Cowboys Travel To Lubbock For Big 12 Showdown

#9 Oklahoma State (27-13, 10-5) at #18 Texas Tech (26-15, 9-6)

Fri., April 24 · 6:30 p.m.
Sat., April 25 · 2 p.m.
Sun., April 26 · 2 p.m.

Rip Griffin Park (4,368) Lubbock, Texas

Oklahoma State
Big 12 Conference co-leader Oklahoma State looks for its fifth league series win of the season this weekend in Lubbock when the No. 9 Cowboys take on 18th-ranked Texas Tech. The Cowboys are 27-13 overall and tied with Oklahoma atop the Big 12 standings with a 10-5 league mark.

OSU ranks in the top three in the Big 12 in both batting average and ERA. Led by Corey Hassel, the Cowboys sport a .287 team batting average, while the pitching staff owns a 2.76 ERA and has seven 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 Texas Tech
Winners of seven of its last eight games, Texas Tech is 26-15 on the season and in third place in the Big 12 Conference standings with a 9-6 mark. The 18th-ranked Red Raiders own a collective .278 batting average, while the pitching staff sports a 3.24 ERA.

Expected to start on the mound for Texas Tech are: Friday - RHP Ryan Moseley (3-4, 3.28) Saturday - LHP Cameron Smith (5-2, 2.40) Sunday - TBA

OSU is 37-27 all time against Texas Tech. Last season, the Cowboys won the series in Stillwater by notching victories in the opener and finale.

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.

Both the series opener and series finale against Texas Tech will be televised by Fox College Sports.

In The Polls
OSU is nationally ranked in six polls this week and is also in the top 10 for a third-straight week, earning a No. 9 ranking from Collegiate Baseball. The Cowboys are ranked 15th in the NCBWA, USA Today Coaches Poll and D1Baseball.com polls and 17th by Baseball America and Perfect Game.

OSU has been ranked in at least one national poll for 43 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.

2,500 Club
With its series-opening win over Baylor, Oklahoma State became just the 18th program in Division I history to reach 2,500 victories. Of those achieving 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.

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 11 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 4-3 in one-run games and 2-6 in two-run contests.

Coming Up Clutch
OSU is hitting .307 (155-for-505) with runners in scoring position this season, and of the Cowboys' 243 RBIs, 107 of those (44 percent) 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 second nationally with 55 sac bunts this season, with Gage Green's 12 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 .385 on-base percentage this season and rank 15th nationally with 195 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 117 appearances, and the OSU bullpen is 12-4 with seven saves, a 2.71 ERA and 157 strikeouts in 169.2 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 40 games in 2015, OSU owns a 2.76 team ERA, the 13th-lowest in the NCAA, has recorded four shutouts and ranks third in the Big 12 with an average of 7.92 strikeouts per nine innings. In 15 conference games, the Cowboys' pitching staff has compiled a 1.94 ERA and opponents are hitting just .221 against them.

Thievery
Oklahoma State ranks second in the Big 12 and 28th nationally with 61 stolen bases. Two Cowboys --Gage Green and Conor Costello -- rank in the top 10 in the league in steals, with Green's 15 second in the conference.

OSU has not recorded 100 stolen bases in a season since 1999 (117), and Green is vying to become the first Cowboy to record 20 steals in back-to-back seasons since Billy Gasparino in 1997-98.

Short Hops
OSU is 8-5 against ranked teams this season ... The Cowboys are No. 20 in the latest official NCAA RPI.

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