscoring its opponents 36-5 in four games over the weekend, the Cowboys now lead the Big 12 with a 2.49 ERA. 10 of the 11 pitchers that have seen action this season boast an ERA of 3.57 or better, with lefthander Shane Hawk leading the way with a 0.79 ERA. OSU is the lone school to have an ERA of under 3.00 entering this weekend's action.
ERA Games
1. Oklahoma State 2.49 12
2. Oklahoma 3.17 7
3. Nebraska 3.39 9
4. Missouri 3.60 10
5. Kansas State 3.68 7
Cowboys Go 4-0 Over The Weekend
With the three-game home opening series against Cal cancelled due to snow, the Cowboys had less than 48 hours to find a new opponent. Head coach Tom Holliday came up with two opponents, Grambling and Nicholls State and played doubleheaders against them last Saturday and Sunday in the Houston area.
The Cowboy bats struggled against Grambling in the first game on March 1, before Jos? Virgil delivered the game-winning double in the 10th propelling the team to a 2-1 win.
The offense came alive against Nicholls State on Saturday night, exploding for six runs in the first and 10 more in eighth in a 17-1 pasting of the Colonels.
Jos? Virgil broke open a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the sixth with a three-run homer that gave the Pokes a 5-2 win over Nicholls on Sunday.
The Cowboys closed out the weekend with a 12-1 seven-inning run rule over Grambling.
Overall OSU hit .300 as a team and recorded a 1.03 ERA. They averaged nine runs a game with 10 doubles and four homers offensively, while the pitching staff struck out 43 batters with only 11 walks in 35.0 innings.
Cowboy Notes
Oklahoma State opened the season having traveled over 8,000 miles to play 12 games ... With the four added games last weekend the Cowboys now have 58 games on the schedule, two over the NCAA limit ... Due to the cancellation of the Cal series, OSU will have played 17 of its first 20 games on the road by the time Big 12 play rolls around against Texas ... The Pokes won more games (four) in two days in the month of March than they did the entire month of February (three) ... Oklahoma State's strength of schedule is listed at No. 33 according to Boyd Nation ... Pitcher Scott Baker is listed as the No. 26 prospect in Baseball America's 2003 Top 100 College Prospects; southpaw Shane Hawk is also listed at No. 83 ... Freshman Colby Overstreet and junior Adam Yates both recorded their first hits at OSU against Nicholls State on March 1 ... Senior Brian Kraft blasted his first collegiate homer against Nicholls on March 2 ... Joe Weaver went 2-0 on the weekend, with a win in relief against Grambling and a win as a starter against the Tigers ... Cody King recorded a career-best eight strikeouts against Grambling on March 1.
Looking Ahead
After the brief respite at home, OSU heads to North Carolina for a five-game Spring Break road trip. The Cowboys five games in five days swing opens against North Carolina State on March 14 in Durham. Oklahoma State will play Princeton on the 15th and Old Dominion on the 16th at the Durham Bulls Park. The Pokes will then take on Duke at its home park on the 17th before closing out the road trip against Wake Forest on the 18th in Winston-Salem.
Brian's Baseball Diaries
Senior shortstop Brian Kraft is keeping a running journal throughout the 2003 season. The diary will be published on Oklahoma State's official website: www.okstate.com usually every Thursday and Monday throughout the year, Brian's schedule permitting. In the most recent journal entry "Krafty" talks about hitting his first career homer and the team's hectic schedule.
Baker Named To Rotary Award Watch List
Junior pitcher Scott Baker is on the initial watch list of the Rotary Award, given to the top player in college baseball.
Last week Baker picked up his second win of the season against Nicholls State. He allowed one run on six hits over seven innings of work with three strikeouts and two walks in the 17-1 win. He enters this weekend with a 2-2 record and 3.57 ERA.
He was tabbed as the first Phillips 66 Big 12 Conference Baseball Pitcher of the Week after he pitched the first seven innings of OSU's 9-0 shutout of 18th-ranked Stetson on Feb. 8. He had a career-high eight strikeouts against the hard-hitting Hatters, allowed five hits and walked two before yielding to relief man Daniel Rew.
He was named a third-team preseason All-American by Baseball America after going 6-3 last season with a 4.23 ERA in 13 starts. The second-team All-Big 12 pick led the team with three complete games and struck out 47 batters in 76.2 innings pitched.
The Shreveport, La., native was a Cape Cod League All-Star for the Orleans Cardinals over the summer and helped lead them to the league championship series. He went 3-1 with a 1.61 ERA in nine starts for the Cardinals and struck out 52 in 56 innings pitched.
After the successful summer campaign in the Cape, Baseball America rated Baker as the 15th best pro prospect to come out of that league.
![Image Taken at [event name], [day], [month date], [year], [venue], [city]. Brayden Hartmann/OSU Athletics](https://images.sidearmdev.com/resize?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdxbhsrqyrr690.cloudfront.net%2Fsidearm.nextgen.sites%2Fokstate.com%2Fimages%2F2026%2F4%2F20%2FConover_celebration_vs._Kansas.jpg&height=340&type=webp)
