Left fielder Donnie Webb had one hit, one RBI and scored one run in Wednesday’s 5-3 win against Wichita State on Wednesday night. The game was delayed for an hour and 19 minutes because of rain.
A storm blew over Allie P. Reynolds Stadium on Wednesday night, and for a few innings it looked as if it might have taken Oklahoma State’s offense with it.
No. 13 OSU took a one-run lead into a rain delay that lasted an hour and 19 minutes, but the team’s momentum seemed to be drained like the water on the field when the tarp was finally removed.
Then Jordy Mercer stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the seventh.
Mercer got just enough of a Logan Hoch pitch to send it bouncing off the top of the wall in left-center field for a two-run homer to put OSU ahead en route to a 5-3 victory against No. 7 Wichita State.
After a two-run inning in the bottom of the third to put the Cowboys up by one, the rains came. For a while, it seemed as if the weather might have gotten the best of the Cowboys (29-11).
“[The delay] took the momentum out of us a little bit,” Mercer said. “We had things rolling right there after that big inning we had, and the rain delay was not a good thing for us. You sit around and then you’ve got to get re-started.”
Senior pitcher Matt Gardner gave up a home run to WSU designated hitter Andy Dirks, but he settled down and held the Shockers (31-8) to two hits before the delay.
When he came back out more than an hour later to start the fourth inning, things changed. Gardner gave up a double to Dusty Coleman and then threw two wild pitches, allowing Coleman to score from second, tying the game at 2.
OSU coach Frank Anderson he should not have let Gardner go back out after the delay.
“It wasn’t fair to Matt, probably, to go out there like that,” Anderson said. “We probably should have gone ahead and made the switch, but he’s such a competitor and wanted to go back out.”
Anderson said he was concerned about how his team would perform coming out of the delay.
“I was a little worried about that because you never know how you’re going to come out of one of those things,” Anderson said. “It’s an informal stretch. Our game is a game of routines and you’re kind of out of your element right there.”
Despite the delay hurting the Cowboys’ momentum, Anderson said the worst thing about the rain was the effect it had on the crowd.
Before the rain swept in, Reynolds Stadium was filled with a capacity crowd of 4,000, but many of them left during the storm.
“That was the worst thing,” Anderson said. “That was so neat to see all of those people here, but I was really happy with the number of people that came back after the rain delay.”
The win was OSU’s eighth against a top-10 team this season, and extended the team’s winning streak to six games, matching its season high. The Cowboys also won their first six games of the year.
Anderson said the stretch of games has been tough, but said the team has played at a high level that he hopes it can maintain as the season progresses.
Aside from Mercer’s home run, Anderson said freshman second baseman Tom Belza’s defensive stop in the top of the eighth was the biggest play of the game.
With the Cowboys nursing a one-run lead and a runner on third with two outs, Belza barely got his glove a ground ball while running hard to his left and made a throw on the run to retire Mitch Caster at first, holding the score at 4-3.
“That play that Belza made right there was really the defensive play of the game,” Anderson said. “We’ve come to expect him to make some of those plays.”
Anderson said the routine nature with which Belza seemed to make the play impressed him.
“He made it look pretty easy and he’s started to do that quite a bit,” Anderson said.
Senior right-hander Robbie Weinhardt picked up his second save of the season for the Cowboys without allowing a hit in his two innings of work.
He also struck out the side to end the game.
Mercer said the team expects good performances from Weinhardt, and needs his help during the rest of the season.
“He’s a big guy for us,” Mercer said. “He’s a big guy down the road and we need him the whole way.”
Anderson said the win over the Shockers was great, but said the team doesn’t have much time to enjoy it.
“When we start practice tomorrow, it needs to be over with,” Anderson said. “You’ve got less than 24 hours to enjoy it before you have to start preparing for conference play.”
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