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Big 12 Play Continues at No. 23 Oklahoma State
March 30, 2017 06:37 PM | Baseball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Winners of five of its last seven, the West Virginia University baseball team travels to No. 23 Oklahoma State for its second Big 12 Conference series of the season, from March 31-April 2, in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
The series at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium begins on Friday, March 31, at 7:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. CT in a matchup televised nationally on Fox Sports Southwest Plus. Due to inclement weather expected in Stillwater, Saturday's first pitch has been moved up to 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT. Sunday’s series finale will begin at 1 p.m. ET/12 p.m. CT.
While OSU leads the all-time series 10-5, WVU has won three of the last four regular-season meetings, including the lone game in a weather-shortened series in 2015, West Virginia’s last visit to Stillwater.
The Mountaineers (13-9, 2-1 Big 12 Conference) are coming off an 8-4 Backyard Brawl win at Pitt on Tuesday night and have won five of their last seven. West Virginia has also won back-to-back weekend series, at No. 10 Baylor to open Big 12 play and against Jacksonville last weekend in WVU’s first home series of the year.
The Cowboys (15-9, 0-3 Big 12) are one of four teams on WVU’s 2017 schedule that made the 2016 NCAA College World Series. OSU is coming off an 0-3 weekend to begin Big 12 play at No. 3 TCU. The sweep snapped Oklahoma State’s eight-game winning streak. OSU’s midweek game on Tuesday against Wichita State was cancelled because of rain.
Junior BJ Myers (2-1, 4.03 ERA) gets the start on Friday night for the Mountaineers against OSU senior Tyler Buffett (3-2, 4.19). On Saturday, sophomore Michael Grove (2-1, 3.28) will toe the rubber against the Cowboy’s freshman Jonathan Heasley (2-2, 2.55). Two juniors will start the series finale, Conner Dotson (3-3, 5.53) for West Virginia against Oklahoma State’s Blake Battenfield (2-1, 3.42). All six projected starters in the weekend series are right-handers.
FOLLOWING ALONG
Friday’s game will be nationally televised on Fox Sports Southwest Plus, while Saturday and Sunday’s games will be live streamed for free on OkState.com/Live. Fans can listen to the games on the Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG on various affiliates throughout the state, online at WVUsports.com, on the Mountaineer Gameday App and the TuneInRadio App. Dan Zangrilli will call the action.
Live stats can be found at OkState.Statbroadcast.com. Links to live streams, radio broadcasts and live stats for all three games can be found on the baseball schedule page on WVUsports.com.
Additional behind-the-scenes updates, news and notes from Stillwater can be found on social media by following and connecting with the team at @WVUBaseball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
SCOUTING OKLAHOMA STATE
No. 23 Oklahoma State enters the weekend with a 15-9 record and an 0-3 mark in the Big 12. The Cowboys are 11-3 at home, 2-5 on the road and 2-1 at a neutral site. OSU has posted a 2-4 record against top-25 foes.
The Cowboys were swept by No. 3 TCU last weekend in Fort Worth, Texas. OSU’s three-game losing streak snapped an eight-game winning streak, which included two shutouts and a 4-3 win against rival No. 10 Oklahoma.
Garrett Benge leads the team with 28 RBI’s and is second with a .321 batting average. He boasts a team-best five home runs, 23 walks and 49 total bases. Garrett McCain has a team-best 32 hits and a .348 batting average. On the mound, Jensen Elliott leads the team with a 3-0 record. Jake Cowan’s perfect 0.00 ERA is tops on the team, in 15.2 innings pitched, while Carson Teel’s 38 strikeouts is a team high.
Josh Holliday is in his fifth season as head coach at his alma mater. In his first four seasons, he has guided Oklahoma State to four NCAA Tournament appearances and a Big 12 title. In 2016, Holliday led OSU to its first College World Series since 1999, when he played for the Cowboys.
OSU is ranked No. 23 by Perfect Game and is receiving votes in both the NCBWA and the Coaches’ polls.
SERIES HISTORY VS. THE COWBOYS
Oklahoma State leads the all-time series, 10-5, but the Mountaineers are 5-5 in the last 10 games and 3-2 since 2015. OSU leads the series in Stillwater, 5-2, and in Morgantown, 4-2. At the Big 12 Championship, WVU is 1-1 against OSU.
WVU won last year’s series against No. 16 Oklahoma State, highlighted by a dramatic 5-4 walk-off victory in the 10th inning.
In the series opener on April 1, Jackson Cramer belted a walk-off home run on the first pitch of the 10th inning to give WVU a 5-4 upset win. The home run, Cramer’s second of the day, came after a roller coaster ninth inning. The Mountaineers were one out away from a 3-1 win, but the Cowboys took their only lead of the day on a three-run homer. WVU bounced right back though to tie it at 4-4 in the ninth. With two outs, pinch hitter Marques Inman singled to right field to score Jimmy Galusky from second.
On April 2, lefty Ross Vance and back-to-back home runs led WVU to a 4-3 victory. The Mountaineers won the series as Vance threw 7.1 innings of four-hit, three-run ball. He was backed up by back-to-back home runs in the seventh inning by KC Huth and Darius Hill. Hill had two RBIs on the day. Cramer added three hits and an RBI.
Following the 2016 series, Cramer was named the Big 12 Co-Player of the Week on April 4. In the weekend series against the Cowboys, Cramer hit .556 with a 1.33 slugging percentage and a .692 on-base percentage with five hits, three RBI, 12 total bases and three walks.
The Mountaineers won the only regular-season meeting in 2015, a 5-4 win in Stillwater. At the Big 12 Championship, the Cowboys followed with a 3-0 victory.
WVU’s first six games against OSU were played in Stillwater, and the Cowboys won the first five. The series began in 1996, an OSU sweep, before Big 12 play began in 2013. The teams played four games in 2013, with Oklahoma State winning the first two and WVU winning the last two, including a 6-5 win at the Big 12 Championship.
ON DECK: MOUNTAINEERS HOST MARSHALL, MOREHEAD STATE
West Virginia returns home for its next five games, beginning with in-state rival Marshall on Tuesday, April 4, at 6:30 p.m. ET, and Morehead State on Wednesday, April 5, at 5 p.m. ET. Both games are dollar days, where tickets and select concession items are just $1. The Morehead State game was originally rescheduled for March 14, but postponed to April 5 due to inclement weather. Tickets for March 14 will be valid on April 5. Additionally, tickets for both of next week’s games are on sale now, at 1-800-WVU GAME, WVUGAME.com or at the Mountaineer Ticket Office in the WVU Coliseum.
LAST TIME OUT: BACKYARD BRAWL WIN
On Tuesday, March 28, West Virginia scored two runs on a suicide squeeze and added five unearned runs in an 8-4 victory at Pitt in the Backyard Brawl. WVU improved to 105-88 all-time in the rivalry series and has won eight of the last 12 against Pitt.
West Virginia scored two runs in the fourth inning before breaking out with five runs in the fifth, all unearned and with two outs. On the mound, five WVU pitchers combined to hold Pitt to one run on three hits in the first eight innings before UP’s three-run rally in the ninth fell short.
Winners of five of their last seven, the Mountaineer pitching staff got its strong day started with 3.2 innings from freshman right-handed starter Isaiah Kearns. He did not allow a run on two hits with three strikeouts and improved to 3-0 on the year.
Four relievers followed Kearns, three of them freshmen, to allow one run on one hit in 4.2 innings through the eighth inning.
Offensively, senior first baseman Jackson Cramer and sophomore third baseman Cole Austin each had two of WVU’s seven hits, while sophomore catcher Ivan Gonzalez had a hit and a team-high two RBIs on a perfectly-executed suicide squeeze.
QUICK HITS: KEY TEAM NOTES
- West Virginia is celebrating its 125th year of baseball. Founded in 1892, WVU owns an all-time record of 2,108-1,511-19. The Mountaineers are the second-oldest program in the Big 12.
- A total of 2,084 fans watched WVU beat Jacksonville on March 25, the 13th-largest home crowd in program history and seventh-biggest at Monongalia County Ballpark.
- Senior Jackson Cramer has been named one of 30 candidates for the Senior CLASS Award. The award recognizes senior student-athletes who have shown a commitment in four areas: community, classroom, character and competition.
- Cole Austin hit safely in a career-best 10 games, the second-longest hitting streak by a Mountaineer this season. After leading the team with a .571 average and eight hits in WVU’s series win at Baylor, Austin was named the WVU Student-Athlete of the Week, on March 20.
- Darius Hill had a career-best and team-leading 13-game hitting streak, which ended on March 8 at Southeastern Louisiana. He had at least one hit in each of WVU’s first 11 games, with four multi-hit games and four multi-RBI contests. Hill is tied for second on the team with 17 hits and third with 11 RBIs.
- WVU’s 6-2 start to the year followed a 5-1 start in 2016, the first time since 2006-07 the Mountaineers have started back-to-back seasons with at least five wins in their first seven games. Just like a six-game winning streak in 2017, WVU’s start to 2016 included a five-game winning streak.
- West Virginia went 2-0 against No. 18 Coastal Carolina on Feb. 25 and 27, its first games against a ranked foe in 2017 and its first-ever games against a defending national champion.
- In West Virginia 22-9 win at No. 18 Coastal Carolina on Feb. 25, WVU’s 22 runs were the most since it scored 23 against Duquesne in 2010. WVU’s 29 hits was three shy of the school record of 32, set in 2009, and the Mountaineers’ six home runs was one shy of the school record of seven, set in 1997. WVU’s 56 at-bats is a new school record. Jackson Cramer had a career-best five hits, four extra-base hits and three doubles, all one shy of tying the school record, and he added a career-high six RBIs.
- Every starter in the lineup has had at least one hit in two of WVU’s first seven games, while every starter recorded an RBI once in the stretch.
- Sophomore catcher Ivan Gonzalez has been named to the 2017 Johnny Bench Award Watch List. The annual award is given annually to the top Division I collegiate catcher.
- West Virginia played its first 18 games away from home, after the home opener, on Tuesday, March 14, was postponed due to snow.
- Coach Randy Mazey is 137-110 at West Virginia and became the fifth coach in team history to eclipse the 100-win mark and the second to accomplish the feat in his first four seasons.
- West Virginia was voted to finish fifth in the 2017 Big 12 Conference baseball preseason coaches’ poll, WVU’s highest preseason ranking since joining the conference in 2013.
- WVU’s 2017 schedule includes 15 games against teams that made the 2016 NCAA Tournament, including four of the eight teams that advanced to the College World Series. West Virginia plays two games at Coastal Carolina and hosts TCU, the preseason No. 1 team in the country.
- WVU won 36 games in 2016, the most wins in a single season in coach Randy Mazey’s four years and the most since 2009 (37).
- WVU went 3-1 at the 2016 Big 12 Championship and advanced to its first Big 12 Championship game and first conference title game since 1996.
- Darius Hill and Ivan Gonzalez were named to Freshman All-America teams after leading WVU in several offensive categories as freshmen in 2016
- WVU has had 14 draft selection in coach Randy Mazey’s four seasons, the most draft picks in a four-year stretch in team history.
- Attendance has increased in each of WVU’s first four seasons in the Big 12, highlighted by a program-record total of 40,390 fans in 2016, for an average of 1,346 fans per game. WVU averaged a record 1,507 n the inaugural season at Monongalia County Ballpark in 2015.
Single game tickets, flex plan tickets and mini packs for the 2017 WVU baseball season are on sale now. Fans can purchase tickets by calling 1-800-WVU GAME, going to WVUGAME.com or visiting the Mountaineer Ticket Office in the WVU Coliseum. The 2017 schedule is available on WVUsports.com.
For more information on the Mountaineers, follow WVU Baseball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and visit WVUsports.com.
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