Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Back In Midweek Action
March 09, 2015 | Cowboy Baseball
#23 Oklahoma State (8-6) vs. Alcorn State (5-9)
Tues., March 10 • 4 p.m.
Wed., March 11 • 4 p.m.
Allie P. Reynolds Stadium (4,000) Stillwater, Okla.
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State returns to midweek action for a two-game series with Alcorn State at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium and will host 4 p.m. games against the Braves on Tuesday and Wednesday. The 23rd-ranked Cowboys are 8-6 on the season, which includes a 2-2 mark on their home field. Led by Tim Arakawa and Gage Green, OSU owns a .265 team batting average, while the pitching staff sports a 3.17 ERA and has nine hurlers sporting an ERA of 3.66 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 Alcorn State
Alcorn State is 5-9 on the season and is coming off a win in its series finale against Alabama A&M on Sunday. Led by Collin Carroll (.362, 2 HR, 12 RBI), the Braves are hitting .248 as a team, while their pitching staff sports a collective 7.40 ERA.
OSU is 7-0 all time against Alcorn State. Last season, the Cowboys swept a two-game midweek series against the Braves in Stillwater, winning those games by a 17-4 and 16-1 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 Baseballand 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 17 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 three wins shy of becoming the sixth coach in Oklahoma State history to reach 100 career wins. Holliday has 97 wins in 140 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).
The Cowboys are 2-2 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 two comeback wins (vs. Utah and Western Illinois) 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 2-1 in one-run games and 0-3 in two-run contests.
Coming Up Clutch
OSU is hitting .320 (49-for-153) with runners in scoring position this season, and of the Cowboys' 73 RBIs, 30 of those have come with two outs.
New Faces Impress Early
Joining Oklahoma State's 34-man roster for 2015 are 13 newcomers, eight of those from the high school ranks and five coming via the junior college route. The recruiting class, which was ranked as high as No. 5 nationally by one publication, boasts numerous players already having immediate impacts, including:
• Junior college pitchers Koda Glover and Remey Reed have shown why they're expected to bolster the OSU pitching staff. Reed is 1-0 in five appearances and has not allowed an earned run in 8.1 innings, while Glover has settled into the Cowboys' closer role and has two saves and a 3.38 ERA in a team-high eight appearances.
• Sophomore Kevin Bradley, the son of former big leaguer and current Princeton head coach Scott Bradley, redshirted last season at State College of Florida after playing in 37 games at Clemson in 2013. He was named the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week on Feb. 16 and is hitting .298 with 10 RBIs.
• Freshman Jon Littell was a prep All-American at Stillwater High School and joined his hometown Cowboys after being drafted in the 39th round by Washington. He has started 12 games in the outfield and earned Big 12 Co-Newcomer of the Week honors Feb. 23 after hitting .429 (6-for-14) with five RBIs in four games at the Big 12/Pac-12 Challenge.
• Jacob Chappell has started on the infield in each of OSU's 14 games this season. The freshman made his debut at third base and moved to shortstop for the next 13, where he is filling the void of the injured Donnie Walton.
• Freshman Garrett McCain has played in 11 games with six starts and is hitting .308 with six RBIs and a .419 on-base percentage.
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 41 appearances, and the OSU bullpen is 4-2 with three saves, a 2.88 ERA and 60 strikeouts in 59.1 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 14 games in 2015, OSU owns a 3.17 team ERA and ranks second in the Big 12 with an average of 8.28 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 seven games at catcher, four in left field, two in center and one in right field, and he is hitting .327 with two homers and four stolen bases.
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 leads the team in batting average (.353), RBIs (14), hits (18) and runs (14).
