Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Set To Host Kansas State
March 26, 2015 | Cowboy Baseball
Sat., March 28 • 3 p.m.
Sun., March 29 • 1 p.m.
Oklahoma State
Winners of nine of its last 10 games, Oklahoma State returns to Big 12 Conference action this weekend when the 12th-ranked Cowboys host Kansas State at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium. OSU is 17-7 overall and 2-1 in conference play after claiming its eighth consecutive league series win last weekend at TCU.
Led by Gage Green, OSU owns a .283 team batting average, while the pitching staff ranks second in the conference with a 2.61 ERA and has seven 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 Kansas State
Kansas State is 11-12 overall and 0-3 in Big 12 play after being swept at Texas last weekend. The Wildcats are hitting .266 on the year, while the pitching staff owns a 3.90 ERA.
Expected to start on the mound for K-State are: Friday - RHP Colton Kalmus (0-2, 4.50) Saturday - TBA Sunday - TBA
OSU is 157-49 all time against Kansas State. Last season, the Cowboys swept the three-game series in Manhattan, outscoring the Wildcats 31-9 on the weekend.
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 eight 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 870-202 (.812) 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 9-2 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.
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 .317 (97-for-306) with runners in scoring position this season, and of the Cowboys' 147 RBIs, 61 of those have come with two outs.
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 68 appearances, and the OSU bullpen is 8-2 with five saves, a 2.35 ERA and 103 strikeouts in 103.1 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 24 games in 2015, OSU owns a 2.61 team ERA, has recorded four shutouts to rank eighth nationally and ranks second in the Big 12 with an average of 8.46 strikeouts per nine innings.
Thievery
Oklahoma State ranks second in the Big 12 with 43 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 10 ranking second.
We're Going Streaking
With last week's series win over TCU, Oklahoma State extended its streak of consecutive Big 12 Conference series wins to eight, which marks only the second time since Big 12 play began (in 1997) that the Cowboys have won eight consecutive conference series. Over the 2006-07 seasons, OSU also captured eight-straight Big 12 series, winning the final six in '06 and the first two of '07.
En route to the first Big 12 regular season championship in program history last season, the Cowboys captured series wins in their final seven league series, marking the first time in school history OSU had won seven-straight Big 12 series in a season.
King Of The Hill
OSU ranks at the top of the Big 12 in several offensive statistical categories. The Cowboys lead the league in on-base percentage (.389), runs (166), RBIs (147), walks (122) and sacrifice flies (14).
Working His Way Back
A wrist injury has kept Donnie Walton out of the Oklahoma State lineup for most of the season as the Cowboys' All-Big 12 First Team shortstop has played in just five games in 2015.
Walton started and played the first 7 1/2 innings of OSU's season opener at Arizona State on Feb. 13, then was used briefly as a pinch runner in the eighth inning the following day before going on the shelf.
On Feb. 24, Walton underwent surgery to remove the hamate bone in his right wrist. After missing 18 games, Walton returned to action in the opener at TCU on March 20 when he was inserted into the game at shortstop in the eighth inning. In Sunday's game, he returned to the starting lineup against the Horned Frogs, filling in at second base for the injured Tim Arakawa.
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 broke that last season with 22. In just two seasons, Walton vaulted to the top of OSU's career chart for sacrifice bunts with his 40 breaking the previous record of Fred Ocasio, who finished his career in 1994 with 36.
Walton's career total now stands at 41.
I Was Curious So...
In an effort to boost offensive power numbers, the NCAA switched from raised-seam to flat-seam baseballs for the 2015 season. What has the effect been on Oklahoma State? Here's a look at some numbers.
In 2014, OSU led the Big 12 with 53 home runs, a total that ranked eighth nationally. OSU's 53 round trippers was 23 more than the next-highest Big 12 team, and 14 different Cowboys homered. Though the Cowboys' first 24 games a year ago, they had 16 home runs.
This season, OSU has hit 16 homers, matching its total through the same span last season. Eight different Cowboys have homered, with three of those having three or more. The 16 homers ranks fifth in the Big 12 and 96th nationally.
From a pitching standpoint, OSU's staff allowed 16 home runs in 66 games last season and has given up nine to this point in 2015.
Short Hops
OSU is 4-5 against ranked teams this season ... The first official NCAA RPI for the 2015 season hasn't been released, but boydsworld.com pseudo-RPI has OSU coming in at No. 10 ... OSU has not recorded 100 stolen bases in a season since 1999 (117). Less than halfway through the 2015 campaign, the Cowboys have swiped 43 bases.
