Oklahoma State Baseball Travels To Texas A&M

Oklahoma State travels to Texas for four contests, starting with a three-game set against Texas A&M on Easter Weekend. The Cowboys and Aggies will open the series on Friday at 7 p.m., with Saturday’s game also slated for a 7 p.m. start. The series finale is set for 2 p.m. on Sunday at Olsen Field. After the A&M series the Pokes will make a stop in Arlington on their way back to Stillwater and will face Texas-Arlington on Monday at 4 p.m.

About Texas A&M
Texas A&M is riding a four-game winning streak after sweeping past Kansas State last weekend in Manhattan and edging past Texas-Arlington in 11 innings last Tuesday. The Aggies are tied with OSU for third place in the Big 12 and have been ranked in all of the polls for the majority of the season.
Junior centerfielder Justin Ruggiano leads the team offensively with a .345 batting average to go along with seven homers and 32 RBIs. He was named the Big 12 Player of the Week for his performance against the Wildcats over the weekend. As a team, the Aggies are hitting .298 with 31 homers and 261 runs scored in 41 games.
The A&M pitching staff sports a 3.82 team ERA with 287 strikeouts and 110 walks in 349 innings. Their rotation for the weekend is junior lefthander Kyle Parcus (3-2, 5.24 ERA) on Friday, junior righthander Matt Farnum (7-1, 2.37 ERA) on Saturday and senior southpaw Zach Dixon (4-1, 4.86 ERA) on Sunday. The Aggie closer is junior righthander/outfielder Scott Beerer who is 4-0 with a 1.45 ERA and seven saves. He has 33 strikeouts and only six walks in 31 innings.

Offensive Breakout
Over the last 15 games, Oklahoma State has put on an offensive display that has vaulted the team into one of the top hitting teams in the conference.
The Cowboys had as low as a.273 team batting average on March 22, but have bumped that mark up to .317 entering this weekend against Texas A&M. OSU has gone 12-3 over its last 15 contests and have batted at a .372 clip with 29 homers, 24 doubles, five triples and 164 runs scored in that span. Seven of the nine regular starters on offense are hitting over .300 in the recent streak, with six of those batting over the .340 mark.
The success has carried over into league play where the Pokes lead the conference with a .329 average in 12 games.
For the season, OSU is hitting .317 with 41 homers, 57 doubles and 285 runs scored in 36 games.

Virgil Showcases Consistency
A week after being named Big 12 Player of the Week, José Virgil has continued his torrid streak at the plate.
In fact over the last 15 games, the senior centerfielder is raking at a .576 clip (34-for-59) with five homers, nine doubles and 25 RBIs. He is currently on a 17-game hitting streak, which bests the 15-game skien he had to start the season. In fact, Virgil has hit successfully in 33 of 36 games played this season.
His recent success at the plate has vaulted him into the team lead in batting average, hitting at a .408 clip with seven homers and 37 RBIs. Virgil leads the Big 12 with a .542 average in 12 conference games as well. In all, José Virgil has put together a senior campaign worthy of All-American and All-Big 12 honors.

Cowboy Notes
Oklahoma State has vaulted from a .273 team batting average on March 21 to a .317 clip heading into the weekend ... OSU is hitting at a .329 clip in league play (best in Big 12) with 23 of its 41 homers in the 12 games ... First baseman John Urick is second in the Big 12 (behind José Virgil) in conference hitting with a .457 average ... Jason Jaramillo leads the conference with seven homers in 12 Big 12 contests ... Daniel Rew is tied for the conference lead with three saves in five Big 12 games ... Shane Hawk is 12th in the nation in ERA at 1.47 ... Scott Baker is tied for ninth in the country in wins with seven ... Aaron Whitehead recorded his first career save against Baylor on Sunday ... Shawn Callahan got his first career conference start against Baylor on Sunday ... OSU is 8-2 in the month of April ... The Cowboys three-game set against Texas A&M this weekend is their lone foray out of the state of Oklahoma in the month of April... Oklahoma State is No. 25 in the most recent Pseudo-RPIs by Boyd Nation (www.boydsworld.com) ... 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.

Recapping Texas-Pan American
The Oklahoma State offense teed off on Texas-Pan American in two midweek wins. The Cowboys scored 41 runs in the two contests with six homers, seven doubles and a .581 team average.
OSU sent 20 men to the plate and scored 15 runs in the first inning of a 24-1 seven-inning run rule win over UTPA in the first game. Junior Jimmy Rhodes allowed just one run on three hits in five innings of work to pick up the win. Josh Fields hit for the cycle in the game, finishing 4-for-5 with four RBIs in the game. He achieved the feat by the fourth inning, becoming the first player to do it since Manny Cervantes did it against Missouri in 1988.
The Broncs jumped out to an early 6-0 lead in the first inning of game two, but the Cowboy offense proved to be too much as they went on to win 17-7 in a seven-inning run rule. Centerfielder José Virgil extended his hit streak to 17 games, finishing the afternoon 3-for-5 with three runs scored. Josh Fields, John Urick and Mario Matulich all had homers for OSU while Cody King picked up his second win of the year with 3.2 innings of three-hit relief.

On Deck: Texas-Arlington
After the A&M series, Oklahoma State will make a stop in Arlington on Sunday night. The Cowboys will take on Texas-Arlington on Monday at 4 p.m. The game was originally scheduled to be played in Stillwater, but the teams flipped the home and home series, with the Mavericks playing in Stillwater on March 25. UTA is 25-16 on the year and will take on Southwest Texas State in a three-game Southland Conference series at home this weekend before facing OSU.

Bedlam Looms Ahead
After the Texas-Arlington game on Monday, Oklahoma State will look towards the annual Bedlam matchup with Oklahoma. The Cowboys and Sooners are scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 25 in Tulsa at Drillers Stadium. The series then switches to the Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City for the final two games on Saturday, April 26 at 7 p.m. and on Sunday, April 27 at 3 p.m. Please note that the Sunday game time has been moved back an hour due to television coverage by Cox Cable.
The Sooners are 13-19 and 1-11 in league play entering a pivotal weekend home series against Kansas. OU has dropped seven straight games and are currently in ninth place in the Big 12 behind the Jayhawks who are 4-8 in conference.
Limited tickets are still available in Tulsa through the Driller Box Office at (918) 744-5901. Tickets to the Oklahoma City contests can be purchased through the RedHawks box office at (405) 210-1000.

Inside Cowboy Baseball TV Show Now On
The 30-minute Inside Cowboy Baseball TV Show is now on the air on KSBI on Friday’s at 10:30 p.m. The first show aired last weekend and this week’s show can be found on cable Channel 7 in Stillwater. The show includes player features and interviews with the coaching staff. Tom Dirato hosts the program along with Cowboy head coach Tom Holliday.

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 the series win over Kansas and the variety of dining choices the team enjoyed.

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.
Baker’s four-game win streak was snapped Friday against Baylor. He is now 7-4 on the year with a 3.38 ERA.
He was named Big 12 Pitcher of the Week with his career-high 11 strikeout performance against Kansas State on April 4. He pitched eight innings and and allowed just three hits in picking up his seventh win, a new single season high. It was the second time this season he has won the award.
Baker went seven innings in his last outing against Kansas on March 29 and gave up four runs on seven hits while whiffing nine.
He allowed only one run in 7.1 innings of work in the Cowboys 4-3 win over Texas on March 23. The righthander then made his first career relief appearance against Texas-Arlington on March 25 and pitched 1.2 innings of scoreless relief to pick up the win.
The Shreveport, La., native recorded nine strikeouts in a 4-3 loss to North Carolina State on March 14. He allowed four runs, three earned, in seven innings of work.
Baker went seven innings against Miami (Ohio) on March 7 and allowed just four hits with five strikeouts and no walks to improve to 3-2 on the year. Against Nicholls State on March 1, Baker allowed one run on six hits over seven innings of work with three strikeouts and two walks in the 17-1 win.
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.

Oklahoma State University Athletics

Related News

Related Videos