Oklahoma State University Athletics
Pair Of Former Cowboys Eye World Series Title
September 30, 2014 | Cowboy Baseball
The 2014 Major League Baseball playoffs start this week, and a pair of former Oklahoma State Cowboys will be looking to lead their teams to a World Series title.
A year ago, it was former OSU pitcher and assistant coach John Farrell doing just that as the manager of the Boston Red Sox as, under Farrell's leadership, the Red Sox brought a World Series title to Beantown.
Both Cowboy baseball alumni this year will be competing in the National League playoffs, with Jordy Mercer a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Tyler Lyons on the St. Louis Cardinals' roster.
Mercer and the Pirates will take the field Wednesday at 7 p.m. (CST) in Pittsburgh in the National League Wild Card game against San Francisco, with the winner advancing to face Washington in Division Series play.
Mercer, who began his professional baseball career following his junior season at OSU in 2008, entrenched himself as Pittsburgh's starting shortstop in 2014. In 149 games, he hit .255 with 12 home runs and 55 RBIs to go along with 27 doubles. The 12 homers is the most by a Pirates' shortstop since 2000.
Defensively, Mercer committed just 11 errors in 609 chances at shortstop for a .982 fielding percentage.
A third-round pick of the Pirates in 2008, Mercer is in his third season in the big leagues.
The Cardinals were crowned the NL Central Division champions for the second-straight year and will be looking for a return trip to the World Series. St. Louis opens postseason play against the Los Angeles Dodgers Friday at 5:30 p.m. (CST) in the best-of-five Division Series in Los Angeles.
Lyons, who made his MLB debut in 2013, has appeared in 11 games this season, including four starts. The southpaw is 0-4 with a 4.42 ERA and has 36 strikeouts in 36 2/3 innings.
In his last five outings, including three in the month of September, Lyons allowed just one earned run in 11 2/3 innings while striking out 13.
Lyons was a four-year letterwinner for the Cowboys from 2007-10 and won 22 games to rank 10th on OSU's all-time list. He was a ninth-round draft pick of St. Louis in the 2010 MLB Draft.
