Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Back In Action At Home This Weekend
March 12, 2015 | Cowboy Baseball
Sat., March 14 • 3 p.m.
Sun., March 15 • 1 p.m.
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State continues its nine-game homestand this weekend when the 23rd-ranked Cowboys host a three-game series against Grand Canyon at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium. Coming off a two-game midweek series sweep of Alcorn State, OSU is 10-6 on the season, which includes a 4-2 mark on their home field.
Led by Gage Green, OSU owns a .281 team batting average, while the pitching staff sports a 2.77 ERA and has eight hurlers sporting an ERA of 3.00 or less. The Cowboys are in their third season under head coach Josh Holliday, and the defending Big 12 Conference champions are coming off a year in which they went 48-18, advanced to an NCAA Super Regional and finished 10th in the national rankings. Five position players who made at least 29 starts last season return in 2015, as do 12 members of the pitching staff. Among that group are All-Big 12 performers Gage Green, Donnie Walton, Jon Perrin and Tim Arakawa.
About Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon brings an 11-6 record into this weekend's series, including a 4-3 mark on the road. Chad De La Guerra (.353, 4 HR, 19 RBI) leads an Antelopes' offense that is hitting .286, while the pitching staff sports a collective 3.34 ERA.
Expected to start on the mound for Grand Canyon are:
Friday - LHP Andrew Naderer (3-1, 2.49) Saturday - RHP Coley Bruns (2-0, 3.05)
Sunday - RHP Cameron Brendel (2-2, 3.57)
OSU is 8-0 all time against Grand Canyon. The two teams haven't met on the diamond since Feb. 16, 1997, at the Grand Canyon Tourney in Phoenix, with the Cowboys winning that game by an 18-3 count.
Watch, Listen, Follow
All OSU baseball games are carried live by Stillwater Radio and air on KSPI 93.7 FM or 780 AM. Rex Holt, who is in his 33rd season on the air with Cowboy baseball, will call the action, while Matt "Chief" Davis will provide color for most home games. Radio broadcasts are also available to online for a fee at www.okstate.com, with links available under the Schedule tab on the baseball home page.
Live stats for all games can be found at www.okstate.com, with links available under the Schedule tab on the baseball home page. Additionally, fans can follow the official OSU Baseball twitter page, @OSUBaseball, for in-game updates.
All OSU home games not being televised will stream live online at www.okstate.tv (there is a subscription fee required to watch).
In The Polls
OSU is nationally ranked in a pair of polls this week, earning a No. 23 ranking from Collegiate Baseball and coming in at No. 24 by the NCBWA.
OSU has been ranked in at least one national poll for 37 consecutive weeks dating back to 2013, when the Cowboys were in the polls for the final 14 weeks of the season, and this week snaps an 11-week streak of being in the top 10. They were ranked as high as No. 3 (NCBWA) in 2014 and finished the season ranked 10th in each of the final polls, marking the 19th time in program history OSU ended the season in the top 10 in the national polls.
Countdown to 2,500
Oklahoma State is just 15 wins shy of becoming only the 15th program in Division I history to reach 2,500 victories. Of the 14 who have achieved that feat, only one has played fewer season's than OSU's 104 (Florida State with 68).
OSU entered the 2015 season ranked sixth all time in NCAA history with a .665 winning percentage.
Closing In On The Century Mark
In his third season as head coach at his alma mater, Josh Holliday is just one victory shy of becoming the sixth coach in Oklahoma State history to reach 100 career wins. Holliday has 99 wins in 142 games and could become the second-fastest OSU boss to reach 100 victories.
Home Sweet Home
Allie P. Reynolds Stadium has been home to Oklahoma State baseball since April 4, 1981, and in those 34 seasons, the Cowboys have been nearly unbeatable on their home field.
OSU is 865-202 (.811) 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 4-2 on their home field in 2015.
Coming Up Clutch
OSU is hitting .325 (66-for-203) with runners in scoring position this season, and of the Cowboys' 102 RBIs, 39 of those have come with two outs.
Small Ball
OSU has smashed program records for sacrifice bunts each of the last two years. A year ago, the Cowboys were third nationally with 88 sacrifice bunts, which trumped the 2013 team's 74 sac bunts to set a program record. Donnie Walton ranked fourth in the NCAA in 2014 with 22 sac bunts, while Gage Green tallied 11.
The Cowboys have 12 sac bunts this season, with Jacob Chappell's four leading the way.
Ball Four, Take Your Base
OSU ranked seventh out of nine Big 12 teams in batting average (.275) last season, but the Cowboys led the league with a .385 on-base percentage. The reason? OSU topped the conference and ranked second nationally with 324 walks, 36 more than the next-highest Big 12 team.
The Cowboys sport a .391 on-base percentage this season and are averaging nearly six walks per game.
The Pen Is Mighty
OSU's bullpen was the strength of its pitching staff in 2014 as Cowboy relievers combined to go 31-2 with 21 saves in 187 relief appearances. The bullpen racked up 286 strikeouts in 322.0 innings of relief and allowed only 87 earned runs (for a 2.43 ERA).
That trend has continued in 2015 as 12 relievers have combined for 48 appearances, and the OSU bullpen is 4-2 with three saves, a 2.58 ERA and 71 strikeouts in 66.1 innings.
Strong-Armed
In two seasons under the direction of coach Rob Walton, OSU's pitching staff has turned in some impressive numbers.
In 2013, the Cowboys' 3.04 team ERA was the lowest by an OSU pitching staff since 1973. They followed that last season by ranking second in the Big 12 in strikeouts (479) and saves (21), and in the Cowboys' 24 conference games, the staff recorded a league-best 2.43 ERA with Big 12 opponents only hitting .232 against them.
OSU recorded seven shutouts in both 2013 and 2014, marking just the fourth and fifth times in program history the Cowboys had reached that mark. In the 26 seasons prior to 2013, the program had reached seven shutouts only once.
Over the last two seasons, OSU has also had a pitcher drafted in the first round of the Major League Baseball Draft (Jason Hursh in 2013) and a hurler earn consensus All-America honors (Brendan McCurry).
The Cowboys return eight pitchers in 2015 who combined for 30 of OSU's 48 wins a year ago. Of those eight, four of them turned in an ERA of 3.00 or less.
Through 16 games in 2015, OSU owns a 2.77 team ERA, has recorded three shutouts and ranks second in the Big 12 with an average of 8.87 strikeouts per nine innings.
Versatile, Dependable, Productive
All those adjectives can be used to describe Cowboy senior Gage Green. A year ago, the Texan led OSU with a .310 batting average and 20 stolen bases while turning in a .392 on-base percentage and recording 24 multi-hit games. He also ranked in the top 10 in the Big 12 with 74 hits.
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 62 starts during his junior season, 25 were behind the plate, 23 were in center field and 14 came in left field. He was named to the All-Big 12 First Team as a catcher.
Green has continued his musical chairs of positions in 2015, starting eight games at catcher, four in left field, three in center and one in right field, and he is hitting a team-high .373 with two homers and nine stolen bases.
Friday Night Lights
Jon Perrin returns to the Cowboy pitching rotation for his senior season despite being a 33rd-round pick of the Detroit Tigers last June, and his return helps bolster the OSU staff.
Perrin started his junior season in the Cowboy bullpen, but in mid-March 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 turned in career performances against both Big 12 teams from his home state, recording his first-career shutout in a nine-strikeout performance vs. Kansas and topping that by striking out 10 and blanking Kansas State.
On the season, Perrin, who was named to the All-Big 12 First Team, was 8-5 with a 2.38 ERA, which ranked as the fourth lowest in the Big 12. He also ranked in the top 10 in the conference in six other categories: wins, shutouts (2), complete games (2), innings pitched (102.0), strikeouts (81) and opponent batting average (.249).
In four starts this season, Perrin is 2-2 with a 3.66 ERA, and opponents are hitting just .200 against him.
Hawaiian Punch
Tim Arakawa proved to be quite a clutch hitter in his first season in a Cowboy uniform in 2014, and that ability resulted in 13 multi-RBI games and 44 RBIs overall for the Honolulu native, helping him earn All-Big 12 Second Team honors.
Arakawa put the Cowboys ahead on the scoreboard with RBIs 16 times last year, and on eight of those occasions, he either drove 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 finished the season ranked second in the Big 12 and 11th nationally in walks (47), and his 15 stolen bases tied for eight most in the Big 12.
In 2015, Arakawa has continued his production at the plate. Batting anywhere from 2nd-5th in the Cowboys' batting order, he hit safely in OSU's first 13 games and is hitting .350 and leads the team in RBIs (17), runs (18) and doubles (5).
Big Mike
Mike Freeman had a career day in a win over Western Illinois last week, racking up career highs with 10 strikeouts and eight innings of work. The 6-foot-8 Freeman was dominant throughout and nearly unhittable as he retired 23-straight hitters after WIU reached on an error to lead off the game and did not give up a hit through 7 2/3 innings.
Named the Big 12 Pitcher of the Week for his performance, Freeman did not issue a walk, faced just two hitters over the minimum and recorded 78 strikes on 113 pitches.
In four starts this season, Freeman is 2-0 with a 2.38 ERA and ranks in the top 10 in the Big 12 in strikeouts (24), opponent batting average (.205) and innings pitched (22.2).
