The Selection Committee Says: Yes, Oklahoma State in the NCAA Again
STILLWATER – This was the closest call of all. Oklahoma State made it into the NCAA Baseball Tournament and the “Road to Omaha” with a 28-23 record. The Cowboys are headed to Athens, Ga. to open as the No. 3 seed against No. 2 seed Duke of the ACC. The Blue Devils are 37-19 The top seed in Athens are the No. 7 national seed Georgia as the host. The will open with No. 4 seed Bingjamton (29-24). That regional will match up with the winner of the Oxford, Miss. (Mississippi) Regional for a Super Regional. The hosts for Super Regionals will be announced on on www.NCAA.com/mcws, Tuesday, June 3 by 10 a.m. (ET).
The key for the Cowboys getting in was their strength of schedule, which was No. 13 as of the end of conference tournament play this weekend. Of the 12 teams ranked with a more difficult schedule than Oklahoma State, nine of them were from the SEC. The Cowboys played five SEC teams this season and had a record of 2-3. The other necessary development for the Pokes was a 10-2 finish in their last 12 games including a sweep of Arizona State and three-out-of-four wins over Baylor. This helped course correct an 8-10 record in the month of March.
Oklahoma State was one of the last four teams in according to the selection committee. OSU had an RPI of 44. The other three of the last four in, and three including Oklahoma State were from the Big 12, were Arizona State No. 49, Kansas State No. 37, and USC was RPI No. 45.
The Cowboys come into the regional with their strength being pitching and the bid also lenthens the coaching career of former OSU pitcher for Gary Ward and longtime college head coach and pitching coach Rob Walton. Walton helped this team get on a roll by coming around to the roatation of All-Big 12 Conference pitcher Harrison Bodendorf followed by Mario Pesca and Sean Youngerman. The Oklahoma State pitching has an ERA 4.33 with 481 strike outs and 182 walks allowing 432 hits.
Bodendorf went 10-1 with a 2.77 era with 100 strike outs and just 27 walks. Youngerman led the Pokes in era with 2.08 and he was 3-1 with four saves as he earned second-team All-Big 12 honors as a starting pitcher and reliever. Pesca was 7-2 on the season with a 3.43 era.
Oklahoma State was billed coming into the season as having a potent offense, but injuries and struggles led the Cowboys to a team batting average of .254 and an embarrassing 533 strike outs. The Cowboys did have 82 home runs and 90 doubles. They averaged 6.57 runs a game, but didn’t spread that out quite efficiently as they would have liked.
The opening opponent for the Pokes will be the Duke Blue Devils with the 37-19 record overall and a 17-13 ACC Conference record good for a 7th place finish in the league. Duke is 1-1 in neutral site games this season and they were 7-9 on the road, so they played 38-of-56 games this season at home.
Like Holliday, Duke head coach Chris Pollard is in his 13th season and has a record of 416-293. This NCAA bid is his seventh at Duke compared to Holliday’s 12th.
The Blue Devils finished in the ACC Tournament in Durham with a 4-3 win over Pittsburgh and a then a 14-7 loss to ACC No. 2 seed Florida State.
Duke hit .289 on the season with 99 home runs and 111 doubles. Their hitters struck out 457 times and walked 382 times. They are led by third baseman Ben Miller, who hit .323 with 13 home runs, 18 doubles, and 58 RBI. Centerfielder A.J. Garcia hit .303 with 13 home runs, 10 doubles, and 52 RBI. First baseman Jack Hyde is the big power guy with 11 home runs, 13 doubles, and 61 RBI.
They are a power line-up with a mixture of speed. Duke had 47 errors in the field and a .977 fielding percentage.
That compares to 51 errors by Oklahoma State. Defense was an issue for the Pokes at times and they finished with a .972 fielding percentage and that was close to Duke.
The Duke team era is 4.91 and Oklahoma State is likely to see left-handed pitcher Owen Proksch, who is from Southlake (Carroll), Texas. He 2-3 on the season with 10 starts and a 5.03 era and 76 strike outs and 232 walks. Opposing hitters hit .227 off of him.
Duke’s pitching prowess is not based on starters, but their bullpen where another Texas and Yale graduate transfer, lefty Reid Easterly is the main guy as he is 8-2 with a 3.22 era. He has covered over 64 innings with 58 strike outs, only 16 walks, and just 58 hits.
The Mississippi Regional in Oxford, Miss. has host Ole Miss (40-19) opening with Murray State (39-13) and No. 2 Georgia Tech (40-17) playing No. 3 seed Western Kentucky (46-12).
