Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Put Streak On Line At Kansas
April 09, 2015 | Cowboy Baseball
Sat., April 11 · 2 p.m.
Sun., April 12 · 1 p.m.
Lawrence, Kan.
Oklahoma State
Winners of four games in a row, Oklahoma State returns to Big 12 Conference action this weekend at Kansas. The No. 9 Cowboys are 23-9 overall and atop the Big 12 standings with a 7-2 league mark. OSU has won all three of its conference series this season, extending its program record streak of Big 12 series wins to 10 dating back to last season.
OSU ranks second in the Big 12 in both batting average and ERA. Led by Gage Green, the Cowboys sport a .286 team batting average, while the pitching staff owns a 2.42 ERA and has eight hurlers who have posted 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
Kansas is 13-20 on the season, which includes a 1-5 mark in Big 12 Conference play. The Jayhawks lead the Big 12 with a collective .291 batting average, while the pitching staff sports a 6.36 ERA.
Expected to start on the mound for Kansas are: Friday - LHP Ben Krauth (5-2, 4.97)
Saturday - RHP Drew Morovick (2-3, 5.45) Sunday - LHP Blake Weiman (0-5, 8.39)
OSU is 135-50 all time against Kansas. Last season, the Cowboys swept the three-game series in Stillwater, outscoring the Jayhawks by an 18-6 margin.
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.
Each of the games in this weekend's series at Kansas can be seen online via ESPN3 and the Watch ESPN app.
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 two 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.
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 .324 (134-for-414) with runners in scoring position this season, and of the Cowboys' 205 RBIs, 89 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 .387 on-base percentage this season and rank 12th nationally with 159 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 13 relievers have combined for 87 appearances, and the OSU bullpen is 11-3 with six saves, a 2.12 ERA and 135 strikeouts in 140.1 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 32 games in 2015, OSU owns a 2.42 team ERA, the seventh-lowest in the NCAA, has recorded four shutouts to rank 12th nationally and ranks third in the Big 12 with an average of 8.27 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 55 stolen bases. Three Cowboys rank in the top 10 in the league in steals, with Gage Green's 15 leading the conference.
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 21 games at catcher, six in left field, four in center and one in right field, and he is hitting .336 with three homers and 15 stolen bases. He ranks in the top 10 in the Big 12 in batting average, stolen bases, hits (43), runs (24), triples (3), total bases (62), on-base percentage (.423) and slugging percentage (.484).
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 3.79 ERA, and opponents are hitting just .228 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 .293 with 27 RBIs.
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 already has five sac bunts in just 13 games this season, and his career total now stands at 45.
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 OSU's rotation and in eight starts is 6-0 with a 1.46 ERA. He's tied for the Big 12 lead and is eighth nationally in wins, and he ranks in the top 10 in ERA, strikeouts (50), opponent batting average (.174), complete games (2) and innings pitched (55.2). He has allowed just four earned runs in 46.0 innings over his last six 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 the series finale at top-ranked TCU and leading the Cowboys to a series win 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, 89 have come via ground ball and only 21 via fly out. Factor in his 50 strikeouts, and 87 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.
Short Hops
OSU is 7-5 against ranked teams this season ... The first official NCAA RPI for the 2015 season was released earlier this week, and OSU came 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 55 bases.
