Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Travel To Missouri State For Midweek Tilt
April 15, 2013 | Cowboy Baseball
April 15, 2013
Oklahoma State (24-10)
at Missouri State (21-10)
Tuesday, April 16, 6:30 p.m.
Springfield, Mo. • Hammons Field (8,000)
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State returns to midweek action Tuesday when the Cowboys travel to Springfield, Mo., to take on Missouri State at 6:30 p.m. OSU is coming off a series loss at TCU and is 24-10 on the season. Following Tuesday's contest, the Cowboys return home for the first time this month and will host Kansas State in a Big 12 Conference series beginning Friday night at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.
The Cowboys rank second in the Big 12 with a .295 batting average, while their 2.87 team ERA is the fourth lowest in the league.
OSU, which entered the 2013 season as the eighth winningest program in NCAA history with a .664 winning percentage, in its 102nd season of baseball and the program's first under head coach Josh Holliday, a former star for the Cowboys in the 1990s.
The Cowboys are coming off a 2012 season in which they finished 32-25 overall, which included coming in fifth in the Big 12 Conference standings with a 13-11 mark.
A pair of All-Big 12 performers in Robbie Rea and Randy McCurry lead a group of 15 returning letterwinners from 2012, while 19 newcomers round out the OSU roster.
OSU was picked by league coaches to finish fifth in the Big 12 race. Oklahoma was tabbed as the favorite.
About Missouri State
Missouri State is 21-10 on the season after winning two of its three games at Southern Illinois last weekend. Led by Tate Matheny (.358, 3 HR, 23 RBI), the Bears are hitting .274, while the pitching staff sports a 3.06 ERA.
OSU is 7-6 all time against Missouri State and snapped a five-game losing streak vs. the Bears on March 5 as the Cowboys won, 5-4, in walk-off fashion in a 10-inning contest in Stillwater. The Cowboys are winless against MSU in four trips to Springfield.
Watch, Listen, Follow
All OSU baseball games are carried live by Stillwater Radio and will air on KSPI 93.7 FM or 780 AM. Rex Holt, who is in his 31st season with Cowboy baseball, will call the action, with Matt "Chief" Davis providing color commentary.
Additionally the game will be televised by MC22 with Mike McClure and Don West calling the action.
GameTracker live stats for all games can be found at www.okstate.com. Additionally, live online video and audio for all home games not televised can be accessed via okstate.com (a fee is involved with this service). Video/audio/live stats links are all available on the OSU baseball page under Schedule.
New Faces
Along with the new coaching staff, OSU's 34-man 2013 roster includes 15 newcomers -- eight junior college transfers, six high school players and an NAIA transfer.
The group includes JUCO stars Tanner Krietemeier and Nick Dolsky, who both began their careers at Nebraska, as well as Brendan McCurry and Kyle Gehrs. All four are expected to be immediate contributors in their first seasons in Stillwater.
The freshman class includes Donnie Walton, a 36th-round pick in last year's MLB Draft who has started 29 games on the infield, as well as key contributors Alex Hackerott and Corey Hassel.
Home Sweet Home
Allie P. Reynolds Stadium has been home to Oklahoma State baseball since 1981, and in those 32 seasons the Cowboys have been nearly unbeatable on their home field.
OSU is 831-188 (.816) all time at Reynolds Stadium and has lost more than two consecutive games on their home turf only four times (six in a row in 2007; three straight in 2010, 2012 and 2013).
The Cowboys are 19-5 at home in 2013.
Grab A Snickers
After opening the season at New Mexico, the Cowboys didn't go anywhere for a while. On Feb. 19, OSU opened a 26-game homestand -- which finished at 24 after two cancellations -- at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium, and the Cowboys did not return to the road until the April 5 contest at Kansas.
In April and May, OSU will play just seven games on its home field.
Comeback Cowboys & A Little Bit Of Irony
In the second game of the New Mexico series, OSU faced an eight-run deficit after seven innings. Trailing 14-6, the Cowboys rallied for four runs in the eighth and ninth to force extra innings and then won the game with a run in the 13th.
The eight-run deficit marked the largest OSU had overcome to win a game since April 6, 1997, when the Cowboys trailed Texas, 11-0, after 4 1/2 innings in Stillwater before rallying for, ironically, a 15-14 win. Josh Holliday was also a part of that game, playing catcher and third base for the Cowboys and going 1-for-4.
Coming from behind has continued to be a trend for the Cowboys -- 10 of OSU's wins this season have come in games in which it has trailed.
Two-Way Talent
Randy McCurry has proven to be valuable with his arm and his bat during his time in Stillwater and earned All-Big 12 Second Team honors as a utility player a year ago.
Now a fifth-year senior, McCurry is continuing that trend in 2013.
Used mostly as a reliever during his career, McCurry's 68 appearances are tied for seventh on OSU's all-time list, and he is 12-9 with 12 saves and a 2.79 ERA, with his 12 saves ranking fourth in program history.
Offensively, McCurry sports career numbers of five home runs and 46 RBIs to go along with a .283 batting average in 78 games.
McCurry is three years removed from Tommy John surgery after he suffered a season-ending elbow injury in OSU's 2010 season opener. As a freshman in 2009, he tied OSU's single-season record with 10 saves.
Back On The Bump
Two years ago, Jason Hursh was a highly touted freshman for the Cowboys, coming to Stillwater after a standout prep career that culminated with him being a sixth-round pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2010 Major League Baseball Draft.
In his first collegiate season, the hard-throwing right-hander made 10 appearances, including four starts, and was 1-1 with a 2.73 ERA. But the native Texan was forced to miss the 2012 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
Following the successful procedure, Hursh is back for his redshirt sophomore season in 2013 and proving to be one of the aces of the Cowboys' staff. With a fastball in the mid- to upper 90s in his repertoire, Hursh is listed by Baseball America as fourth-best prospect in the Big 12 for the 2013 Major League Baseball Draft and came in at No. 22 on MLB.com's list of top draft prospects for this June's draft.
In nine starts this season, Hursh is 3-3 with a 2.63 ERA and two complete games, and he has 49 strikeouts in 61.2 innings. During a four-game stretch earlier this season, he tossed 17.2 scoreless innings.
Aluminum Assault
OSU ranks second in the Big 12 Conference with a .295 team batting average, and five regulars in the lineup are hitting .305 or better. The Cowboys' offense tops the league with 74 doubles while ranking second in runs (210), RBIs (184), walks (140), on-base percentage (.385) and slugging percentage (.419).
Wheeland And Dealin'
Cowboy junior Vince Wheeland is one of 41 players on the College Baseball Hall of Fame's 2013 Pitcher of the Year Award Watch List.
A right-hander, Wheeland is 6-0 with a save in a team-high 17 appearances this season. His six wins are tied for second among Big 12 Conference pitchers, and he ranks fifth in the league with a 1.85 ERA.
In 48.2 innings of work, Wheeland has recorded 47 strikeouts and ranks fifth in the Big 12 with 8.69 strikeouts per game. He's also in the top 10 in the league in opponent batting average at .218.
Dynamic Duo
A big reason for the Cowboys' huge offensive numbers is the production of a two-headed monster in the middle of the lineup in the form of Tanner Krietemeier and Zach Fish.
Krietemeier's .368 batting average leads the Cowboys and ranks eighth in the Big 12, and the junior first baseman also ranks among the top 10 in the conference in hits (49), doubles (10), RBIs (30), total bases (70) and slugging percentage (.526).
Fish, a sophomore, is hitting .294 and ranks in the top 10 in the Big 12 in home runs (5), doubles (12), RBIs (28) and total bases (69).
Want more superlatives from this duo?
• Krietemeier has hit safely in 31 of OSU's 34 games this season.
• Krietemeier had an 18-game hitting streak snapped in the second game of the Texas series. The streak was the longest by an OSU player since 2008 (Rebel Ridling, 20). During the streak, he hit .361 (26-for-72) with three homers, five doubles, 16 RBIs and a .583 slugging percentage.
• Krietemeier's 14 multi-hit games are the most by any Cowboy, while Fish's 11 rank third.
• Krietemeier is hitting .460 (23-for-50) with runners in scoring position.
• Fish leads the Cowboys with seven multi-RBI games and has collected four RBIs in a game twice.
• Fish was named the Big 12 Player of the Week (March 18) and NCBWA National Hitter of the Week (March 19) after hitting .600 (12-for-20) with eight RBIs in five games during the week of March 11-17.
Strong-Armed
OSU has also been impressive on the mound in 2013, led by veterans Randy McCurry and Vince Wheeland along with newcomers Tyler Nurdin, Mark Robinette, Brendan McCurry, Alex Hackerott and Kyle Gehrs.
• OSU sports a 2.87 team ERA, which ranks fourth in the Big 12, and 10 Cowboy hurlers with at least six appearances have an ERA of 3.31 or lower.
• Vince Wheeland is 6-0 and also has a save. His six wins rank in the Big 12 this season.
• Wheeland's 1.85 ERA ranks fifth in the league, while Tyler Nurdin's 1.96 ERA is sixth. During a five-game stretch earlier this season, Wheeland worked 15.0 innings without allowing a run.
• Brendan McCurry is 3-2 with a 1.52 ERA, and his five saves are tied for the fourth most in the Big 12. He allowed only one earned run in his 14 first outings (22.2 IP) before giving up three in the bottom of the ninth in a loss at TCU.
• Hackerott has not allowed a run in 10.1 innings. He is 1-0 with 11 strikeouts in seven appearances.
Thievery
A year ago, OSU's opponents stole over twice as many bases (77) as the Cowboys (38). Things are quite different in 2013 as the Cowboys have already racked up 48 steals and their opponents just 24. Gage Green leads the Cowboys with 10 steals, while Aaron Cornell and Zach Fish have each swiped seven. The last time OSU topped 100 stolen bases in a season was 1999 (117).
Short Hops
OSU was ranked in at least two national polls for six-straight weeks before falling out this week. The Cowboys peaked at No. 18 in both the USA Today and NCBWA polls on March 25... OSU is hitting .303 with runners in scoring position, while their opponents are at .234... Of OSU's 184 RBIs this season, 68 have come with two outs. Zach Fish leads the Cowboys with 11 two-out RBIs... Donnie Walton has recorded multi-hit efforts in five of OSU's last eight games and in doing so has raised his batting average 60 points to .337.
