Sophomore outfielder Neil Medchill had one hit and scored one run in Tuesday night’s win against Mid-America Christian University. The Cowboys host Wichita State tonight at 6:30.
On April 16, junior pitcher Jeff Breedlove was one of seven OSU pitchers used during a 25-1 rout of Mid-America Christian.
His two perfect innings against the Evangels last week were enough to earn him a start in the teams’ second meeting on Tuesday, and he led the No. 13 Cowboys to a 10-4 victory over MACU at Reynolds Stadium.
OSU coach Frank Anderson said Breedlove’s performance last week was the main reason for him starting Tuesday.
“He threw good against them last time and we wanted to give him another opportunity to throw,” Anderson said. “I thought he threw good. He extended the game and gave us a chance to separate it a little bit.”
Anderson said it was important for the Cowboys to not overlook the Evangels (10-34), despite Tuesday’s game falling between a series sweep of No. 15 Texas in Austin and No. 7 Wichita State visiting Stillwater tonight at 6:30.
“I knew it would be kind of an unemotional day to come out here after the big weekend series,” Anderson said, “and [Breedlove] came in and threw five shutout innings and really helped us out.”
Breedlove, who gave up two hits and struck out four during his five scoreless innings on Tuesday, said picking up his second win of the year felt good.
“I haven’t thrown a whole lot this year, but I’ve thrown a lot in years past,” Breedlove said. “My arm was dead early in the year and I’ve been trying to battle through it the last couple outings to try to get back out on the field and help my team win the Big 12.”
Anderson said it’s important to use pitchers during midweek games who don’t get to throw often on the weekends so they can get some work in an be ready to help the Cowboys (28-11) the rest of the season.
“You know you’re going to pitch some other guys and hopefully they’re excited about going in there,” Anderson said. “We needed to get Joe Kent back out there. It got a little sideways on him in his second inning, but you know what he can do and what he’s done in the past.”
Tuesday was Kent’s first action on the mound this season, and OSU’s first three pitchers used on Tuesday (Breedlove, Kent and Luis Flores) had previously combined for 10 2/3 innings of work all season.
Tuesday’s win was the Cowboys’ fifth in a row and 10th in their past 12 games, but they aren’t able to enjoy it for long. Anderson said the team’s focus must immediately shift to Wichita State, which comes to town tonight.
“It is a regional game, which makes it something special, and we should have a pretty nice crowd,” Anderson said. “It’s always fun to play Wichita State because they’re always a good program and we’ve had a good rivalry with them over the years.”
Breedlove said the team’s morale is high heading into the Wichita State game.
“We’re really excited about what we did over the weekend against Texas, and obviously we’re really excited about Wichita State,” Breedlove said. “We’re riding high right now. We’re playing well as a team, everybody is playing well together, and we’ve kind of found our identity as a team.”
Anderson echoed Breedlove’s comments on the team.
“We’ve finally identified who we are,” Anderson said. “We’re not real pretty all the time, but we kind of grind it out and give ourselves some opportunities. If we continue to do that, we’ve got a pretty good chance the rest of the year.”
Anderson said the Cowboys have played well through a tough stretch of games, but said they can’t start to get ahead of themselves and start thinking winning comes easily.
“If we think that we’re able to throw our hats out on the field and we can win by just showing up, that’s not going to happen,” Anderson said.
Breedlove agreed with his coach that the team needs to keep working to finish out the season in a strong manner.
“We still have a lot of games left and three more Big 12 series that are going to be huge for us,” Breedlove said. “We have to keep playing well.”
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