Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Back Home To Take On Kansas State
April 18, 2013 | Cowboy Baseball
April 18, 2013
#27 Oklahoma State (25-10, 5-6)
vs. Kansas State (27-11, 6-3)
Friday, April 19, 7 p.m.
Saturday, April 20, 3 p.m.
Sunday, April 21, 1 p.m.
Stillwater, Okla. • Allie P. Reynolds Stadium (4,000)
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State looks to make a move up the Big 12 Conference standings this weekend when the Cowboys host Kansas State at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium in a three-game series beginning Friday at 7 p.m. OSU is 25-10 overall and in fifth place in the league with a 5-6 mark after dropping its last two series at Kansas and at TCU.
The Cowboys rank second in the Big 12 with a .294 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 Kansas State
Kansas State is 27-11 overall and in second place in the Big 12 standings with a 6-3 mark. The Wildcats lead the NCAA with a .333 team batting average while the pitching staff sports a 3.76 ERA.
Expected to start on the mound this weekend for K-State are:
Friday - LHP Joe Flattery (4.68, 2-3) Saturday - RHP Matt Wivinis (5-1, 4.64)
Sunday - RHP Blake McFadden (4-1, 3.71)
OSU is 152-48 all time against Kansas State. Last season, the Cowboys swept the Wildcats in a three-game series in Manhattan, but K-State ended OSU's season with an 11-5 win at the Big 12 Championship in Oklahoma City.
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 Sunday's game will be televised live by Fox College Sports with Daron Sutton and Preston Wilson 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.
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.
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 -- 11 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 69 appearances are tied for sixth 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.
Offensively, McCurry sports career numbers of five home runs and 47 RBIs to go along with a .289 batting average in 79 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.
Aluminum Assault
OSU ranks second in the Big 12 Conference with a .294 team batting average, and five regulars in the lineup are hitting .300 or better. The Cowboys' offense tops the league with 75 doubles while ranking second in runs (216), RBIs (190), walks (145), on-base percentage (.386) and slugging percentage (.415).
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 7-0 with a save in a team-high 18 appearances this season. His seven wins are tied for the most among Big 12 Conference pitchers, and he ranks fifth in the league with a 1.80 ERA.
In 50.0 innings of work, Wheeland has recorded 48 strikeouts and ranks fifth in the Big 12 with 8.64 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 .358 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 (.511).
Fish, a sophomore, is hitting .300 and ranks in the top 10 in the Big 12 in home runs (5), doubles (12), RBIs (28) and total bases (71).
Want more superlatives from this duo?
• Krietemeier has hit safely in 31 of OSU's 35 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 12 rank third.
• Krietemeier is hitting .451 (23-for-51) 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 seven appearances have an ERA of 3.31 or lower.
• Vince Wheeland is 7-0 and also has a save. His seven wins are tied for the most in the Big 12 in 2013.
• Wheeland's 1.80 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 1.46 ERA, and his six 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 not allowed a run in 12.0 innings. He is 1-0 with 12 strikeouts in eight 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 51 steals and their opponents just 25. Gage Green leads the Cowboys with 11 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 has been ranked in at least one national poll for seven-straight weeks. The Cowboys peaked at No. 18 in both the USA Today and NCBWA polls on March 25... OSU is hitting .302 with runners in scoring position, while their opponents are at .229... Of OSU's 190 RBIs this season, 71 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 nine games and in doing so has raised his batting average 43 points to .320.
