Cowboy Baseball Faces Final Non-Conference Foe In Regular Season

About Oklahoma State

     • Riding a seven-game winning streak, OSU is 34-13 overall and atop the Big 12 standings with a 13-5 conference mark. Up next, the third-ranked Cowboys travel to Dallas Baptist for a midweek contest Tuesday night before returning to Big 12 play this weekend when they host Texas Tech at O’Brate Stadium.

     • The Cowboys are coming off a 36-19-1 season in 2021 in which they earned an eighth consecutive NCAA Regional berth. OSU finished fourth in the Big 12 Conference standings at 12-12.

     • OSU returns 13 letterwinners from a year ago, including four position starters and nine pitchers. Highlighting the list are Preseason All-Americans Justin Campbell, Victor Mederos and Nolan McLean, as well as Jake Thompson, a Preseason All-Big 12 pick along with Campbell and McLean.

     • The 2022 season is OSU’s 10th under head coach Josh Holliday, who is 354-190-2 at his alma mater.

About Dallas Baptist

     • Dallas Baptist is 30-13 on the season and brings a five-game winning streak into Tuesday’s game. The Patriots are hitting .283 while their pitching staff sports a 4.45 ERA.

     • Dan Heefner is in his 15th season as the Patriots’ head coach and owns a 556-288 career record.

Cowboys vs. Patriots

     OSU is 14-6 all time against DBU, including a 7-2 mark under Josh Holliday. The Cowboys won a 5-4 contest in the last meeting, which came on March 16 in Stillwater.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

     In this week’s national rankings, OSU checks in at No. 3 in the Baseball America, D1Baseball, Collegiate Baseball, USA Today coaches and NCBWA polls. The Cowboys are No. 4 in the Perfect Game rankings.

     OSU has been nationally ranked for 31 consecutive weeks dating back to the 2021 preseason polls; the Cowboys reached No. 2 twice this season, marking their highest-ever ranking under Josh Holliday.

     From March 4, 2013 to April 3, 2017, OSU was ranked in at least one national poll, a streak of 77 consecutive weeks. During that time, the Cowboys spent 18 weeks in the Top 10 and were ranked as high as No. 3 (by the NCBWA in 2014). They have finished in the top 10 in the final national polls twice under Josh Holliday — 10th in 2014 and fourth in 2016.

RPI

     OSU currently sits at No. 3 in the official NCAA RPI, while Dallas Baptist is No. 6.

We’re Going Streaking

     OSU’s 11-game winning streak in March was the third longest of the Josh Holliday head coaching era. The Pokes won 14 in a row in 2020-21 (last five games of COVID shortened ’20 season and first nine of ’21) and went on a 12-game win streak in 2014.

     The program record for longest winning streak is 30 games, set by the 1986 Cowboys.

Flashing The Leather

     OSU’s .982 fielding percentage ranks eighth in the NCAA; the Pokes have made 30 errors in 2022.

Jake Rakes

     With a team-leading .326 batting average and 45 RBIs, Jake Thompson has established himself as one of the Big 12’s top hitters.

     Thompson, who Josh Holliday calls one of the best two-strike hitters he’s ever coached, has reached base safely in 57 of OSU’s last 63 games, including a streak of 25 consecutive games during that stretch, and he leads the Cowboys with 16 multi-hit and 12 multi-RBI games.

     A sixth-year graduate student who has found a home at his fourth college stop, Thompson is OSU’s leading returning hitter after posting a .342 batting average last season, and he was the Big 12’s top hitter in conference-only games in 2021 with a .393 average.

‘K’onsistency

     Justin Campbell leads the Big 12 and ranks fifth nationally with 112 strikeouts. He has posted double digit strikeout totals five times and has struck out at least eight in 10 of his 12 starts. He racked up a career-high 14 punchouts in the series opener against TCU.

     In 2021, Campbell struck out 10 or more in five of his 13 starts and had six games of eight-plus Ks.

100 K

     Justin Campbell notched his 100th strikeout of the season against Texas, marking the 19th time in program history a Cowboy pitcher has recorded 100-plus Ks in a season.

     Campbell also became only the fourth Cowboy to reach the milestone twice, joining Tom Borland (1954-55), Jason Bell (1994-95) and Matt Smith (1999-00). Campbell had 102 strikeouts in 2021.

     Campbell’s 236 career strikeouts are seven shy of entering the top 10 on OSU’s all-time list.

Small Town, Big Time

     What is it about OSU relievers and small towns? We don’t know, but Trevor Martin is continuing a trend.

     Martin hails from Asher, Oklahoma, population 412, and the right-hander is 3-2 with nine saves in a team-high 25 appearances (22 in relief). One of 62 pitchers on the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Award Midseason Watch List, Martin is second in the Big 12 in saves and has 55 strikeouts in 35.2 innings of work. He’s tied for fifth on OSU’s single-season saves list and is one away from moving into a tie for second.

     In 2014, Brendan McCurry set OSU’s single-season saves record with 19 to earn first-team All-America honors. A native of Tupelo, Oklahoma, population 330, McCurry is also the Cowboys’ leader in career saves with 27. His brother, Randy, had 10 saves in 2009 and finished his career with a dozen.

     Another small-town Oklahoma kid, Jordy Mercer, from Taloga, Oklahoma, population 300, served as OSU’s closer from 2006-08 and ranks second on OSU’s all-time list with 17 saves.

What Can Brown Do For You

     Marcus Brown has been on a tear at the plate over the last month, raising his batting average from .256 prior to the start of conference play to .322, which ranks second on the Cowboys.

     Brown’s recent 13-game hitting streak is the longest by an OSU player this season, and he is the Cowboys’ leading hitter in Big 12 play with a .351 average, which also ranks 10th in the conference.

Two-Way Talent

     Nolan McLean’s powerful bat has been a fixture in the middle of the Cowboys’ order throughout the season, and he has also seen increased workload on the mound.

     The sophomore leads the Cowboys with 12 home runs and 13 doubles, and he has hit safely in 24 of OSU’s last 28 contests to raise his batting average to .286.

     McLean, a hard-throwing right-hander, has also made 16 relief appearances on the season and is 1-0 with four saves and a 3.79 ERA; he has racked up 31 strikeouts in 19.0 innings.

Roman’s Numerals

     Roman Phansalkar is having a career year as a key part of OSU’s bullpen.

     In his first two seasons at OSU spanning 2020 and 2021, the righty pitched in 15 games and had 21 walks and 17 strikeouts while allowing 26 runs (19 earned) in 19 1/3 innings.

     This season, Phansalkar is 5-2 with a 1.91 ERA in 21 relief appearances, and he’s struck out 35 while walking 15 in 42.1 innings of work.

     Phansalkar owns a 2.04 ERA in conference-only games, having allowed just four earned runs in 17.2 innings over a team-high 10 appearances.

Armed & Dangerous

     OSU leads the Big 12 with a 4.17 ERA, 523 strikeouts and a .231 opponent batting average, and the Pokes have allowed the second fewest walks in the conference with 172.

     Both Justin Campbell and Bryce Osmond are 4-0 in Big 12 play, and Osmond’s 3.00 ERA in conference-only games ranks as the fourth lowest in the league.

K Kounter

     OSU’s pitching staff ranks fifth nationally with 523 strikeouts, and the Cowboys are also fifth in the NCAA with an average of 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings.

     The Cowboys are currently on pace to surpass the program record for strikeouts in a season, which is held by the 1999 staff with 584.

Bombs Away

     Graduate transfer Griffin Doersching smacked 47 home runs in four seasons at Northern Kentucky, and that power surge has continued in Stillwater.

     The first baseman/DH has eight home runs in 98 at-bats in 25 games. He missed 22 games after breaking his foot on Feb. 27; he returned to the lineup on April 5 and has homered six times in OSU’s last 15 games. Many of his shots are of the tape measure variety, including a 500-foot shot against Wichita State.

Late-Inning Heroics

    The Cowboys have shown a flair for the dramatic to find success late in games and emerge victorious.

     • In the series finale and rubber game at Vanderbilt, the Cowboys scored two runs in the ninth inning to break a 5-5 tie and claim the win.

     • The Cowboys trailed Wright State 6-2 in the ninth inning of the second game of their Sunday doubleheader but scored four runs to send the game to extra innings before getting a walk-off win in the 10th.

     • OSU was down 4-1 after seven innings in its series opener at Arizona State but plated four runs in the eighth inning and two in the ninth to secure a 7-5 victory.

     • In game two of the BYU series, neither team had scored entering the eighth inning. The Pokes rallied for three runs with two outs and went on to a 3-0 win.

     • Trailing 4-3 in the seventh against DBU, OSU rallied for two runs in the inning en route to a 5-4 win.

     • Jake Thompson’s two-out, three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning in the series finale against Seton Hall snapped a 3-3 tie in a game OSU went on to win 6-4.

     • OSU trailed 3-1 with two outs in the eighth at Wichita State but rallied for three runs in the inning and won 5-3.

     • Down 7-4 after seven innings in game two of the Bedlam Series, OSU plated three runs in the eighth, tying the game on a two-run homer by Roc Riggio, and won the game on a walkoff wild pitch in the ninth.

     • With the series opener at Texas tied 6-6 with two outs in the ninth inning, Zach Ehrhard delivered a two-RBI double that provided the winning runs. In Sunday’s finale vs. the Longhorns, OSU trailed 7-0 entering the seventh but rallied for 10 runs in the inning, highlighted by a three RBI double from Roc Riggio and a grand slam from Griffin Doersching, en route to a 10-8 win and series sweep.