ORU @ Oklahoma State

[Otis 83]

Today our beloved Golden Eagles get on the bus to head west to Stillwater to take on Oklahoma State.  The Cowboys are 21-11 for the season and 6-6 in Big XII play.  Here are the ranking comparisons.

OSU 

ORU 

As you can see, we have another challenging midweek matchup.  The Cowboys sit at #13 in Baseball America's current rankings.  I find it interesting that OSU's pitching is good but no spectacular with a staff ERA of .564 and opponent's average 6 runs a game.  Where the Cowboys distinguish themselves is on offense as you can see on the infographic below.   The bats will need to be louder tonight than they were against UNC for the good guys to have a chance.

OSU is riding some momentum after sweeping Cincinnati at home this past weekend.  Looking at common opponents, the Cowboys have losses to OU and Arkansas.  They have split with Missouri State (the loss was a run rule).  The have wins over DBU (2), SDSU (2), and Central Arkansas.

Here's the pitching matchup for tonight's contest - RHP Brenden Asher (0-2 / 5.63 ERA / 8.0 IP) vs. LHP TP Wentworth (1-0 / 6.08 ERA / 13.1 IP).

Tonight's game can be seen on ESPN+. I find the OSU color commentator insufferable so I will have Connor's Behind the Mic synched up with the broadcast.

Go Eags!!

Edited April 7 by Otis 83
I added the match up infographic

[ORob2]

As a mid-major, it takes a real special coaching staff to be a top 50 25 10 5(!) team in any team stat.  Currently, ORU is tied for FOURTH in the country in fielding % (0.985).  Really impressive stuff from Folmar and the gang.  As much as we all want to see offensive improvement, this is the element of our game that is the strongest, and if we're going to hang with the Goliaths, it will be partially due to defensive consistency.  We still have 5 P4 games on the schedule, and for some reason, I expect us to steal one of those away.

[Old Titan]

4 hours ago, Otis 83 said:

Tonight's game can be seen on ESPN+. I find the OSU color commentator insufferable so I will have Connor's Behind the Mic synched up with the broadcast.

Is that color commentator former Cowboys assistant coach Tom Holliday?  

[Otis 83]

29 minutes ago, Old Titan said:

Is that color commentator former Cowboys assistant coach Tom Holliday?  

Yes, that's the one.

[Bogus Smith]

51 minutes ago, Old Titan said:

Is that color commentator former Cowboys assistant coach Tom Holliday?  

Tom needs to learn how to stay within the lines when coloring.

[Old Titan]

1 hour ago, Old Titan said:

Is that color commentator former Cowboys assistant coach Tom Holliday?  

I kinda enjoy Tom now, considering he used to hate our guts.

Back when he was an assistant under legendary Cowboys skipper Gary Ward, Holliday used to annually get in verbal-bordering-on-physical altercations with everyone from ORU Titan assistants Jim Brewer and Pat Harrison all the way to ORU players while he was in the baseline coach's box.  He was, to put it mildly, a pompous a-hole.

But, since son Matt and grandsons Jackson and Ethan all became major leaguers, and his youngest son Josh became head coach at Oklahoma State, he seems to have mellowed in general, and toward ORU in particular.  Can't hurt that ORU coaches Rob Walton and Ryan FOLMAR* both played for Holliday at Oklahome State.

The only thing I've heard him say negatively about ORU in recent broadcasts is that he felt OSU should stop playing the Golden Eagles in midweek games (because ORU kept kicking the Cowboys' butts for a time there). 

And that's about the highest form of flattery you can expect from a surly old sourpuss like Tom...

* That's for Bogus... 

[Otis 83]

2 hours ago, Old Titan said:

I kinda enjoy Tom now, considering he used to hate our guts.

Back when he was an assistant under legendary Cowboys skipper Gary Ward, Holliday used to annually get in verbal-bordering-on-physical altercations with everyone from ORU Titan assistants Jim Brewer and Pat Harrison all the way to ORU players while he was in the baseline coach's box.  He was, to put it mildly, a pompous a-hole.

But, since son Matt and grandsons Jackson and Ethan all became major leaguers, and his youngest son Josh became head coach at Oklahoma State, he seems to have mellowed in general, and toward ORU in particular.  Can't hurt that ORU coaches Rob Walton and Ryan FOLMAR* both played for Holliday at Oklahome State.

The only thing I've heard him say negatively about ORU in recent broadcasts is that he felt OSU should stop playing the Golden Eagles in midweek games (because ORU kept kicking the Cowboys' butts for a time there). 

And that's about the highest form of flattery you can expect from a surly old sourpuss like Tom...

* That's for Bogus... 

We will have to agree to disagree on this one.  I don't find him insufferable because of negative comments re:  ORU (and I do remember those tense moments with OSU when we were in school).  I find him insufferable because, to use your words, he comes off as a pompous a-hole....an egotistical know it all with strong opinions and no room for disagreement.   That's all.

[Bogus Smith]

Where in the world has this hitting been??  We couldn't hit diddley against the #321 UNC team, but have two home runs and lead 8-6 in the top of the 8th.

[theeagleman5]

8-8 now....bullpen not getting it done for the Good Guys...

[Otis 83]

8 minutes ago, theeagleman5 said:

8-8 now....bullpen not getting it done for the Good Guys...

Or the Bad Guys. No one can hold a lead. 

[Texasgrip]

Double plates two!

[Otis 83]

9 hole hitter with 2 out 2 rbi double. Way to go Hudson Ellis!

[Texasgrip]

Wow! What a gutsy win!

[Old Titan]

There are wins, and then are wins.

And this one could be life-changing for this roster.

At bare minimum, consider this:  good guys scored more runs (10) in nine innings than all weekend  in three wins over Northern Colorado. 

[ORUTerry]

Nice win

 

[theeagleman5]

Impressive win over a top 15 team. ROLL EAGS!!! 

[TrueBlue82]

After a long season of nothingness, the bats come ALIVE tonight.  And, the usually solid pitching was just good enough to hold on. Although ORU had one error, the defense was the difference in tonight’s game, with three double plays and a runner thrown out at the plate. IMPRESSIVE!

[Bogus Smith]

Keep this game in your memory banks as we look back on this season.  Could this be the game that turns this team into the complete team we thought we would be seeing?  Did it really take 29 games to play, adjust, look at combinations, and finally put a complete game together that will boost the confidence of this team to take the rest of the season by storm??  Hopefully this is the turnaround game that will move us on to win the Summit and win some P4 mid-week games that we have remaining.  Let's don't revert back to playing to our level of competition on the weekends.