Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Host Weekend Series Against Illinois
March 05, 2015 | Cowboy Baseball
#10 Oklahoma State (7-4) vs. #27 Illinois (9-2-1)
Fri., March 6 • 4 p.m.
Sat., March 7 • 3 p.m.
Sun., March 8 • Noon
Stillwater, Okla.
Oklahoma State
Winners of six of its last seven games, Oklahoma State begins a nine-game homestand Friday at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium when the 10th-ranked Cowboys host Illinois in the first in a three-game series at 4 p.m. OSU is 7-4 on the season and has played just once on its home field in 2015. Led by Tim Arakawa and Gage Green, who are both hitting .366, the Cowboys enter the weekend with a .277 team batting average, while the pitching staff owns a 3.15 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 Illinois
Illinois enters this weekend's series with a 9-2-1 record. Led by Reid Roper (.413, 13 RBI), the Fighting Illini are hitting .279 as a team, while their pitching staff sports a collective 1.67 ERA.
Expected to start on the mound for Illinois are:
Friday - LHP Kevin Duchene (0-0, 0.00)
Saturday - RHP Drasen Johnson (1-0, 0.87)
Sunday - RHP John Kravetz (1-0, 1.77)
OSU is 10-1 all time against Illinois. The two teams haven't met since the 1981 season when the Cowboys swept a four-game series in Oklahoma City.
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 five polls this week and is as high as No. 10 by Baseball America. The Cowboys are ranked 14th by Collegiate Baseball, 17th by the NCBWA and 21st by both D1Baseball.com and in the USA Today Coaches Poll.
OSU has been ranked in at least one national poll for 36 consecutive weeks dating back to 2013, when OSU was in the polls for the final 14 weeks of the season, and they have now occupied a spot in the top 10 for 11-straight weeks. 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 18 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 four wins shy of becoming the sixth coach in Oklahoma State history to reach 100 career wins. Holliday has 96 wins in 137 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 862-200 (.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).
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 against Oregon State in the opening game 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 2-1 in one-run games and 0-2 in two-run contests.
Coming Up Clutch
OSU is hitting .310 (40-for-129) with runners in scoring position this season, and of the Cowboys' 61 RBIs, 27 of those have come with two outs.
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 11 games in 2015, OSU owns a 3.15 team ERA and ranks second in the Big 12 with an average of 8.16 strikeouts per nine innings.
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 10 relievers have combined for 33 appearances, and the OSU bullpen is 4-1 with three saves, a 2.74 ERA and 49 strikeouts in 49.1 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 six games at catcher, three in left field and one each in center and right field, and he leads OSU with a .366 batting average, four stolen bases, 15 hits and two homers.
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 has hit safely in all 11 games and leads the team in batting average (.366), RBIs (12), hits (15) and runs (13).
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.
