Cowboy baseball: CWS a real possibility
It’s been a long nine years since the OSU baseball team has been spotted in Omaha.
This year’s team could end the drought.
These Cowboys, a better pitching squad than last year’s team that came within a game of a College World Series berth, have taken series from every real contender in the Big 12. They’ve won at Missouri and Texas. They’ve beaten Texas A&M and Nebraska at home.
Oddly, all that work isn’t showing up in the national polls, which only furthers the theory that baseball’s rankings are the most unreliable of all the major sports.
Somehow, A&M, Nebraska and Missouri remain ahead of OSU in two of the three major polls.
That, my friends, is a joke.
Back to the team. These guys never consider themselves out of a game and they’ve proven a real late-inning toughness time and again. It’s a lineup with pop and clutch hitting, built around Matt Hague, Rebel Ridling, Neil Medchill and Jordy Mercer.
It’s a pitching staff that continues to evolve, bolstered by the maturing of sophomore left-hander Andy Oliver into the ace Frank Anderson envisioned when he landed the former Ohio prep star. Tyler Lyons, another lefty, has been strong, too.
And keep an eye on Matt Gardner, who’s return from an arm aneurism has been a good story that may get better if he moves into the weekend rotation.
These Cowboys are good. Real good.
College World Series good.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
I believe that you are about half-right. I believe that OSU is CWS good if they play at home. On the road is a different story. OSU is 9-8 on the road, and except for Missouri, have not beaten a contending opponent. You might argue Texas, but that is weakened by the fact that Texas has faced only three potential playoff teams (Stanford, Nebraska, and OSU) in Austin, and has dropped all three series in posting a combined 2-7 record. Texas has also lost games to Texas Arlington and Texas San Antonio in Austin (although UTSA is better than I thought).
OSU is good, but I just cannot see them going to Palo Alto, or Tempe, or Houston, or Miami, or Tallahassee, or Long Beach, and getting somewhere. I hope I am wrong, but unless OSU is awarded a national seed and a super regional, I don’t see them in Omaha.