Oklahoma State University Athletics
Midweek Bedlam On Tap Tuesday In Stillwater
April 06, 2015 | Cowboy Baseball
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State hosts a Bedlam showdown at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium Tuesday when the ninth-ranked Cowboys battle Oklahoma at 6 p.m. Coming off a three-game series sweep of No. 18 Texas, which extended the Cowboys' school-record Big 12 Conference series winning streak to 10, OSU is 22-9 overall and in first place in the Big 12 standings with a 7-2 mark.
Led by Corey Hassel, OSU owns a .280 team batting average, while the pitching staff ranks second in the conference with a 2.44 ERA and has eight hurlers sporting a sub-3.00 ERA.
Following Tuesday's contest, OSU returns to Big 12 action this weekend when they travel to Lawrence to take on Kansas.
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 Oklahoma
Oklahoma enters Tuesday's contest on a five-game winning streak and is 22-12 on the season following a sweep of Kansas last weekend. The Sooners are hitting a collective .287, while the pitching staff sports a 2.85 ERA.
Expected to start on the mound for OU is left-hander Jeffrey Curran, who is 0-0 with a 3.00 ERA in seven appearances on the season.
OSU is 160-149 all time against OU. Last season, the two teams squared off seven times on the diamond, with the Cowboys winning five of those games (one in Norman, three in Oklahoma City and one in Tulsa).
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). Tuesday's game will be televised on Fox Sports Oklahoma and Fox College Sports with Mike Wolfe and Cowboy Baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Tettleton on the call.
In The Polls
OSU is nationally ranked in six polls this week and also back in the top 10, earning a No. 9 ranking from Collegiate Baseball. The Cowboys are ranked 13th in the NCBWA poll, 14th by D1Baseball.com and 15th in the USA Today Coaches and Baseball America polls; Perfect Game has them at No. 19.
OSU has been ranked in at least one national poll for 41 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 three 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 875-203 (.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 14-3 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 eight 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 2-5 in two-run contests.
Coming Up Clutch
OSU is hitting .314 (120-for-382) with runners in scoring position this season, and of the Cowboys' 184 RBIs, 80 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.
OSU ranks seventh nationally with 38 sac bunts this season, with Gage Green's eight leading the Cowboys.
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 .381 on-base percentage this season and rank 15th nationally with 150 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 84 appearances, and the OSU bullpen is 11-3 with six saves, a 2.19 ERA and 132 strikeouts in 135.1 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 31 games in 2015, OSU owns a 2.44 team ERA, the eighth-lowest in the NCAA, has recorded four shutouts to rank 11th nationally and ranks third in the Big 12 with an average of 8.34 strikeouts per nine innings.
We're Going Streaking
Oklahoma State's series win against Texas last weekend extended its program-record streak of Big 12 Conference series victories to 10. The Cowboys have won all three of 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 ranks second in the Big 12 and 17th nationally with 51 stolen bases. Three Cowboys rank in the top 10 in the league in steals, with Gage Green's 13 tied for the conference lead.
Short Hops
OSU is 7-5 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. 9 ... OSU has not recorded 100 stolen bases in a season since 1999 (117). Just over halfway through the 2015 campaign, the Cowboys have swiped 51 bases.
