Cowboy Baseball Talks 2018 Season

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State head coach Josh Holliday and several Cowboy players met with the media today to discuss the upcoming 2018 season. Here's a sampling of what they had to say.

OSU head coach Josh Holliday
On getting the team ready after the break
"It's a tight window to prepare a team from whenever we started school. We have basically a month to get the kids ready to play. You want to do so, and at the same time you want to get the kids ready for a long season. So you can't jump into it too quickly. So we brought the guys along. I think we're in good shape. Everybody seems to be moving in the right direction."

On what he's seen from the team
"I'm encouraged by what I've seen. We have some good leaders. We have some kids that this means a lot to them. The kids in this program have been in this program for four and five years. Those kids have certainly been people we can rally around to do things here the right way. We had a number of young players last year get involved in a positive way. Those guys are a year older, a year better. And then we have a number of first-year players that we're going to rely on heavily."

On team leaders
"Jon Littell possesses leadership qualities. Jon's a very consistent, hard-working person. I really admire the way he goes about his business. He's very consistent, and that's a strong characteristic to have in a locker room. I think Jon's in the best place he's ever been physically and with his swing. Carson Teel is another kid who comes to mind. He really finished last season strong. He was one of the most trusted guys we had in our entire pitching staff. His outlook and energy for what we're doing is through the roof. It's contagious the way that impacts the guys around him on a daily basis."

On the growth of the program
"We want to win the national championship. That's what we're shooting to do. We're trying to be the very best. I think when you recognize just how hard it is to do that, you have to accept that you can have a great season and a wonderful program and be doing great things every single day and maybe not win the national championship but still be winning in what your mission is. I think we're winning in a lot of ways. I think we're winning on the field with record. We're winning through the things we're learning from the game itself. Last year's team, we've talked about several times, lessons of perseverance and never being down and out. We learned that, that's for sure. Every year you want to see where can we take this. How can we grow our kids. What does that look like when the team is at it's best. We're here to win a national championship. We believe we can be the best. We're going to work toward that every single day."

Junior catcher Colin Simpson
On this year's younger lineup
"We lost a couple of our main guys, but we've got quite a few guys stepping up. I think we can take a lot of momentum from the end of last year and funnel it into this year. We had a lot of freshmen start last year, which means we have a lot of sophomores coming back this year to play. So them being in that Big 12 Championship and having the experience with all the fans and people around them, it's going to help them a lot in pressure situations not to fold. They're going to be strong and know what to do in those high-pressure situations."

On his role as a leader
"I'm not much of a person to lead with my voice; I like to lead with action. When I come out on the field, I'm not a guy who's going to yell at you if you're not going hard. I'm going to continue to work as hard as I can every day and bring as much energy as I can, and hopefully people see the way I go about practice and will follow in my steps."

On how it feels to be back starting the season
"It feels good. Fall is always long and practices are long, but it feels great being 18 days from the season. I think it makes everybody want to work that much harder knowing the season is so close. It's a great feeling being this close to the start of the season."

On momentum coming into the season
"We're definitely riding some momentum from the Big 12 Championship, especially because we had so many freshmen starting in that game. I think we only had two, maybe three guys who aren't here this year playing in that game. Having those six or seven guys from that starting lineup still here is going to help us carry a lot of momentum back, which is a big thing."

Junior pitcher Carson Teel
On the non-conference schedule
"It'll be challenging, for sure. A lot of the stuff is going to be on the road. I think the best part about it is having road trips with the guys. You spend a lot of nights in hotels and on buses and that type of stuff. It'll be fun to see what things we come up with this year and how we can respond to adversity on the road against a lot of good teams. We always look forward to a challenge though."

On increasing his pitching speed
"We haven't really had the gun on lately, but I don't really focus on that. I think it just comes and when it does, I think it's fun to have it. I'm just focused on throwing the ball where I need to throw it, making my pitches, getting guys out and doing what's best for the team. That's really what I'm focused on. The miles-per-hour is definitely a help."

On how it feels to be back starting the season
"It feels really good. It feels good to be out here with the guys. We've had pretty great weather so far. I think it's supposed to stay like this so we're just looking forward to everything that's about to come our way."

On his role this year
"It was tough at first losing that starting spot, but when you go out there and know what's best for the team I think it kind of helps out. If they need me in certain situations, I'm willing to do it. This year it's just going to be where my name is called. I'm going to have a good attitude with everything thrown my way, and hopefully we're going to go out and win some ballgames. Trey Cobb has been one of my biggest mentors around here. He helped me out my redshirt year. Having him who has kind of been through it all helped me and gave me advice for when I start or when I come out of the bullpen. That type of guy is somebody you never forget in your career."

Junior pitcher Joe Lienhard
On starting the season
"It's beautiful weather. You can't ask for any better coming out here to practice. We're getting a little intersquad today so it'll be good to get guys back on the mound, see some live pitching and get us ready to go into the season. It's great to get back into the rhythm of things ... being back with these teammates. We're here for countless hours every day and really start to feel like you're brothers. You're here day in and day out working together. That's a big thing when you start winning, you start to get a confidence about yourself just in gaining that type of brotherhood."

On taking steps toward becoming an elite program
"I think the success we had my freshman year ... going to Omaha ... winning the Big 12 Tournament last year ... I think those are all things that are going to help our progression to become an elite program. Getting the work in on the new stadium, all that stuff comes into play when you're building a good program. It's just a blessing to be able to play here at Oklahoma State. The tradition of playing here ... back in the 80s they went to Omaha almost every year ... to be able to carry on that tradition, I think, is huge for us. Having some success here and there will get us back to that elite level."

On carrying over momentum from last season
"Momentum is huge in baseball. Anything you can gain going into the season to build some momentum and build some trust in your teammates ... A lot of us playing last year didn't really know what to expect going into the Big 12 Tournament, and winning it was really a big high for us in such a tough season too. Being able to build on that momentum from the tournament is huge for us because it gives us something to kind of build this season on, knowing what it will feel like if we play up to our potential and win some games."

Senior outfielder Jon Littell
On coming back from injury
"It was tough because when you're healthy you take it for granted. I had to do everything I could with the training staff to get in the right mindset. I did a lot of rehab and treatment in hopes that things would feel good that day. I wanted to get back out there for my teammates, and they were the ones who really kept me going. My main thing was that I wanted to contribute. I wanted to help the team make a run at it (Big 12 Championship). We were struggling, and I didn't want to be the guy who sat out and just watched things happen. I wanted to be the guy to help us make a run, and fortunately we were able to do that."

On how he feels going into the season
"I feel great. I feel 100 percent, and I'm ready to get going. We're going to use momentum from last year and hopefully start out hot and keep it going and win as many ballgames as we can. That has always been our goal and always will be the goal. The expectations are high around here, and that's what we're looking to do."

Oklahoma State University Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Trey Cobb

Joe Lienhard

Jon Littell

Colin Simpson

Carson Teel

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