Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Back In Action Tuesday Against Wichita State
March 23, 2015 | Cowboy Baseball
OSU Game Notes - Wichita State 
Oklahoma State
Winners of eight of its last nine games, which includes a series win at top-ranked TCU last weekend, Oklahoma State returns home for a 6 p.m. contest Tuesday against Wichita State at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium. The 12th-ranked Cowboys are 16-7 on the season, which includes an 8-2 mark on their home field.
Led by Gage Green, OSU owns a Big 12-best .284 team batting average, while the pitching staff ranks second in the conference with a 2.60 ERA and has eight hurlers sporting a sub-3.00 ERA.
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 Wichita State
Wichita State is 11-12 and brings a five-game winning streak into Tuesday night's game. The Shockers are hitting .274 on the year, while the pitching staff owns a 4.11 ERA.
Expected to start on the mound for WSU is right-hander Tyler Jones, who is 1-1 with a 6.39 ERA in four appearances this season.
OSU is 55-33 all time against Wichita State, and Tuesday's matchup is the lone scheduled game between the two this year. Last year, the two teams split a pair of midweek games, with the Shockers winning a 6-4 contest in Stillwater on March 11 and the Cowboys traveling to Wichita and claiming a 3-0 win on April 30.
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 four polls this week, earning a No. 12 ranking from Collegiate Baseball and a spot at No. 21 in the NCBWA poll and coming in at No. 23 in both the USA Today Coaches and Baseball America polls.
OSU has been ranked in at least one national poll for 39 consecutive weeks dating back to 2013, when the Cowboys were in the polls for the final 14 weeks of the season, and on March 6, they had an 11-week streak of being in the top 10 snapped. 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 nine wins shy of becoming only the 16th program in Division I history to reach 2,500 victories. Of the 15 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.
The Century Mark
In his third season as head coach at his alma mater, Josh Holliday became the sixth skipper to record 100 career wins at Oklahoma State. Holliday's 100th win came against Grand Canyon in his 143rd game, making him the second-fastest Cowboy 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 869-202 (.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 8-2 on their home field in 2015.
Comeback Cowboys
Come-from-behind victories have become a trend for the Cowboys under Josh Holliday. OSU overcame deficits to win 46 games over the last two seasons, notching 28 comeback wins a year ago and 18 such triumphs in 2013, and the Pokes have four comeback wins this season.
Big 12's Best
Oklahoma State's 89 wins over the 2013-14 seasons were the most in the Big 12 Conference during that span, 12 more than the next highest team (TCU). The 89 wins also ranked 12th nationally.
Big 12's Best, Part II
Oklahoma State captured the 31st conference championship in program history in 2014, winning the Big 12 Conference regular season title for the first time in history (the Cowboys won a Big 12 tourney title in 2004). Josh Holliday became the first-ever Cowboy boss to earn Big 12 Coach of the Year honors, while junior Zach Fish became OSU's second Big 12 Player of the Year and was one of 11 Cowboys to earn All-Big 12 accolades.
Four players named All-Big 12 last season return in 2015 -- catcher Gage Green, infielder Donnie Walton and pitcher Jon Perrin, who were each first-team honorees, and infielder Tim Arakawa, who was a second-team selection.
The Cowboys also return a pair of pitchers -- Blake Battenfield and Tyler Buffett --- who were named to the Big 12 All-Freshman Team in 2014.
Close Calls
OSU went 1-3 in its first four games of the season, but those four games were decided by a combined total of six runs. The Cowboys played a pair of one-run contests against Arizona State, with OSU going 1-1 in those, while the Sun Devils also claimed a two-run victory. OSU also lost a 5-3 contest to Oregon State in the opener of the Big 12/Pac-12 Challenge.
OSU was 11-1 in one-run ball games last season and 11-3 in contests decided by two runs. In 2015, the Cowboys are 4-1 in one-run games and 1-3 in two-run contests.
Coming Up Clutch
OSU is hitting .311 (91-for-293) with runners in scoring position this season, and of the Cowboys' 141 RBIs, 57 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 25 sac bunts this season, with Jacob Chappell's six 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 Big 12-best .389 on-base percentage this season and rank 12th nationally with 118 walks.
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 64 appearances, and the OSU bullpen is 7-2 with five saves, a 2.22 ERA and 97 strikeouts in 97.1 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 turned in an ERA of 3.00 or less.
Through 23 games in 2015, OSU owns a 2.60 team ERA, has recorded four shutouts to rank eighth nationally and ranks second in the Big 12 with an average of 8.48 strikeouts per nine innings.
Thievery
Oklahoma State ranks second in the Big 12 with 40 stolen bases. Four Cowboys rank in the top 10 in the league in steals, with Gage Green's 11 topping the list and Conor Costello's nine ranking second.
