Armed For the New Era

Originally Published: Mar 26, 2011 7:22 PM CDT

When the OSU baseball dropped the final two games of their Big 12 opening three-game series at Kansas last weekend a few fans may have sounded the panic alarm.  But this is a different type of Cowboy team. 

It’s a team constructed around quality pitching and built to win close games in the new BBCOR bat era of college baseball.  And that has played out during the first two games of the OSU’s series with 4th-ranked Texas this weekend.

The Cowboys have surrendered just 2 runs on 13 hits with 27 strikeouts.  And the Longhorns have only one extra-base hit in the series.

Senior Brad Propst tossed a complete-game shutout on Saturday.  He has four wins and an ERA of 1.51. 

In Friday’s 1-0 loss to Texas, Mike Strong and Chris Marlowe scattered 6 hits in 15 innings and combined for 21 strikeouts.

Frank Anderson went out and got 7 transfers, all of whom can pitch, from either junior colleges or other four-year schools in his 2011 recruiting class. 

OSU has a staff ERA of 2.20 and more than three times the number of strikeouts as walks. And opponents are batting a paltry .235 against Cowboy pitchers this season.

It’s a deep staff as nine different pitchers have thrown at least 10 innings on the season.  Now that’s a winning recipe.