Junior shortstop Jordy Mercer came into Regionals with 10 home runs and hit four in one day Sunday, but OSU’s season ended in a loss.
The Cowboys came into the Stillwater Regional with one of the best baseball teams in the nation and the confidence to advance to the next round of postseason play.
When the weekend was over, Oklahoma State had seen its stars put up huge performances and its role players push themselves past their limits, yet ultimately, it wasn’t enough.
OSU was eliminated Sunday night after an 11-7 loss to Wichita State in extra innings. WSU handed the Cowboys both of their losses in the double-elimination tournament, beating OSU 5-3 on Saturday.
It was a weekend of gutsy performances for the Cowboys, coach Frank Anderson said, and none more so than that of shortstop Jordy Mercer, who took his offensive performance to a new level.
In Sunday’s game against TCU, he hit two home runs to help OSU build an 8-2 lead. When Mercer, the Cowboys’ closer, came on to pitch, things weren’t so smooth. Mercer was part of a bullpen collapse that surrendered five runs in the eighth and the tying run in the ninth.
Mercer moved back to shortstop after Anderson pulled him in the ninth, and he soon showed that he wasn’t done. Mercer led off the bottom of the ninth, an on the first pitch, he hit his third home run of the game.
Anderson said Mercer’s ability to stay locked in at the plate after his rough pitching outing showed his character.
“Our game is a game of negatives, and you play this long enough, and you’re going to have some things that don’t go very well for you,” Anderson said. “You’ve got to be mentally strong enough to handle them.
“To separate what happened to him on the mound and come back and hit a home run to win the game, it’s a huge mental change to go from the lowest low to come back and turn that thing around.”
In the second game against Wichita State, Mercer hit yet another home run, a blast to left in the seventh inning that gave the Cowboys a 6-5 lead.
Mercer finished the day a combined 5-for-10 with four home runs and eight RBIs.
Tyler Lyons got the Cowboy pitchers off to a good start, picking up a win against Western Kentucky on Friday, but the next day, the team was dealt a major blow.
On Saturday, Oklahoma State announced that pitcher Andrew Oliver was suspended indefinitely. OSU declined to comment further, but published reports have speculated that Oliver had illegal contact with an agent in preparation for the upcoming MLB draft.
“It’s an eligibility issue, and we’re dealing with it, trying to get an appeal process going,” Anderson said. “That’s about it.”
The Cowboys tried to survive without their ace starter, but by Sunday’s game against WSU, Anderson was out of options and started Flores, who only pitched three innings all year. Flores gave up five runs in five innings.
“It comes a deal where you go out by out, inning by inning and try to burn some innings,” Anderson said. “To win in these situations, when you get deep, you’re going to have to have somebody jump up and do some things.”
OSU couldn’t find enough people to jump up and get outs late though. The Cowboys gave up six runs in the final two innings of each Sunday game. Against TCU, Mercer was able to save the team, but against Wichita State, the Cowboys saw their season end in defeat.
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