Oklahoma State University Athletics
1996-97 Season Review
April 09, 2003 | Cowboy Baseball
Long known as a college baseball powerhouse, Oklahoma State added even more success to its legend in the first year under Holliday.
The Cowboys posted 46 wins on the season, including five in post season play. 1997 saw the Midwest Regional return to Stillwater where it was met with nearly unprecedented success.
OSUs return into the regional host role produced the second-highest attendance of any regional in the country a year ago. Although the Pokes fell one win short of advancing to the College World Series, it was still a season of success and a great beginning for the Tom Holliday era of Cowboy baseball.
OSU started the season in a less-than-auspicious way, losing three of its first five, including a 10-2 loss to South Florida and a 14-7 loss to Tennessee away from Reynolds Stadium. The loss to Tennessee would be avenged at the end of the season but OSU was 2-3 after five games before quickly turning the table.
Beginning with a 13-12 win over Central Florida, the Cowboys rolled off 12 victories in their next 15 outings, including a five-game winning streak that included a home-field sweep of New Mexico State and a Big 12 series win over Kansas State.
Oklahoma States longest winning streak of the season came in mid-year. Beginning with a 9-3 win over Texas A&M in College Station, OSU reeled off 10 straight, including series sweeps over Missouri, Arkansas-Little Rock and Centenary, all at Reynolds Stadium.
The Pokes then took two of three from Texas, including a remarkable come-from-behind 15-14 win in the series finale. The only team to win a series from OSU all season was Texas Tech which took two of three from the Pokes in Lubbock in late March.
As the regular season began to wind down, Oklahoma State found its typical late-season winning ways. OSU won 14 of its last 18 prior to the start of the Big 12 tournament, including taking two of three from Oklahoma in the final series of the regular season.
In the Big 12 Tournament, OSU started with a 16-10 win over Texas A&M and appeared poised to make a run at the title but suffered a heart-breaking 7-6 loss to Texas Tech that sent the Cowboys into an elimination game against Oklahoma only to lose by a 10-5 count.
The league tournament, however, was just a week before the Cowboys hosted the 1997 Midwest Regional.
The Pokes appeared on their way to Omaha after three straight regional wins, including a 6-1 victory over Tennessee that avenged the early-season loss to the Vols. OSU advanced into Sunday of the regional needing only one win over UCLA to advance to Omaha.
UCLA, however, had other ideas. The Bruins were the hottest team in college baseball during regional play and took back-to-back wins over the Cowboys to earn the regional title and stamp its ticket to Omaha.
Individually, Oklahoma State was led by the power-hitting Jeff Guiel who had a .418 average with 23 home runs and 79 batted in. Rusty McNamara led the team with 24 home runs and had a team-high 93 runs batted in.
McNamara had a .387 batting average and a .766 slugging percentage. The Cowboys had 10 other players with batting averages above .300, including Billy Gasparino who started 64 of OSUs 65 games and led the team with 21 stolen bases in 29 attempts.
As a team, the Cowboys batted .333 and had 149 home runs. OSU, long known for its offensive prowess, scored double-digit runs in 33 of its 65 games, including a season high 23 in a win over Kansas State.
Oklahoma States 1997 pitching staff was solid and led by Jon Adkins who appeared in 18 games and led the staff with an 11-4 record. Adkins 117 innings pitched also topped the staff as did his 82 strikeouts.
Marques Davis was OSUs most often-used pitcher out of the bullpen, appearing in 30 games with a 6-2 record and 10 saves.
While the 1997 Cowboys were led by a new head coach, the Pokes used a familiar friend (offense) and solid pitching to record 46 victories and earn an NCAA regional spot.
