Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Host Texas In Battle Of Top Big 12 Teams
April 02, 2015 | Cowboy Baseball
Fri., April 3 · 7 p.m.
Sat., April 4 · 6:30 p.m.
Sun., April 5 · 1 p.m.
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State returns to Big 12 Conference action at home this weekend when the 11th-ranked Cowboys host No. 18 Texas in a battle of the top two teams in the league standings. OSU is 19-9 overall and 4-2 in Big 12 play on the strenght of having won both its conference series this season, extending the Cowboys school-record Big 12 series winning streak to nine.
Led by Corey Hassel, OSU owns a .284 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 Texas
Texas enters the weekend on a four-game losing streak, but the 18th-ranked Longhorns are atop the Big 12 standings at 5-1 and are 17-12 overall. The Horns are hitting a collective .250, while the pitching staff sports a 2.74 ERA.
Expected to start on the mound for Texas are:
Friday - RHP Parker French (2-2, 2.16)
Saturday - RHP Chad Hollingsworth (3-2, 4.36)
Sunday - RHP Kacy Clemens (2-1, 3.66)
OSU is 34-56 all time against Texas. Last season, the Cowboys won the final two games of the regular season series in Austin before going 2-1 against the Longhorns at the Big 12 Championship 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). Saturday and Sunday's games vs. Texas will air live on ESPNU with Jason Benetti and Mike Rooney on the call.
In The Polls
OSU is nationally ranked in five polls this week, earning a No. 11 ranking from Collegiate Baseball while occupying the 16th spot in the USA Today Coaches poll. The Cowboys are 17th in the Baseball America and NCBWA polls and are ranked No. 20 by D1Baseball.com.
OSU has been ranked in at least one national poll for 40 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 six 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 872-203 (.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 11-3 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 five comeback wins this season.
Coming Up Clutch
OSU is hitting .323 (111-for-344) with runners in scoring position this season, and of the Cowboys' 167 RBIs, 70 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 turned in an ERA of 3.00 or less.
Through 28 games in 2015, OSU owns a 2.61 team ERA, has recorded four shutouts to rank ninth nationally and ranks third in the Big 12 with an average of 8.32 strikeouts per nine innings.
We're Going Streaking
Oklahoma State's series win against Kansas State last weekend was its program-record ninth consecutive Big 12 Conference series victory. The Cowboys have won both their conference series this season, and en route to the first Big 12 regular season championship in program history last season, they 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.
OSU has won eight consecutive conference series just twice since Big 12 play began in 1997. Over the 2006-07 seasons, OSU captured eight-straight Big 12 series, winning the final six in '06 and the first two of '07.
Thievery
Oklahoma State leads the Big 12 and ranks 13th nationally with 47 stolen bases. Three Cowboys rank in the top 10 in the league in steals, with Gage Green and Conor Costello tied for second with 11 each.
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 20 games at catcher, four in left field, three in center and one in right field, and he is hitting .320 with three homers and 11 stolen bases. He ranks in the top 10 in the Big 12 in stolen bases, triples (3) and runs (21).
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 dominated both Big 12 teams from his home state, recording his first-career shutout in a nine-strikeout performance vs. Kansas and topping that with a 10-strikeout shutout of 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 seven starts this season, Perrin is 2-3 with a 4.55 ERA, and opponents are hitting just .238 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 also finished the season ranked second in the Big 12 and 11th nationally in walks (47).
In 2015, Arakawa has continued his production at the plate. Batting anywhere from 1st-5th in the Cowboys' batting order, he hit safely in OSU's first 13 games and is hitting .289 with a team-high 23 RBIs.
Big Mike
Mike Freeman is having a breakout senior season for the Cowboys.
The 6-foot-8 southpaw has solidified the Sunday starter spot in the OSU rotation and in seven starts is 5-0 with a 1.32 ERA. He ranks in the top 10 in the Big 12 in wins, ERA, strikeouts (43), opponent batting average (.179), complete games (22) and innings pitched (47.2) and has allowed just two earned runs in 38.0 innings over his last five starts.
Freeman has already captured Big 12 Pitcher of the Week honors three times this season -- March 2, 23 and 30 -- to become one of just 15 pitchers in Big 12 history to garner the accolade three or more times in the same season and the only OSU hurler to do so. He is also only the 10th pitcher in conference history to win the award in consecutive weeks, joining Matt Smith (1998) as the only other Cowboy to do that.
Freeman's first weekly honor came following his performance in a win over Western Illinois on March 1 in which he recorded a career-high 10 strikeouts in eight innings of work. In that contest, 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. He did not issue a walk and faced just two hitters over the minimum.
The big lefty turned in an even better performance on March 22, tossing his first-career complete game in Sunday's series finale at top-ranked TCU and leading the Cowboys to a series win over the Frogs as he racked up nine strikeouts and allowed only one earned run in OSU's 7-2 victory. In that effort, he scattered six hits, five of them singles, and issued just one walk.
Freeman continued his dominance on the mound in a series-clinching win over Kansas State as he went 8 1/3 innings without allowing a hit before surrendering a pair of singles in the ninth. In another complete game effort, he issued only one walk, and the one run he allowed was unearned as the result of an error and a passed ball.
Freeman opened the game by hitting the leadoff batter but then retired 15-straight Wildcats. In the ninth, K-State's only two hits in the game brought the tying run to the plate, but Freeman recorded his sixth strikeout of the day to end it.
With his effort against K-State, Freeman became the first Cowboy pitcher since All-American Andrew Heaney in 2012 to toss back-to-back complete games.
5-3, 6-3, 4-3, 3U, 1-3
To say Michael Freeman is a ground ball pitcher is like saying grass is green and the sky is blue. Of Freeman's non-strikeout outs this season, 80 have come via ground ball and only 14 via fly out. Factor in his 43 strikeouts, and 90 percent of Freeman's outs have come via ground ball or strikeout.
Back In The Saddle
A wrist injury kept Donnie Walton out of the OSU lineup for most of the first half of the season as the Cowboys' All-Big 12 First Team shortstop played in just five of the Pokes first 24 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.
Walton returned to the starting lineup at shortstop for the K-State series and was 4-for-10 with three RBIs.
It's Been Awhile
OSU has not lost a Big 12 Conference series at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium since 2012 when it was swept by Texas A&M on the final weekend of the season. Over the last three seasons, the Cowboys have won seven consecutive league series on their home field following a split in a rain-shortened two-game series with Baylor to open league play in 2013.
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. Through the Cowboys' first 28 games a year ago, they had 17 home runs.
This season, OSU has hit 19 homers in its first 28 games, and nine different Cowboys have homered, with three of those having three or more. The 19 homers is tied for third in the Big 12 and is 59th nationally.
From a pitching standpoint, OSU's staff allowed 16 home runs in 66 games last season and has given up 11 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 currently has OSU coming in at No. 11 ... OSU has not recorded 100 stolen bases in a season since 1999 (117). Halfway through the 2015 campaign, the Cowboys have swiped 47 bases.
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