Box score (Game 1)

Box score (Game 2)

STILLWATER, OK—Oklahoma State, a program with one of the richest traditions in all of college baseball, swept a doubleheader from visiting NJIT Saturday, taking a pair from the Highlanders, 11-1 in seven innings and 6-3 in nine innings.
 
Oklahoma State, which began a 26-game home stand earlier this week, is now 6-1 in the young season. The Cowboys have qualified for the NCAA Tournament 35 times, including a 19-year uninterrupted stretch from 1981 to 1999. Not only that, they have gone deep into the tournament numerous times, reaching the College World Series 19 times, advancing to the championship game six times, including 1959, when they were National Champions.
 
Originally slated for single games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the series was reset due to the forecast of cold weather in Stillwater on Friday. Nonetheless, the first-pitch temperature on Saturday was 36 degrees and it was just 43 to open the second game.
 
NJIT (0-4) got good starting pitching in each contest. Sophomore RHP Bill VanMeerbeke pitched the first three innings of the opener, allowing five hits and three runs (two earned) before departing after being struck in the jaw by a batted ball on the last play of the third inning. He was the pitcher of record on the losing side in his first 2013 decision.
 
Coach Brian Guiliana reported Saturday evening that VanMeerbeke, who was observed and treated by doctors and dentists in Oklahoma, was back at the team hotel. The sophomore received stitches, but did not appear to sustain any fractures, according to the medical professionals who treated him. The team is optimistic that the injured pitcher will return with them to New Jersey Sunday evening.
 
NJIT's senior left-handed ace Tripp Davis (0-2) took the loss in the nightcap, but he likely deserved a better fate, working six innings and allowing just one earned run (three total) in six innings on seven hits and a walk. Davis struck out three.
 
Oklahoma State sophomore RHP Jason Hursh (1-0) started the opener and went the distance, yielding just four hits and the one run, while striking out five without a walk. The Cowboys used three pitchers to win the nightcap, beginning with junior RHP Vince Wheeland (1-0), who allowed five hits and two runs while fanning seven Highlanders in six innings.
 
VanMeerbeke was relieved by freshmen Ian Bentley and Eric Moul in the opener. Bentley was tagged with seven runs in 2.2 innings in his college debut, while Moul, also making his first college appearance, allowed one run in a third of an inning.
 
In the nightcap, junior RHP Joe Fasano came on for Davis and was charged with three runs on a hit and two walks in 0.2 innings. Senior RHP Kyle Burdi wrapped up with 1.1 innings of scoreless one-hit pitching.
 
Oklahoma State, which used its bullpen only in the second game, got a scoreless third of an inning from junior lefty Kyle Gehrs and junior right-hander Brendan McCurry pitched the last 2.2 innings, allowing a run on one hit and a walk.
 
NJIT's four hits in the opener, all singles, came from four different players—Ed Charlton, Mike Rampone, Scott Brosman, and Andrew Benjamin. Three of the hits came in the third inning when the Highlanders got their run. Brosman hit a one-out infield single and Benjamin followed with his hit, before Charlton made it three singles in a row with an RBI knock through the left side.
 
Oklahoma State pounded out 15 hits in the 7-inning opener, including three doubles and two home runs. 3B Robbie Rea (3-for-4) stroked two doubles and drove in three runs, while C Victor Romero had the other double in his own 3-for-4 game. He drove in a pair of runs. The homers came off the bats of SS Randy McCurry (2-for-3, 3 RBI) and RF Zach Fish (3-for-3, 3 runs, 2 RBI), respectively.
 
NJIT collected seven hits in the nightcap, paced by Charlton and freshman DH Nick Rabasco, each of whom went 2-for-4. Rampone (1-for-2) drove in two runs and freshman SS Nick Swim knocked in the other run.
 
Oklahoma State, with eight hits, saw Randy McCurry go 3-for-5 in the nightcap for a 5-for-8 day, and Romero, the senior catcher, was 2-for-4 and drove in two runs in Game Two. McCurry hit a pair of doubles, bringing his season total to five, while Romero also hit a double, giving him one two-bagger in each end of the doubleheader.
 
The Cowboys took a 1-0 lead in the opener when Fish led off the bottom of the second inning with a home run to left center field, the second homer of the year for the Oklahoma State sophomore. However, the Highlanders came back in the next half inning, knotting the score in the top of the third on the three straight singles by Brosman, Benjamin, and Charlton.
 
Oklahoma went ahead to stay with two runs in the bottom of the third inning with the second tally coming home on the play that injured VanMeerbeke. With a run already in on Randy McCurry's single and two out, Fish hit a smash that glanced off of VanMeerbeke and into right field, scoring McCurry and sending Tanner Krietenmeier on to third base. However, the inning ended on the same play when NJIT RF Jake Stern threw out Fish, who tried to stretch his single into a double.
 
There was a delay of more than 15 minutes to tend to the injured VanMeerbeke, who was on the ground, but was also moving throughout his ordeal. Play resumed and the teams played a scoreless fourth inning before OSU put up four-spots in both the fifth and sixth innings. Rea's two-run double keyed the fifth inning and Randy McCurry homered for two of his team's four sixth-inning runs.
 
With the second game scoreless through the top of the fourth inning, the Cowboys picked up three runs, two of which were unearned, in the bottom of the fourth. After a walk to CF Jarrett Higgins opening the frame, Randy McCurry doubled, sending Higgins on to third base.

NJIT's Davis then induced a pop up that, according to the Oklahoma State play-by-play announcer, would have invoked the infield fly rule if a force had been in order. However, there was no force possible on the play and the ball dropped for an error to load the bases, as the runners held. Krietenmeier then drove in the first run on a sacrifice fly, before Davis got Rea to pop up for the second out. Romero, batting when there should have been three out instead of two, then singled to drive home the first unearned run and Trey Whaley followed with another single for the second unearned run.
 
Down 3-0 through five innings, the Highlanders made things close with a four hits and two runs in a sixth inning that saw them also leave two runners on base against Wheeland, the Cowboy starter.
 
Rabasco singled leading off and Brosman followed him with a single. The pair moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Benjamin, before a strikeout for NJIT's second out of the inning. The Highlanders then picked up two runs on a two-out single to right field by Rampone. Matt Weckerle followed with another single, but he and Rampone were stranded.
 
Oklahoma State stretched its lead to 6-2 with three seventh-inning runs, keyed by Romero's two-out double.
 
The Highlanders got an unearned run back in the eighth, as Charlton led off with a single, Rampone walked, and Weckerle reached on an error to load the bases ahead of an RBI ground out for Swim. The top of the eighth inning, too, ended with two Highlanders left on base.
 
 “We had seven freshmen or sophomores in our starting batting order for each game,” said Guiliana afterwards. “This is a great opportunity for them to grow by playing against a team like Oklahoma State, especially when they hold their own, like in the second game. The guys gave a great effort in each game and if we play the way we did in the second game, we'll beat a lot of teams on our schedule.”
 
The series will conclude with a single game Sunday, slated for first pitch at noon (CST).