Monday, May 29, 2023
TCU takes advantage of depleted OSU pitching, denies Cowboys a Big 12 title est guy who could get us two innings,” Holliday said. “When you take stock of your guys and you take stock of who has (how many) pitches, you have to assess how many pitches (have been thrown) over the time they’re here.” The Cowboys hadn’t surrendered Daniel Allen more than five runs in nine of their past Staff Reporter 10 contests but succumbed to TCU’s prolific offense in a 12-5 loss in the Big 12 title game. ARLINGTON, Texas -- When Abram threw 65 pitches in his Ben Abram took the mound in Sunday’s outing against Oklahoma on Friday. Big 12 Championship game, his head In spite of the minimal rest, his pitch coach didn’t expect him to exceed two count was the lowest among other arms innings. in the staff who had started during the OSU had already utilized nine week. So, Holliday opted to start him. arms through five games in four days Abram’s first inning of work feaat the Big 12 Tournament. OSU coach tured a 1-2-3 frame and two strikeouts Josh Holliday had to take that into to conclude it. account when navigating a gameplan Through the first three games of for one of the hottest teams in college the conference tournament, the Horned baseball in TCU, winners of 13 of its Frogs (37-22, 13-11 Big 12) outscored past 15 contests. their opponents 36-10. That offensive Holliday just wanted two quality explosion continued in the top of the innings, maybe even three if Abram second inning when they recorded four had it in him. consecutive one-out base hits, final“(Abram) was really the freshized by a three-run moonshot from left
Chase Davis Ben Abram threw 65 pitches just two days before the Big 12 title game on Sunday, but he had to start against TCU because “he was the freshest guy” available after five games in four days.
fielder Luke Boyers – his first at-bat of the tournament – for a four-run second inning. As planned, it was the final inning of Abram’s outing. “You just can’t let (TCU) have a huge inning like they did, or else
the game gets out of wack like it did,” Holliday said. “We tried to steal clean innings when we could and start some guys that needed some room to work and that didn’t work.” See Depleted on 3
Fab four
OSU clinches fourth-consecutive WCWS berth behind Maxwell’s commanding performance
Ashton Slaughter Assistant Sports Editor
Courtesy of OSU NASA selected a project from Oklahoma State University to receive a grant of $750,000.
NASA selects OSU project to receive $750,000 grant Jacob Sellers Staff Reporter NASA selected a project from Oklahoma State University to receive a grant of $750,000. The grant will go toward efforts in exploring a fully Vacuum Thermal Evaporation (VTE)-processed halide perovskite solar cell using only solid precursors for developing a simple solar panel manufacturing process suitable for space. Do Young Kim, assistant professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering, leads a research group that has explored the possibility of halide perovskite solar cells in the space power markets for their low cost, low weight, adaptability to flexible architecture and tolerance to high energy particle irradiation.
“The significant radiation tolerance of halide perovskites is attributed to the details of defect formation in the material,” Kim said. “This leads to interfacial or energy mismatches in the transport layers within the structure rather than mid-gap defect centers that arise in more traditional systems. Based on these perovskite solar cell research experiences for space application, we could prepare this new NASA project for perovskite solar cells for inspace assembly.” Halide perovskite solar cells have shown high efficiency of over 25%, comparable to the state-of-the-art silicon solar cells. Silicon and traditional III-V solar cells are less radiation tolerant to proton fluences, whereas halide perovskites appear to be the opposite. The absorber layer of these cells seems to be
relatively unaffected by proton irradiation at energies and fluences that are prohibitive for traditional space solar power systems. One of the main issues for halide perovskites is the vulnerability of perovskite solar cells to oxygen and moisture. However, that issue is irrelevant in space. “The environmental conditions limiting the implementation of perovskites terrestrially are less problematic in space,” Kim said. “This coupled with their lightweight, the potential for low specific power and packing volume and the potential for deployable implementation; along with the ease of processing, outstanding performance and remarkable radiation tolerance all suggest perovskite thin film solar cells are excellent candidates for space applications.” See NASA on 6
round. The WCWS berth comes on the heels of a horrendous stretch, where the Cowgirls lost 11 out of their last 13 games before regionals. Since, the Cowgirls are 5-0 and have outscored their opponents 37-3. Gajewski acknowledges the difference in his team’s play from two weeks ago to now is mind-boggling, but he never had a doubt. He knew what his team was capable of. “It feels crazy, but I didn’t have a doubt,” Gajewski said. “I’ve never had doubt. Even during that streak, I never had doubt.” As for Maxwell, she battled sickness all week. A sore throat was continuously bothering her leading up to Friday; she was even dry heaving multiple times throughout the game. So, what gave the All-American pitcher confidence that she’d have an elite performance to punch the Cowgirls’ ticket to OKC? A poor warm-up before the game. “I didn’t have a great warm-up, actually, and typically when you don’t have a great warm-up, it kind of works out in the game, and I think that’s kind of what happened,” Maxwell said.
Kelly Maxwell was well aware of her potential perfect game heading into the bottom of the seventh on Friday night; everyone was. After retiring the first 19 Oregon batters, Maxwell was two outs away from not only perfection but also the Stillwater Super Regional title and a fourth-consecutive Women’s College World Series appearance for OSU. “We got one out, and I leaned over to Vanessa (Vanessa Shippy-Fletcher, volunteer assistant coach), and I said, ‘I think John’s (John Bargfeldt, Cowgirl pitching coach) crapping his pants right now,’” OSU coach Kenny Gajewski said. Then, a double to left field crushed any hope of a Maxwell perfect game. But that didn’t matter; that was never the goal. It was all about going to Oklahoma City, which OSU did, beating Oregon 9-0 and sweeping the Super Regional See WCWS on 4
Jaiden Daughty Kelly Maxwell’s performance helped send the Cowgirls to their fourth consecutive Women’s College World Series.