Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Set For First Home Regional Since 2008
May 28, 2014 | Cowboy Baseball
May 28, 2014
OSU Game Notes - NCAA Stillwater Regional
#1-seed Oklahoma State (45-16)
at the
NCAA Stillwater Regional
Fri., May 30 - Mon., June 2 • Stillwater, Okla.
Allie P. Reynolds Stadium (4,000)
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State returns to the NCAA Baseball Championship for the second consecutive year and will be the top seed and host of the NCAA Stillwater Regional at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium. OSU brings a 45-16 record into the tourney -- the program's most wins in 15 years -- and is ranked as high as No. 7 nationally.
The Cowboys finished atop the Big 12 standings with an 18-6 mark to claim the 31st conference championship in program history. After dropping its league opening series at Baylor, OSU won seven-straight Big 12 series for the first-time ever in a season to claim the crown.
OSU is coming off a 41-19 season in which the Pokes finished second in the Big 12 Conference standings and advanced to the finals of the NCAA Louisville Regional. Six position starters and seven pitchers returned from that ball club, including eight players who earned all-conference recognition.
OSU is hitting .274 on the season, while its pitching staff sports a 3.27 ERA.
Cowboys At The NCAA Baseball Championship
Oklahoma State is making its 40th appearance in the NCAA Baseball Championship, which ranks fourth all time, and owns a 136-85 (.615) record in the tourney. The 136 wins is seventh all time. The Cowboys have also made 19 College World Series appearances, which is tied for sixth all time.
The Stillwater Regional Field
Nebraska is the No. 2-seed at the Stillwater Regional and is 40-19 on the season. The Cornhuskers are hitting .293 with a 3.55 team ERA. OSU is 119-76 all time against the Huskers; the two teams last met at the 2013 TD Ameritrade Classic in Omaha, Neb., with the Cowboys winning both games of a doubleheader.
Third-seeded Cal State Fullerton is 32-22 on the year. The Titans own a .260 team batting average, while their pitching staff has a 2.03 ERA. OSU is 4-3 all time against Cal State Fullerton; the two teams split a pair of games in Stillwater in their last meeting in 2009.
Binghamton is 25-25 and making its second-straight NCAA tourney appearance after winning the America East Conference title. The Bearcats are hitting .277 with a 4.00 team ERA. OSU is 3-0 all time against BU, sweeping a three-game series in Stillwater in 2005.
Watch, Listen, Follow
All OSU baseball games are carried live by Stillwater Radio and air on KSPI 93.7 FM. Rex Holt, in his 32nd season on the air with Cowboy baseball, calls the action, with Matt "Chief" Davis providing color commentary.
Every game of the NCAA Stillwater Regional will be also will also be available on the ESPN family of networks on either ESPN2, ESPNU or ESPN3 (online). Mark Neely and Randy Flores will call the action.
Live stats for all games can be found at www.ncaa.com.
In The Polls
OSU is nationally ranked in five polls this week, coming in at No. 7 in the NCBWA and USA Today coaches polls, No. 8 in the Perfect Game poll and 10th in the Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball polls. On May 12, OSU was ranked No. 6 by USA Today, which marked its highest national ranking since the Cowboys occupied the No. 5 spot in the NCBWA poll on May 26, 2008.
This week marks the Cowboys' sixth-straight appearance in the top 10, and they have now been ranked in at least one national poll for 30 consecutive weeks dating back to 2013, when OSU was in the polls for the final 14 weeks of the season. In 2013, the Cowboys peaked at No. 12 in the NCBWA poll on May 20.
It's Not Where You Start...
After winning its final seven conference series to finish 18-6, Oklahoma State was crowned the Big 12 regular season champion for the first time in program history. The Cowboys' 18 Big 12 wins were their most since they had 18 in 2008 with a 27-game league schedule. The conference title marks the 31st in program history.
OSU was picked to finish second in the conference standings in a preseason vote of the league's head coaches. Defending champion Kansas State was picked to retain its crown, while OSU and TCU tied for the second spot in the poll.
Winning
The goal of college baseball coaches and players is to make it to the College World Series in Omaha, and the OSU coaching staff has plenty of experience in that regard.
The Cowboys' staff of Josh Holliday, Rob Walton and Marty Lees has combined to make 12 CWS appearances as either a player or coach.
Holliday played on a pair of CWS teams at OSU (1996 & 1999) and has coached in the CWS as an assistant at Georgia Tech (2006), Arizona State (2009) and Vanderbilt (2011).
Walton spent four seasons as a pitcher at OSU from 1983-86, and each of those teams appeared in the CWS.
As an assistant coach at Oregon State, Lees helped lead the Beavers to Omaha three-straight years from 2005-07, with two of those trips resulting in national championships (2006 & 2007).
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
In January 2013, despite his having not yet coached a game, Baseball America named OSU's Josh Holliday the nation's top college head coach under the age of 40. The top 10 list was compiled based on the voting of coaches and scouts.
In addition, Marty Lees came in at No. 6 on Baseball America's list of the nation's top 10 college assistant coaches. That list was compiled from the votes of 70 Division I head coaches across the country, as well as the input of more than a dozen scouts. Coaches with prior D-I head coaching experience, such as OSU pitching coach Rob Walton, were excluded from the list.
Baseball In Their Blood
Baseball -- and Oklahoma State -- is definitely a family affair for Josh Holliday.
Josh's father, Tom, served as an OSU assistant coach for 19 years then took over as the Cowboys' head coach from 1997-2003, leading the program to its last College World Series appearance in 1999. Tom is currently in his eighth season as the associate head coach at North Carolina State.
Josh's younger brother, Matt, is an outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals. In 10 major league seasons, Matt has been named to six All-Star teams.
Josh's uncle, Dave Holliday, was an OSU assistant coach from 1981-88 and has since held a variety of roles in Major League Baseball, including his current spot as a professional scout for the Atlanta Braves. Dave's son, Heath, is a senior catcher for the Cowboys this season.
Home Sweet Home
Allie P. Reynolds Stadium has been home to Oklahoma State baseball since April 4, 1981, and in those 33-plus seasons, the Cowboys have been nearly unbeatable on their home field.
OSU is 858-198 (.813) all time at Reynolds Stadium and has lost more than two consecutive games on their home turf only five times (six in a row in 2007; three straight in 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014).
The Cowboys are 22-8 at home in 2014.
The 2014 Stillwater Regional will mark the first time the Cowboys have been a Regional host since 2008 and the 11th time overall at Reynolds Stadium. The Pokes are are 33-11 all time in Regional play on their current home field and have won six Regional titles, the last coming in 1993.
Comeback Cowboys
Come-from-behind victories have become a trend for the Cowboys under Josh Holliday. OSU has overcome deficits in 27 of its 45 wins this season. In 2013, that comeback trait was prevalent as well, with 18 of OSU's wins coming in games in which they trailed.
Piling Up
Oklahoma State's 45 wins in 2014 marks its highest total since the 1999 Cowboys, OSU's last College World Series team, won 46.
The Cowboys' 45 wins are tied with Cal Poly and Louisville for the second most in the NCAA this season (Louisiana-Lafayette leads with 53), and at 45-16, their .738 winning percentage ranks 11th nationally.
Streakers
OSU opened the season 7-0, marking the best start to a season since the 1995 Cowboys won 11 in a row to open the year. After 11 games, the Pokes were 10-1, and you would also have to go back to 1995 to find the last time OSU had a better record in its first 11 games.
The Cowboys' recent 12-game winning streak, which ran from April 26-May 16, tied for their longest as members of the Big 12. OSU also won 12 in a row in 2008 and 1998, with their longest streak prior to that coming as members of the Big Eight when they won 15 straight in 1996.
I Feel A Draft
OSU has eight players on its 2014 roster who have been Major League Baseball Draft picks: Conor Costello (2011, Cincinnati, 16th round), Zach Fish (2011, Texas, 24th), Thomas Hatch (2013, Colorado, 32nd), Heath Holliday (2009, Colorado, 45th), Tyler Nurdin (2011, Cleveland, 28th), Andrew Rosa (2013, Boston, 30th), Donnie Walton (2012, NY Mets, 36th) and Garrett Williams (2013, San Diego, 33rd).
Big 12 Elite
The Big 12 Conference champions cleaned up when the league announced its postseason awards. Junior Zach Fish was named the 2014 Big 12 Player of the Year, Josh Holliday was the Big 12 Coach of the Year and 11 Cowboys earned All-Big 12 accolades.The Big 12 honors are voted on by the league's head coaches.
Fish became OSU's second Big 12 Player of the Year, joining Tyler Mach, who was the league's co-player of the year in 2006. Holliday is the first-ever Cowboy boss to earn Big 12 Coach of the Year honors.
Joining Fish on the All-Big 12 First Team were catcher Gage Green, infielder Donnie Walton and pitchers Jon Perrin, Brendan McCurry and Vince Wheeland. The six All-Big 12 first teamers are the most in program history, surpassing the four of the 1999 and 2003 Cowboys.
Named honorable mention All-Big 12 as infielders were Tanner Krietemeier and Craig McConaughy, while pitchers Blake Battenfield and Tyler Buffett were named to the All-Freshman Team.
Twice Is Nice
Vince Wheeland and Zach Fish are the sixth and seventh players in OSU history to earn All-Big 12 First Team accolades twice in a career, joining Josh Holliday (1998-99), Jason Jaramillo (2003-04), Corey Brown (2005, 2007), Mach (2006-07) and Jordy Mercer (2006, 2008).
Close... And The Cigar
OSU is 11-0 in one-run ball games this season and 10-3 in contests decided by two runs.
Thievery
Led by Gage Green and Tim Arakawa, OSU has racked up 71 stolen bases this season. The Cowboys have been successful on 71 of their 92 attempts to steal, while their opponents are just 46-of-72. Green leads the Pokes with 18 steals, while Arakawa has 15.
The Cowboys swiped nearly twice as many bases as their opponents in 2013 as they racked up 80 stolen bases and allowed just 42. The 80 steals was the second-highest total in the program in the last decade. Gage Green led the Pokes with 13 stolen bases, while Aaron Cornell swiped 12.
Making A Sacrifice
Donnie Walton has rewritten the OSU record books when it comes to sacrifice bunting. As a freshman in 2013, he set OSU's single-season record with 18 sac bunts, and he's already broken that this season with 19. Walton's 37 career sacrifice bunts are also a program record, breaking the previous mark of Fred Ocasio, who finished his career with 36.
As a team, the Cowboys rank fifth nationally this season with 80 sacrifice bunts, which also broke last season's school record of 74. Walton's 19 leads the Big 12 and ranks fifth nationally.
It's A Walk Off
OSU has recorded five walk-off wins this season. Tim Arakawa has twice been the hero with a two-out, walk-off single. The first of those was a two-RBI hit on March 15 that gave the Cowboys a 7-6 win over Texas-Pan American. The junior's second walk-off single came vs. TCU on March 29 in a 2-1 OSU win.
On March 25, Gage Green delivered a walk-off double in the 11th inning to lift OSU to a 3-2 win over Missouri State, and on May 3, it was Donnie Walton with a walk-off single in the 11th to beat Arizona State.
The Cowboys clinched the Big 12 title outright in walk-off fashion when Craig McConaughy scored on an error in the bottom of the ninth inning following a Saulyer Saxon infield single to give OSU a 2-1 win over Oklahoma.
Power Surge
OSU leads the Big 12 and is 10th nationally in home runs with 49, and 13 different Cowboys have homered this season. Zach Fish's 11 homers rank second in the Big 12, while Tanner Krietemeier is tied for third with nine.
The Pen Is Mighty
OSU's bullpen has been the strength of its pitching staff this season. The Cowboys' relievers have combined to go 29-2 with 20 saves in 172 relief appearances. The bullpen has racked up 265 strikeouts in 301.0 innings of relief and allowed only 83 earned runs (for a 2.48 ERA), and opponents are hitting just .217 against them.
Ball Four, Take Your Base
OSU ranks seventh out of nine Big 12 teams in batting average (.274), but the Cowboys lead the league with a .386 on-base percentage. The reason? OSU leads the conference and ranks third nationally with 305 walks, 54 more than the next-highest Big 12 team.
Wheeland And Dealin'
For the second time in as many years, Cowboy senior Vince Wheeland was named to the College Baseball Hall of Fame's Pitcher of the Year Award Watch List and was an All-Big 12 First Team performer.
In 28 outings this season, Wheeland is 9-0 and ranks second in the Big 12 in ERA (1.49) and third in opponent batting average (.208). His nine wins are tied for the most in the league, while his 28 appearances are fifth.
A right-hander, Wheeland made 30 appearances last season, the second most in a single season in program history, and was 8-2 with two saves and a 1.97 ERA. In 73.0 innings of work, the All-Big 12 First Team selection recorded 64 strikeouts, and he ranked fifth in the league in opponent batting average at .219.
Wheeland's 82 career appearances are third on OSU's all-time list.
Slamming The Door
OSU senior Brendan McCurry is one of 50 relievers on the 2014 NCBWA Stopper of the Year Mid-Season Watch List and also one of 18 remaining on the College Baseball Hall of Fame's Pitcher of the Year Award Watch List, and he's showing why he should be at or near the top of the final lists.
In 32 appearances this season, McCurry is 5-0 with a 0.42 ERA and ranks fourth in the NCAA with 18 saves. He has allowed just two runs in 43.0 innings and has given up only 27 hits while recording 47 strikeouts.
Posting big numbers has led to McCurry moving to the top of the OSU saves record books. Last month, the right-hander surpassed Jordy Mercer as the Cowboys' career saves leader. Mercer recorded 17 saves from 2006-08, while McCurry's career total now stands at 26.
Additionally, McCurry's 18 saves this season are an OSU single-season record, besting the 10 of his older brother, Randy (2009), as well as Marques Davis (1997) and Dennis Livingston (1982).
McCurry was named All-Big 12 Conference Honorable Mention as a utility player a year ago after going 6-3 with eight saves and a 2.72 ERA. His 29 appearances and eight saves tied for fifth on OSU's single-season chart.
Big 12, Big Arms
OSU owns a 3.27 team ERA for the season, but in the Cowboys' 24 conference games, the staff ERA was even better, coming in at a league-best 2.43. And Big 12 opponents are hitting only .232 against the Cowboys.
Battenfield Blanks Opposition
Blake Battenfield had quite an impressive start to his OSU career. The freshman right-hander did not allow a run in his first 24 innings as a collegiate pitcher. The streak finally ended in Battenfield's 13th relief appearance when he surrendered a run against Texas Tech.
Battenfield is 3-0 with a 1.76 ERA in 24 appearances and has 35 strikeouts in 51.0 innings.
Strong-Armed
Under the direction of coach Rob Walton, the OSU pitching staff was impressive on the mound in 2013. The Cowboys finished with 41 wins, and seven pitchers who combined for 30 of those wins returned this season.
Among the accomplishments of the 2013 staff were:
• OSU finished the season with a 3.04 team ERA, the lowest by a Cowboy pitching staff since 1973.
• Eight Cowboy hurlers with at least 14 appearances had an ERA of 3.58 or lower.
• The Cowboys recorded seven shutouts, a total the program had reached just once in the previous 26 years and only four times in program history.
• OSU ranked seventh in the NCAA in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.02) and 11th in WHIP (2.47).
Two-Year Tear For Dynamic Duo
The Cowboys ranked either first or second in the Big 12 in six offensive categories in 2013 and a big reason for that was the two-headed monster in the middle of the lineup in the form of All-Big 12 performers Tanner Krietemeier and Zach Fish, a duo that returned in 2014.
• Krietemeier's .314 batting average led OSU, and the first baseman ranked among the top 10 in the Big 12 in hits (72), walks (33) and RBIs (45).
• Fish ranked in the top 10 in the Big 12 in home runs (7), doubles (17), RBIs (41) and total bases (103).
• Krietemeier had 20 multi-hit games to lead the Cowboys, while Fish's 19 ranked third.
• Krietemeier hit .368 (32-for-87) with runners in scoring position, while Fish finished at .338 (27-for-80).
• Fish led the Cowboys with a .451 slugging percentage and 11 multi-RBI games.
Both sluggers have been productive again this season. Fish is hitting .320 with 11 homers, 14 doubles, 44 RBIs and a .534 slugging percentage, and he leads the Cowboys with 23 multi-hit games. Krietmeier has nine home runs and a team-high 12 multi-RBI games and and has also racked up 43 RBIs.
Fish Stick
Looking at the Big 12's offensive statistics, Zach Fish's name is prominent among the conference leaders in numerous categories. The league's player of the year ranks in the top 10 in the league in six statistical categories -- hits (9th with 70), RBIs (T-5th with 44), home runs (2nd with 11), doubles (T-8th with 14), total bases (3rd with 117) and slugging percentage (3rd at .534).
Versatile, Dependable, Productive
All those adjectives can be used to describe Cowboy junior Gage Green. The Texan leads OSU with a .321 batting average and 23 multi-hit games and is third with a .409 on-base percentage. He is tied for fourth in the Big 12 with 18 stolen bases, which is a career high, and ranks eighth in doubles (14) and on-base percentage.
And it's a safe bet that Green is one of a very few collegiate players -- and likely the only one -- splitting time between catcher and the outfield. Of his 57 starts this season, 22 have been in center field, 25 behind the plate and 10 in left field. He was named to the All-Big 12 First Team as a catcher.
Green is also flexible when it comes to filling out the lineup -- he has hit in the leadoff spot in the batting order 14 times, while the rest of his time has been divided between the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh spots.
Hit Man
Tanner Krietemeier went on quite an offensive tear in OSU's final two games at West Virginia. On Saturday, the senior flied out in his first at bat, then reeled off five-straight singles to finish the game 5-for-6. The five hits was a career high for Krietemeier, and he became the first Cowboy since 2012 to reach that mark.
After walking in his first at bat in Sunday's finale, Krietemeier reeled off three more singles. The streak of eight consecutive hits tied him with Jimmy Barragan (1986) for the third-longest streak in OSU history, two shy of Roberto Lopez' school-record string of 10-straight hits in 1994.
Krietemeier had another torrid weekend in a three-game sweep of Arizona State, hitting .750 (9-for-12) with five extra-base hits (two homers, three doubles), six RBIs and 18 total bases for a 1.500 slugging percentage.
Following OSU's game on April 11 at West Virginia, Krietemeier was hitting just .208, but his hot-hitting over the last month-plus has raised his batting average 62 points to .270.
Friday Night Lights
Junior Jon Perrin started the season in the OSU bullpen, but on March 14 he made his first start against UTPA. The right-hander started every Friday the rest of the way, and the move to the weekend paid big dividends.
After a no-decision against UTPA, Perrin took losses against Baylor and TCU despite solid outings. However, in his next three starts, he went 3-0 and allowed just one run in 21.1 innings.
A native of Olathe, Kan., Perrin has turned in career performances against both Big 12 teams from his home state. On April 18, he recorded his first-career shutout in a 7-0 win over Kansas, racking up nine strikeouts while issuing just one walk and allowing only six hits, all singles. At K-State, he notched another shutout, this one an 8-0 victory, and set a career high with 10 strikeouts. He gave up just four hits, all singles, and no runners advanced past second base. The performance earned him Big 12 Pitcher of the Week honors on May 12.
On the season, Perrin, who was named to the All-Big 12 First Team, is 7-4 with a 1.78 ERA, which ranks as the fourth lowest in the Big 12. He also ranks in the top 10 in the conference in wins, shutouts and complete games, as well as innings pitched (4th at 91.0), strikeouts (4th with 76) and opponent batting average (10th at .238).
Hawaiian Punch
Tim Arakawa has proven to be quite a clutch hitter for the Cowboys, and that ability has resulted in a team-high 12 multi-RBI games and 41 RBIs overall for the Honolulu native, helping him earn All-Big 12 Second Team honors.
Fifteen times this season Arakawa has put the Cowboys ahead on the scoreboard with RBIs, and on seven of those occasions, he has either driven in what proved to be the winning runs or were walk-off runs. On three other occasions, he collected game-tying RBIs in contests that OSU went on to win.
Arakawa also ranks second in the Big 12 in walks (43) and seventh in stolen bases (15).
2-for-1 Bedlam
OSU played the longest game in program history on April 15 against rival Oklahoma, dropping a 12-9 contest that lasted 18 innings and spanned five hours, 52 minutes (started at 6:36 p.m., ended at 12:28 a.m.).
A total of 42 players saw action in the game, with OSU using 25. Along with the 21 runs, the teams combined for 33 hits -- five of them home runs -- and 35 runners left on base. Sixteen pitchers were used, nine of those by the Cowboys, and 630 pitches thrown.
The Cowboys totaled a school-record 70 at bats, while Tanner Krietemeier's nine at bats also set a record.
