Cowboy Baseball Back In Big 12 Action At Kansas

April 11, 2019 | Cowboy Baseball

Game Notes

Oklahoma State (20-11, 6-3) at Kansas (17-15, 2-7)

Fri., April 12/3 p.m. • Sat., April 13/2 p.m. • Sun., April 14/1 p.m.
Hoglund Ballpark (2,500) • Lawrence, Kan.

Video/TV: ESPN+ (Josh Klingler, Kevin Wheeler & Brian Hanni)

plus.espn.com
Radio: KSPI 93.7 FM (Rex Holt & Matt Davis)
okstate.com/watch & stillwaterradio.net
Live Stats: kuathletics.com/sidearmstats/baseball
Twitter In-Game Updates: @OSUBaseball

About Oklahoma State
     • Oklahoma State is 20-11 overall and in second place in the Big 12 Conference standings with a 6-3 mark.
     • The Cowboys are coming off a 31-26-1 season in 2018 in which they earned a sixth consecutive NCAA Regional berth. OSU advanced to the finals of the NCAA DeLand Regional where they lost to host Stetson.
     • OSU finished second in the Big 12 Conference standings in 2018 with a 16-8 mark, one game back of league champion Texas. It marked the fifth time in the last six seasons the Cowboys earned a top-two league finish.
     • OSU had 11 players earn All-Big 12 status a year ago, led by 2018 Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Matt Kroon and All-Big 12 First Team starting pitcher Carson Teel. Seven of those all-conference Cowboys return in 2019.
     • Four Cowboys position players who started at least 35 games last season return in 2019 — catcher/outfielder Colin Simpson, outfielder Trevor Boone, first/third baseman Christian Funk and outfielder Carson McCusker.
     • The 2019 season marks OSU's seventh under head coach Josh Holliday, who is 251-143-1 at his alma mater.

About Kansas
     • Kansas is 17-15 on the season and 2-7 in Big 12 Conference play.
     • Led by junior Jaxx Groshans (.355, 11 HR, 34 RBI), the Jayhawks own a .243 team batting average and are averaging 5.5 runs per game.
     • KU's pitching staff sports a 5.02 ERA and has recorded 255 strikeouts in 283 1/3 innings.
     • Ritch Price is in his 17th season as the Jayhawks' head coach and owns a 509-475-3 career record. In 41 years as a head coach at the collegiate and high school levels, Price has compiled over 1,100 wins.
     • KU's starting pitching rotation vs. the Cowboys is expected to be:
     Friday: RHP Ryan Cyr — Junior is 2-3 with a 5.32 ERA and a CG in eight starts; 38 K, 19 BB in 47.1 IP
     Saturday: RHP Ryan Zeferjahn — Junior has started eight games and is 3-2 with a 3.45 ERA; 50 K, 24 BB in 44.1 IP
     Sunday: LHP Eli Davis — Redshirt freshman is 3-3 with a 5.65 ERA in eight starts; 31 K, 14 BB in 43.0 IP

Cowboys vs. Jayhawks
     Oklahoma State is 143-54 all time in the series against Kansas, including a 12-7 mark under Josh Holliday. The Cowboys have not won a series in Lawrence since 2007, losing five consecutive series on KU's home field.
     Last 12 Meetings
     2018 - OSU 12, KU 1 (7 inn.); OSU 4, KU 3; OSU 4, KU 3 (Stillwater)
     2017 - OSU 11, KU 6; KU 6, OSU 5; KU 4, OSU 2 (Lawrence)
     2016 - OSU 4, KU 3; OSU 9, KU 2; OSU 8, KU 1 (Stillwater)
     2015 - OSU 7, KU 2; KU 3, OSU 2; KU 4, OSU 2 (Lawrence)

High Five
    OSU entered the 2019 season as the fifth-winningest team in NCAA history in terms of winning percentage at .661.

2,600 Club
     Oklahoma State began 2019 as one of only 19 programs in Division I history to reach 2,600 victories, beginning the year with 2,617 all-time wins to rank 15th all time. Of those 19 teams with 2,600 wins, only Florida State (71) has played fewer seasons than OSU's 107.

One More Season At Allie P.
     The 2019 season marks the 39th and final season of OSU's historic ballpark, Allie P. Reynolds Stadium, with the Cowboys set to begin playing in the new O'Brate Stadium in 2020.
     Allie P. has been home to Oklahoma State baseball since April 4, 1981, and in those 39 seasons, the Cowboys have established a decisive home-field advantage.
     OSU is 929-247-1 (.790) all time at Reynolds Stadium and has lost more than two consecutive games on its home turf only 10 times (six in a row in 2007; five straight in 2017; four in a row in 2016 and 2018; three straight in 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017 and 2018).
     The Cowboys are 13-7 on their home field in 2019.

Scheduling Rarity
     For only the second time under Josh Holliday, OSU opened Big 12 Conference play at home in 2019 when the Cowboys hosted Kansas State. It marked just the third time since 2003 (2005 and 2013) that the Cowboys began league play at home, with 13 road trips to start conference action during that span.
     Since the start of Big 12 Conference baseball in 1997, the Cowboys have opened league play on the road 17 times and just seven times in Stillwater.

Building A Winner
     In the first six seasons as head coach at his alma mater, Josh Holliday built an impressive resume. Among the highlights:
     • The Cowboys have earned six NCAA Regional berths, advanced to two Super Regionals and played in the College World Series for the first time since Holliday was a senior for the Cowboys in 1999.
     • OSU has finished first or second in the Big 12 Conference standings in five of its six seasons under Holliday — first in 2014, second in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2018.
     • The Cowboys finished in the top 10 in the national rankings in 2014 (10th) and 2016 (4th) after ending the 2013 season ranked as high as No. 19. In 2015, they were ranked as high as 17th in the final polls
     • In 2014, OSU won its first-ever Big 12 Conference regular season championship, and the 2017 club captured the second Big 12 Championship title in program history.
     • OSU hosted NCAA Regionals in 2014 and 2015 and was the top-seeded team both times.
     • Holliday has coached 53 All-Big 12 performers, six All-Americans, two Big 12 Pitcher of the Year honorees, a Big 12 Player of the Year and a Big 12 Newcomer of the Year.

SOS & RPI
     Oklahoma State's strength of schedule appears stout in 2019 as the Cowboys will face 10 NCAA Regional teams from a year ago, including defending national champion Oregon State. Eight of OSU's opponents were nationally ranked in the preseason polls — UCLA (3), Michigan (17), Missouri State (24), TCU (16), Texas (14), Texas Tech (3), Oregon State (2) and Baylor (12) — and seven of those are still ranked, including current top-10 teams UCLA, Oregon State and Texas.
     OSU is No. 30 in the latest official NCAA RPI; Kansas is 99.

Close Calls
     OSU is 64-37 in one-run games under Josh Holliday, and 66 of the Cowboys' 143 losses under Holliday have come by two runs or less.

Comeback Cowboys
     Come-from-behind victories have been a trend for the Cowboys under Josh Holliday; OSU has overcome deficits to win 107 games in Holliday's seven seasons. The largest deficit OSU has overcome this season is six

Armed & Dangerous
     In its first six seasons under the direction of coach Rob Walton, OSU's pitching staff turned in impressive numbers.
     The Cowboys' success under Walton includes 20 All-Big 12 pitchers, two consensus first-team All-Americans, two Big 12 Pitcher of the Year winners and a first-round Major League Baseball Draft pick.
     Here's just a sampling of how the Cowboys have performed under Walton, who was named the 2016 ABCA/Baseball America Assistant Coach of the Year:
     • Four of OSU's pitching staffs under Walton recorded an ERA of 3.29 or lower.
     • In 2016, the Cowboys led the Big 12 with 574 strikeouts, 10 shutouts and 21 saves, each totals that ranked as the second highest in a single season in school history.
     • OSU's pitching staff led the Big 12 in ERA in conference-only games in 2014 (2.43) and 2015 (2.50).
     • The Cowboys' 2.84 ERA in 2015 ranked eighth nationally and was the lowest by an OSU pitching staff since 1973.
     • OSU recorded seven shutouts in 2013 and 2014 and had 10 in 2016, the second most in a single season in program history. Those totals also marked three of only six times in program history the Cowboys have tallied seven shutouts or more in a season; in the 26 seasons prior to 2013, OSU reached seven shutouts only once.
     • Jason Hursh was a first-round pick in the 2013 MLB Draft, Brendan McCurry (2014) and Michael Freeman (2015) were first-team All-Americans and Freeman (2015) and Thomas Hatch (2016) were named Big 12 Pitcher of the Year.
     • Freeman's 1.31 ERA ranked sixth in the NCAA in 2015 and was the fifth lowest in a single season in OSU history.
     • McCurry set OSU records for single-season saves (19) and career saves (27).

Go Pro
    During Josh Holliday's tenure as head coach, Oklahoma State has had 37 players selected in the Major League Baseball Draft. Eleven of those Cowboys were picked in the top 10 rounds, including 2013 first-rounder Jason Hursh.
    In 2016, OSU tied a program record with 11 MLB Draft picks. (The 2007 Cowboys also had 11 draftees). The 11 draft picks tied the Cowboys with Mississippi State for the third most of any Division I program in 2016 behind only Texas A&M (13) and Southern California (12). Five of those went in the first 10 rounds, which marked the most top-10-round picks for OSU since five Pokes were taken in the top-10 rounds in 2008. Seven of the OSU players drafted were pitchers.

Chicks Dig The Long Ball
     The Cowboys' 71 home runs during the 2018 season were the most by an OSU team since 2009 when the Pokes had 81. OSU ranked 17th in the NCAA in homers last season.
     Colin Simpson led OSU's power surge a year ago, with his 18 homers, the most by an OSU player since Rebel Ridling had 18 in 2008. The last Cowboy to reach 20 round trippers in a season was Corey Brown, who smashed 22 in 2007.
     OSU smacked 11 homers in its series at Baylor, including posting seven in the game two win. That total marked OSU's most home runs in a game since the Pokes had eight against Kansas in 2006; the school record is 11 set against Chicago State in 1999.
     Led by Simpson, OSU returns a group that combined for 47 of its homers (66 percent) last season. OSU's 31 home runs this season are third in the Big 12 and rank 48th nationally. Eight different Cowboys have homered this season, with Andrew Navigato (7), Trevor Boone (6) and Simpson (5) leading the way.

Tank Smash
     Colin Simpson, aka "Tank," established himself as one of the Big 12's top sluggers over his sophomore and junior seasons in 2017-18, a span during which he smacked 29 home runs and collected 91 RBIs, and he entered his senior season on Preseason All-American and All-Big 12 lists.
     Through 31 games in '19, Simpson leads the Cowboys with 28 RBIs, and he is 10th nationally with five sacrifice flies. Four of his five homers have come in Big 12 play, and he is second with 12 RBIs in league play.
     An All-Big 12 Second Team and ABCA/Rawlings All-Midwest Region performer last season, Simpson started all 58 games for the Cowboys and hit .280 with a career-high 18 home runs, a total that ranked 17th nationally. He also topped OSU in RBIs (51), total bases (130), walks (37) and slugging percentage (.578) and was second in hits (63), runs (48) and stolen bases (8).
     Primarily a catcher, Simpson started 43 games behind the plate in 2018 but has gotten more time in left field this season with 10 starts; he started six games in left a year ago and also played the position in the Cape Cod League over the summer.
     Simpson enjoyed a breakout sophomore season for the Cowboys in 2017, collecting honorable mention All-Big 12 honors and leading OSU with 11 home runs while ranking third in RBIs (40) and slugging percentage (.492).

Boone Goes The Dynamite
     Trevor Boone has found his groove with the bat in his hands.
     At the conclusion of the Iowa series, the junior's batting average stood at .194, and he had just one RBI. But since then, Boone has raised his average to .262 to go along with six homers and 19 RBIs.
     Boone had a breakout sophomore campaign for the Cowboys in 2018, starting 51 games in center field and earning honorable mention All-Big 12 honors.
     Boone went on a tear at the plate with the start of Big 12 Conference play; he was hitting .192 in 17 games prior to the conference-opening series at Texas but over the next 39 games he raised his average to .270.
     In OSU's 24 Big 12 games, Boone hit .293 with seven homers and 24 RBIs, both of which ranked second on the team.
     Included in Boone's surge was a game against Baylor in which he tied an OSU record by becoming only the 12th player in OSU history to hit three home runs in a game (it's been done on 14 occasions). Boone homered in each of his first three at-bats against the Bears in Saturday's contest.

Hit The Slugging Switch
     Carson McCusker has picked up right where he left off in 2018, starting 26 games for the Cowboys this season (25 of those in the outfield) and hitting a team-high .344 while ranking sixth in the Big 12 with 11 doubles.
     McCusker, who has missed OSU's last five games with sickness, leads the Cowboys with a .417 batting average in Big 12 play and has a double, homer, two triples and six RBIs in 24 leage at-bats.
     In the second game of the Kansas State series, McCusker tied an OSU single-game record with two triples, becoming the first Cowboy since 2011 to reach that mark.
     Over the first five weeks of his first season in an OSU uniform in 2018, McCusker made just one start and collected only one hit, a single, in 11 at-bats.
     Things changed in a hurry for the sophomore in a doubleheader sweep of TCU on March 31. McCusker started both games of the twin bill in right field and went 4-for-6 with three home runs, all solo shots, while also making several highlight-reel defensive plays in the outfield.
     Following that breakout performance, McCusker started 34-straight games in right field and was one of the Cowboys' most consistent performers, hitting .314 with six homers and 11 RBIs in league play and earning honorable mention All-Big 12 accolades.

Clutch Carter
     Bryce Carter spent parts of four seasons at Stanford from 2015-18, playing in 97 games for the Cardinal (he was granted an injury redshirt season in 2017 after appearing in nine games), but the Oklahoma native chose to spend his final collegiate season in Stillwater as a graduate transfer for the Cowboys.
     Carter has had an immediate impact for OSU, starting 25 games and posting a .306 batting average to go along with 19 RBIs. Sixteen of his RBIs have come with two outs, and he's hitting .481 (13-for-27) with runners in scoring position.
     Carter has missed the last six games with concussion symptons after taking a foul ball off the mask against TCU.

New Kid On The Block
     A 36th-round draft pick of the Los Angeles Angels in last year's Major League Baseball Draft, Hueston Morrill chose the Cowboys over professional baseball, and he is having a significant impact in his first collegiate season.
     The freshman middle infielder has spent the majority of his time at second base and is among OSU's leading hitters with a .282 batting average. "Huey" also leads the Cowboys with seven stolen bases, and he has 10 multi-hit games, including a 4-for-5 effort in his second start of the season against Wright State (2/23).

Back On The Bump
     OSU was without three key pitchers and potential weekend starters for most of 2018 — Jensen Elliott, Parker Scott and Mitchell Stone — but the return of that trio has given the Cowboys a boost in 2019.
     • A Freshman All-American in 2016 after going 9-3 in 17 starts, Elliott was 3-0 through four outings in 2017 before undergoing Tommy John Surgery last April. The righty returned to the mound for his 2018 debut on May 13 and pitched in four games over the final few weeks of the season. He is 3-2 with a 4.08 ERA in eight starts in 2019.
     • Scott pitched in six games as a freshman in 2017, starting twice, before an arm injury ended his season. The southpaw suffered another setback when he underwent TJS that November. He returned to the mound for the first time since March 12, 2017 against Michigan and tossed a scoreless inning, and he earned his first-career win in relief vs. K-State. In seven outings, six of those in relief, he's 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA and 12 strikeouts in 9 1/3 innings.
     • Stone started games on the first two weekends of his freshman season in 2018 but broke his foot on March 2; he did not return to action and was granted a medical redshirt. In his first start of 2019 at UT Rio Grande Valley, the southpaw earned his first-career win by tossing 5 1/3 scoreless innings and striking out six. He is 2-1 in seven appearances in 2019.

Dealing
     Peyton Battenfield is coming off a sophomore season in which he earned honorable mention All-Big 12 accolades, and he is poised for even more recognition in 2019.
     The right-hander has made 15 relief appearances this season and is 3-3 with a 2.30 ERA and 35 strikeouts in 31 1/3 innings; his .162 opponent batting average leads the conference, and he ranks fourth in ERA.
     Battenfield turned in a career performance at USC as he took the mound to open the third inning and tossed seven scoreless frames, allowing only two hits and racking up a career-high seven strikeouts on 101 pitches, to earn the win.
     In 2018, Battenfield led OSU with 26 appearances (25 in relief) and was 2-3 with a pair of saves and a 4.66 ERA; he also had 62 strikeouts in 56 innings.

Fear The Beards
     A pair of Cowboy righties have been a huge boost to the OSU pitching staff over the first month of the season.
     Junior Ben Leeper has emerged as OSU's closer and is thriving in that role as he has posted four saves and a 3-0 record. The Texan has allowed only two runs over 18.0 innings in 16 appearances while striking out 24.
     In OSU's win over 16th-ranked Michigan, Leeper took the mound at Dodger Stadium to open the bottom of the 10th and struck out the side to secure OSU's 3-2 victory. He also has saves against UT Rio Grande Valley and Wichita State.
     Leeper has undergone Tommy John surgery twice, missing his senior season of high school and most of the 2016 and 2017 seasons with the Cowboys. He entered 2019 with a 1-2 record and 11.02 ERA in 19 career outings at OSU.
     Standlee was expected to be a key contributor to the OSU staff in 2018 but was forced to redshirt the season after being declared academically ineligible.
     Taking the mound for his first season in 2019, Standlee has appeared in 11 games, four as a starter, and is 2-0 with a save and a 3.41 ERA. The right-hander ranks second on the Cowboys with 34 strikeouts.
     Standlee made his first-career start against Missouri State and was dominant over seven shutout innings, allowing only six singles while striking out eight, the most strikeouts by a Cowboy pitcher this season.

From The Start Or Out Of The Pen
     Senior Joe Lienhard has proven to be a valuable commodity throughout his career, whether it be as a starter or reliever.
     The righty has made 68 career appearances, 28 of those as a starter, and is 11-7 with a save and a 4.62 ERA to go along with 164 strikeouts in 185.0 innings.
     Lienhard has made 13 appearances (four starts, three of them in Big 12 play) this season and is 2-1 with a 3.77 ERA. After coming out of the bullpen in his first seven outings, Lienhard got the start against No. 16 Michigan at Dodger Stadium and tossed 5 1/3 strong innings, allowing just one run on four hits and striking out three; he also started against K-State on Saturday.
     As a junior, Lienhard was an All-Big 12 honorable mention selection. He went 4-1 in eight Big 12 starts, including the conference opener at Texas in which he worked a career-high 8 1/3 innings and struck out eight (also a career best) while only giving up one run.
     Lienhard's father, Steve, pitched on four College World Series teams at OSU from 1984-87 and posted a 12-4 record with three saves.