Cowboys Conclude Midweek Play In Dallas

#13 Oklahoma State (31-16) at #9 Dallas Baptist (39-9)

Tues., May 12 • 6:30 p.m.

Horner Ballpark (2,000) Dallas, Texas

Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State concludes the 2015 regular season this week with four road games, travelling to Dallas for a Tuesday night matchup against Dallas Baptist before a three-game series Thursday-Saturday against Michigan in Ann Arbor. The 13th-ranked Cowboys are 31-16 overall and finished the season with a 14-8 Big 12 Conference record, which currently puts them second in the league standings. OSU won six conference series this season.

OSU is 12-7 against ranked teams this season and checks in at No. 15 in the latest official NCAA RPI. The Cowboys have have five scheduled games canceled due to weather in 2015.

The Cowboys rank second in the Big 12 in both batting average and ERA. Led by Corey Hassel, they sport a .283 team batting average, while the pitching staff owns a 2.92 ERA and has seven hurlers who have posted a sub-3.00 ERA.

OSU is in itsthird 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 Dallas Baptist
Winners of 10 consecutive games, Dallas Baptist is 39-9 on the season. The 11th-ranked Patriots, who also occupy the No. 1 spot in the official NCAA RPI, own a collective .301 batting average, while the pitching staff sports a 3.26 ERA.

OSU is 8-4 all time against DBU, including a 10-7 win in 10 innings on April 21 in Stillwater in which Ryan Sluder was the hero with a three-run walk-off home run with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning. That game marked the last loss suffered by the Patriots prior to their current 10-game winning streak.

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.

In The Polls
OSU is nationally ranked in six polls this week and is as high as No. 13 in the USA Today Coaches, Baseball America and D1Baseball.com polls. The Cowboys are ranked No. 14 by Collegiate Baseball and 15th by Perfect Game.

OSU has been ranked in at least one national poll for 46 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 14 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 4-4 in one-run games and 2-8 in two-run contests.

Coming Up Clutch
OSU is hitting .303 (175-for-577) with runners in scoring position this season, and of the Cowboys' 277 RBIs, 123 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 fourth nationally with 63 sac bunts this season, with Green's 13 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 .382 on-base percentage this season and rank 30th nationally with 228 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 139 appearances, and the OSU bullpen is 13-6 with eight saves, a 2.79 ERA and 181 strikeouts in 193.2 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 47 games in 2015, OSU owns a 2.92 team ERA, the 13th-lowest in the NCAA, has recorded four shutouts and ranks third in the Big 12 with an average of 7.99 strikeouts per nine innings. In 22 conference games, the Cowboys' pitching staff has compiled a league-best 2.50 ERA and opponents are hitting just .230 against them.

Hometown Hero
Corey Hassel played in 86 games in his first two seasons at OSU, but the Stillwater native is having a breakout junior campaign for his hometown Cowboys in 2015.

Used mostly as a late-game defensive replacement and pinch runner in 2013 and 2014, Hassel has become a regular starter in the outfield and leads the Pokes with a .320 batting average. In Big 12 play, Hassel is hitting .344 with two home runs and 18 RBIs and leads OSU in numerous offensive categories, including RBIs, hits (31) and doubles (6).

Hassel was the hero in OSU's series-opening win over Texas as he delivered a three-run, walk-off home run in the bottom of the 18th inning and also earned his first-career win on the mound with three strikeouts in three scoreless innings.

Sluder's Sophomore Surge
Another breakout star for the Cowboys in 2015 is outfielder Ryan Sluder, who hit .284 with 67 at-bats in 35 games as a freshman a year ago.

This season, Sluder has produced a .317 batting average and team-high 13 doubles and six homers in 40 games (34 starts), and he's been on a tear in Big 12 Conference play. In league games, he leads OSU with a .403 average -- the second-highest in the league in Big 12 games -- to go along with five homers, 10 RBIs and a .710 slugging percentage.

Oklahoma State University Athletics

Related News

Related Videos