Aggies Roll Into Town For Weekend Baseball Series

Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

April 3, 2003

NORMAN, Okla. - Fresh over their solid 5-4 victory over Wichita State on Tuesday, the Oklahoma (12-13, 0-6 Big 12) baseball team looks ahead to No. 19 Texas A&M (24-9, 5-4 Big 12) this weekend as the Sooners will be in search of their first Big 12 Conference win of the season. The series opener begins Friday night at 6:35 p.m., continues on Saturday at 3 p.m. and concludes on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Both teams enter the weekend series looking to improve upon their conference standing. At 5-4, A&M sits in sixth place in the Big 12 standings, while OU resides in ninth place with an 0-6 league mark.

OU Cheerstixs will be given away throughout the weekend to fans attending the game. A regular feature at all Big 12 home contests, Baseball Bingo, will also be played during each game of the series.

DATES: April 4-6
FIRST PITCHES: Friday at 6:35 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.
BALLPARK: L. Dale Mitchell Park (2,700)
LOCATION: Norman, Okla.
RADIO: The games will be broadcast locally on KREF (1400 AM) with Jim Byers calling the action. The broadcast can also be heard on Oklahoma's official web site www.soonersports.com. Gametracker, which also can be accessed through soonersports.com, will be run throughout the series to provide fans live updates on the game's progress.
TELEVISION: None.
RANKINGS: Oklahoma is not ranked, however Texas A&M is ranked in three of the four major polls. The Sports Weekly/ESPN poll has the Aggies ranked the highest at No. 19, followed by Baseball America's No. 22 ranking and the NCBWA's No. 23 ranking. TEXAS A&M SERIES NOTES: Oklahoma owns a 21-18 all-time series lead over Texas A&M ... The first meeting between the two schools was in 1912 ... OU Head Coach Larry Cochell is 11-12 against TAMU during his 13-year tenure at Oklahoma ... A&M holds an 17-11 edge since the inception of the Big 12 Conference in 1997 ... A&M is 6-3 in Norman in the Big 12 era ... The Aggies left town with a 2-1 series win their last three times to Norman ... The Sooners have never won a conference series against the Aggies at L. Dale Mitchell Park ... TAMU won two of the three regular season meetings last year for the third year in a row and fifth time in the last six seasons ... The Aggies came away with bookend wins after the Sooners recovered from a four run deficit to win the second game, 9-8 ... David Purcey notched his fifth save of the season last year in the Sooners' second game victory over the Aggies ... Luke Alexander aided the offensive cause in that same contest by recording two doubles and adding three RBI.

Last Time Out

Oklahoma sophomore reliever Jarod McAuliff forced Wichita State shortstop Nick McCoola to ground into a game-ending double play to close the book on the game and the Sooners' 10-game losing streak with a 5-4 win over the Shockers Tuesday night in front of 783 fans at L. Dale Mitchell Park. McAuliff picked up his third save of the year and secured junior Casey Brown's (1-0) first win of the season in the process. Senior second baseman Eddie Cornejo went 2-for-3 at the plate and drove in three of OU's runs with two coming on his first career home run in a Sooner uniform.

Pinch hitter Matt Arkison (0-for-1) drove in the Sooners' winning run in the seventh inning with a ground out RBI to plate sophomore first baseman Matt Bose (0-for-3). The team maufactured the winning run after Bose drew a lead off walk and sophomore right fielder Greg Kish (1-for-4) singled to right field to place runners on first and second base with no outs. In the next at bat, junior catcher Spencer Wyman (0-for-2) laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance both runners into scoring position just prior to Arkison's RBI ground out.

Brown worked 2.1 innings of scoreless relief to capture his first win of the season. He relieved starting pitcher David Purcey with two outs and a runner at third base in the sixth inning. He got the team out of the jam by striking out catcher Joe Muich to end the inning and remain perfect in three attempts on the season in holding inherited runners scoreless. Brown then proceeded to sit down five of the next six batters over the next two innings before exiting at the top of the ninth inning.

Cornejo gave the Sooners a 2-0 lead with a two-run home run to left field in the bottom of the first inning. His home run scored senior center fielder Reggie Willits (0-for-2) who reached base safely for the 24th contest this season when he drew his team-leading 18th walk.

Oklahoma used some aggressive base running in the fourth inning to capture the game's second tie at 3-3. After junior third baseman Jay Yaconetti (1-for-3) wound up on second base courteousy of a two base error by the WSU second baseman, an errant throw attempting to catch Yaconetti stealing at third base wound up in left field and gave him the opportunity to advance home.

After WSU manufactured another run in the top of the sixth inning on its second two out RBI double of the contest, OU fought back with a run of its own for the third tie of the game. Junior shortstop Denver Kitch (1-for-3) doubled to lead off the frame and was then sacrificed to third base by Willits. Kitch raced home to score on a shallow sacrifice fly to left field by Cornejo to pull the Sooners back even with the Shockers.

Sooners At The Plate

As a team, Oklahoma is batting .268 with 25 home runs and 140 RBI ... OU's team batting average ranks 10th in the Big 12 Conference overall and league only standings ... Sooners in the Big 12 overall standings: Reggie Willits - first in on base percentage, second in batting average and stolen bases and tied-10th in walks; Eddie Cornejo - 17th in batting average; Jay Yaconetti - fifth in home runs; Matt Arkison - tied-10th in doubles and Denver Kitch - tied-10th in stolen bases ... Sooners in the Big 12 only standings: Willits - tied-16th in batting average and tied-fifth in stolen bases; Cornejo - tied-fourth in triples; Kitch - tied-fifth in stolen bases ... Willits led the team in hitting last week ... He batted .529 (9-for-17) with five runs scored for the week and .455 (5-for-11) during the Nebraska series ... He also collected at least one hit in each game to put together a modest four-game hitting streak ... Willits has reached base safely in 24 of the 25 games played this season ... Yaconetti is batting .333 (8-for-25) over the last seven games after batting .148 (4-for-27) during the previous seven games ... Cornejo hit his first career home run in Tuesday's contest against Wichita State ... The homer not only marked his first career long ball as a Sooner, but also the team's first in the last two weeks.

Sooners On The Mound

The Sooner pitching staff is currently sporting a 4.38 ERA and has struck out 164 batters while walking 78 ... The staff's ERA ranks seventh in the Big 12 Conference overall and league only standings ... Sooners in the Big 12 Conference standings: Jarod McAuliff - fourth in ERA, tied-ninth in saves and tied-second in appearances; Mark Roberts - 17th in ERA,10th in strikeouts and ninth in innings pitched ... Sooners in the Big 12 only standings: Roberts - 14th in ERA, tied-10th in strikeouts; McAuliff - tied-second in appearances ... The Sooner bullpen delivered more promising performances during the Nebraska series ... The bullpen lowered its season ERA by 37 points by surrendering only one unearned run in eight innings of work last weekend ... OU's relief corps also gave up only six hits and fanned eight batters against Nebraska ... They also only allowed 1-of-6 inherited runners to score ... McAuliff held three inherited runners scoreless in two outings during the series and junior righthander Casey Brown stranded two inherited runners in his one appearance last weekend ... Both pitchers improved upon their inherited runners total in Tuesday's game as each hurler stranded a runner scoreless after coming on in relief ... Brown and Roberts combined for an Oklahoma season best 12 strikeouts in Friday night's game ... Roberts accounted for eight of those strikeouts which established a personal season high ... The junior righthander also carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning in the game ... Sophomore lefty David Purcey has given up only five hits and two earned runs in seven innings of work in his last five relief appearances since exiting the weekend starting rotation ... Purcey owns a 2.57 ERA during that stretch ... Junior righty Mike Swindell made his third start of the season on Sunday and worked a season high 6.1 innings ... The trio of Purcey, Brown and McAuliff combined for flawless control in Tuesday's game against Wichita State ... Neither of the hurlers issued a walk, threw a wild pitch or hit a batter in the game ... Over the last two games, the staff has displayed better control by walking only one batter and throwing only two wild pitches.

About No. 19 Texas A&M

Texas A&M (24-9, 5-4 Big 12) sprinted out to a 17-4 start before suffering most of its losses recently during Big 12 Conference play. Four of the team's nine losses on the season have come during conference play. In the conference season's early beginnings, the Aggies have captured series victories over the nationally-ranked Baylor Bears and the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Their only league series shortfall came at the hands of the Texas Tech Red Raiders who claimed two victories out of the three contests in Lubbock.

Junior outfielder Justin Ruggiano has emerged as the team's most consistent offensive leader this season. Ruggiano's .324 average ranks second on the team, however, his .379 average in Big 12 play leads all A&M sluggers.

A&M's rotation for the weekend is scheduled to be righthander Logan Kensing, lefthander Zach Dixon and righty Matt Farnum. Farnum leads the trio with a 5-1 record and 2.30 ERA. Although Kensing leads the staff with three losses, he also has completed a team best two games and struck out a team high 39.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Aggies Roll Into Town For Weekend Baseball Series

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors