Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Host West Virginia To Close Out Regular Season
May 15, 2013 | Cowboy Baseball
May 15, 2013
OSU Game Notes - West Virginia
#16 Oklahoma State (37-13, 11-9)
vs.
West Virginia (30-23, 12-9)
Thursday, May 16 • 6:30 p.m.
Friday, May 17 • 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 18 • 3 p.m.
Allie P. Reynolds Stadium (4,000)
Oklahoma State
Winners of 12 of its last 15 games, Oklahoma State closes out the regular season with a three-game Big 12 Conference series that begins Thursday at 6:30 p.m. on Tom Borland Night at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium. At 37-13 overall, the 16th-ranked Cowboys own the best record in the Big 12 Conference, with their 37 wins marking their highest total since 2008. OSU enters the final weekend in fourth place in the conference standings with an 11-9 mark, and the Cowboys could finish as high as second in the league.
The Cowboys rank second in the Big 12 with a .291 batting average, while their 2.78 team ERA is the third 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.
About West Virginia
West Virginia is 30-23 overall and tied for second (with Oklahoma) in the Big 12 standings with a 12-9 mark. Led by Ryan Tuntland (.343, 3 HR, 31 RBI), the Mountaineers own a .281 batting average, while the pitching staff sports a 3.94 ERA.
Expected to start on the mound this weekend for West Virginia are:
Friday - RHP Dan Dierdorff (4-6, 4.82) Saturday - LHP John Means (4-3, 3.61)
Sunday - TBD
Oklahoma State is 3-0 all time against West Virginia, with the only prior meeting between the two teams coming in a three-game series in Stillwater during the 1996 season.
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, Friday's game will be televised live by Fox College Sports, with Dave Barnett and Joe Borowski on the call.
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.
Winning
The goal of college baseball coaches and players is to make it to the College World Series in Omaha, and the OSU coaching staff has plenty of experience in that regard.
The Cowboys' staff of Josh Holliday, Rob Walton and Marty Lees has combined to make 12 CWS appearances as either a player or coach.
Holliday played on a pair of CWS teams at OSU (1996 & 1999) and has coached in the CWS as an assistant at Georgia Tech (2006), Arizona State (2009) and Vanderbilt (2011).
Walton spent four seasons as a pitcher at OSU from 1983-86, and each of those Cowboy teams appeared in the CWS.
As an assistant coach at Oregon State, Lees helped lead the Beavers to Omaha three-straight years from 2005-07, with two of those trips resulting in national championships (2006 & 2007).
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
In January, despite his having not yet coached a game, Baseball America named OSU's Josh Holliday the nation's top college head coach under the age of 40. The top 10 list was compiled based on the voting of coaches and scouts.
In addition, Marty Lees came in at No. 6 on Baseball America's list of the nation's top 10 college assistant coaches. That list was compiled from the votes of 70 Division I head coaches across the country, as well as the input of more than a dozen scouts. Coaches with prior D-I head coaching experience, such as OSU pitching coach Rob Walton, were excluded from the list.
Baseball In Their Blood
Baseball -- and Oklahoma State -- is definitely a family affair for Josh Holliday.
Josh's father, Tom, served as an OSU assistant coach for 19 years then took over as the Cowboys' head coach from 1997-2003, leading the program to its last College World Series appearance in 1999. Tom is currently in his seventh season as the associate head coach at North Carolina State
Josh's younger brother, Matt, is an outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals. In nine major league seasons, Matt has been named to six All-Star teams.
Josh's uncle, Dave Holliday, was an OSU assistant coach from 1981-88 and has since held a variety of roles in Major League Baseball, including his current spot as a professional scout for the Atlanta Braves. Dave's son, Heath, is a senior catcher for the Cowboys this season.
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 834-189 (.815) 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 22-6 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 -- 17 of OSU's wins this season have come in games in which it has trailed.
It's A Walk Off
The Cowboys have picked up four walk-off wins this season, three of those coming within the same week. Three of the victories were of the extra-inning variety.
The first came on March 5 against Missouri State when Randy McCurry drew a bases-loaded walk in the 10th to bring home the winning run. In its series win over Loyola Marymount, OSU had two walk-off wins. In the opener, Tanner Krietemeier delivered a 10th-inning, walk-off home run, and in the series finale, it was a single by Zach Fish that plated the deciding run with two outs in the ninth. The Cowboys also walked off against Wichita State, with Zach Fish's 12th-inning, RBI double giving them the victory.
Awards Watch
Several Cowboys are on watch lists for national awards in 2013, including:
• Sophomore Jason Hursh is one of 60 players on the midseason watch list for the Golden Spikes Award, which is given to the nation's top amateur player.
• Junior Vince Wheeland is one of 41 players on the College Baseball Hall of Fame's 2013 Pitcher of the Year Award Watch List.
• Senior Randy McCurry is one of 25 players on the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award Watch List.
• Senior Victor Romero is on the Johnny Bench Award Watch List for the top collegiate catcher.
Two-Way Talent
Randy McCurry has proven to be valuable with his arm and his bat during his OSU career 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 and has been named to the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award Watch List.
Used mostly as a reliever during his career, McCurry's 70 appearances are tied for fifth on OSU's all-time list, and he is 12-9 with 12 saves and a 2.84 ERA, with his 12 saves ranking fourth in program history.
His career offensive numbers include 22 doubles, 54 RBIs and a .291 batting average in 92 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 the 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.
Named to the midseason Golden Spikes Award watch list, Hursh is 5-4 with a 2.67 ERA and three complete games in 12 starts this season, and he has 74 strikeouts in 91.0 innings to rank third in the Big 12. During a four-game stretch earlier this season, he tossed 17.2 scoreless innings.
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 8-1 with a save in a team-high 25 appearances this season. His eight wins are tied for the most among Big 12 pitchers, and he is fifth in the league with a 1.71 ERA.
In 63.1 innings of work, Wheeland has recorded 58 strikeouts, which ranks seventh in the Big 12. He also ranks sixth in the league in opponent batting average at .223.
Making A Sacrifice
Freshman Donnie Walton's 14 sacrifice bunts this season are tied for the third most in a single season in OSU history and are four shy of Fred Ocasio's school record of 16 set in 1993.
Clutch When It Counts
Over its last 12 games, OSU is 10-2 and is hitting .346 (44-for-127) with runners in scoring position, with 26 of the Cowboys' 55 RBIs during that span coming with two outs. On the season, OSU is hitting .308 with runners in scoring position (their opponents are at .231) and have 104 two-out RBIs. With 20 two-out RBIs (of his 39 total), Zach Fish leads a group of five Cowboys who have double-digit two-out RBI totals.
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 .338 batting average ranks second on the Cowboys and seventh in the Big 12, and the junior first baseman ranks among the top 10 in the conference in hits (67), runs (37), doubles (13), RBIs (38) and total bases (93).
Fish, a sophomore, is hitting .295 and ranks in the top 10 in the Big 12 in home runs (7), doubles (16), RBIs (39), total bases (98) and slugging percentage (.490)
Want more superlatives from this duo?
• Krietemeier has hit safely in 43 of OSU's 50 games this season. He had an 18-game hitting streak snapped in the second game of the Texas series, a streak that marked 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 has 19 multi-hit games to lead the Cowboys, while Fish's 17 rank second.
• Krietemeier is hitting .400 (30-for-75) with runners in scoring position; Fish is at .348 (24-for-69).
• Fish leads the Cowboys with 11 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 2.78 team ERA, which is the third lowest in the Big 12, and 10 Cowboy hurlers with at least seven appearances have an ERA of 3.38 or lower.
• Vince Wheeland is 8-1 and also has a save. His eight wins are tied for the most in the Big 12 in 2013.
• Wheeland's 1.71 ERA ranks fifth in the league, while Tyler Nurdin's 2.01 ERA is seventh.
• Brendan McCurry is 6-2 with a 1.37 ERA, and his seven saves rank fourth in the Big 12. He allowed only one earned run in his 14 first outings (22.2 IP) before giving up three in the ninth in a loss at TCU.
• Hackerott has allowed just one run in 17.0 innings. He is 1-0 with 18 strikeouts in 13 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 racked up 69 steals and their opponents just 32. Gage Green leads the Cowboys with 13 stolen bases, while Zach Fish and Aaron Cornell have swiped 10 apiece.
Fear The 'Stache
Junior Saulyer Saxon leads the Cowboys in hitting at .344 and now with having finally recorded enough at bats to qualify, ranks sixth in the Big 12 in batting average and seventh with a .434 on-base percentage.
The Color Of Money
OSU has won 10 of its last 12 games and during that stretch, sophomore Gage Green is hitting a team-high .406 with seven RBIs, which includes a 7-for-10, two-RBI showing in the Bedlam Series, and has raised his season average 30 points to .305. Green leads OSU with .345 average in Big 12 Conference play.
In The Polls
OSU has been ranked in at least one national poll for 11-straight weeks. The Cowboys No. 16 ranking in this week's NCBWA poll is their highest of the season.
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Friday, May 29
Wednesday, May 27
Monday, May 18
