Game Notes

Oklahoma State (7-2) at the Frisco College Baseball Classic

Fri., Feb. 28/3 p.m. • Sat., Feb. 29/2 p.m. • Sun., March 1/3 p.m.
Dr. Pepper Ballpark (10,316) • Frisco, Texas

Video/TV: FloBaseball.TV
Radio: KSPI 93.7 FM & stillwaterradio.net (Rex Holt & Matt Davis)
Live Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
Twitter In-Game Updates: @OSUBaseball

About Oklahoma State
   • Oklahoma State is 7-2 and carries a six-game winning streak into this weekend's Frisco College Baseball Classic. The Cowboys own a .321 team batting average and have outstcored their last three opponents — Arizona State, UT Rio Grande Valley and Little Rock — by a combined score of 59-15 in six games.
   • The Cowboys are coming off a 40-21 season in which the Cowboys advanced to within one game of the College World Series. After winning the Big 12 Championship and NCAA Oklahoma City Regional titles, the Pokes fell in three games to Texas Tech at the Lubbock Super Regional.
   • Four position players who started at least 45 games for the Cowboys last season return in 2020 — outfielders Carson McCusker and Cade Cabbiness, infielder Hueston Morrill and first baseman Alix Garcia. OSU also returns a number of experienced arms on the mound, led by Parker Scott, Brett Standlee and Ben Leeper.
   • The 2020 season is OSU's eighth under head coach Josh Holliday, who is 278-155-1 at his alma mater.

Cowboys & The Frisco College Baseball Classic
   • Oklahoma State is making its second appearance in the Frisco College Baseball Classic after having been a part of the inaugural tourney field in 2017 and going 2-1 with wins over Nebraska and Arkansas and a loss to Arizona.
   • UCLA: The Bruins are a consensus Top 10 team and ranked No. 1 in the Collegiate Baseball poll. UCLA is 8-0 on the season and is hitting .298 with a team ERA of 0.75 that ranks second in the NCAA.
   The Cowboys are 1-6 all time against UCLA, including an 0-1 mark under Josh Holliday as OSU dropped a 6-3 contest in Los Angeles last season.
   • Illinois: Illinois owns a 3-3 record and is coming off wins over Coastal Carolina and West Virginia. The Fighting Illini own a .200 team batting average while the pitching staff sports a 3.74 ERA.
   OSU owns an 11-3 overall record against Illinois and is 1-2 under Josh Holliday, with the Illini claiming a series win in Stillwater in 2015 in their last meeting.
   • Texas A&M: TAMU is ranked as high as 13th nationally and brings a 10-0 record into the weekend. The Aggies are hitting .340, which ranks sixth nationally, and own a 2.48 team ERA.
   OSU is 32-32 all time against its former Big 12 Conference foe. The two teams have never faced each other during the Josh Holliday era; the last meeting came in 2012 in Stillwater with the Aggies sweeping the final series of the regular season.

In The Polls
   OSU maintained a spot in the 2020 national rankings for the third consecutive week, checking in as high as No. 23 by Baseball America and coming in at No. 24 in the Perfect Game poll. The Cowboys occupy the No. 28 spot in both the Collegiate Baseball and NCBWA rankings.
   The Cowboys spent 12 weeks in the rankings in 2019 and finished as high as No. 11 in the final polls.
   From March 4, 2013 to April 3, 2017, OSU was ranked in at least one national poll, a streak of 77 consecutive weeks. During that time, the Cowboys spent 18 weeks in the Top 10 and were ranked as high as No. 3 (by the NCBWA in 2014). They have finished in the top 10 in the final national polls twice in the last six seasons — 10th in 2014 and fourth in 2016.

High Five
OSU entered the 2020 season as the fifth-winningest team in NCAA history in terms of winning percentage at .661.

2,657 & Counting
   Oklahoma State began the 2020 season 15th on the NCAA's all-time Division I wins list with 2,657. The Cowboys are one of only 24 programs in Division I history to reach 2,600 victories, and of those, only three — Florida State, Miami (Fla.) and Fresno State — have played fewer seasons than OSU's 108.

Star Studded
   With the addition of Matt Holliday (volunteer assistant) and Robin Ventura (student assistant) to the coaching staff, OSU has a coaching duo unique to a college baseball dugout. Between them, Holliday and Ventura played in nearly 4,000 Major League Baseball games over 31 seasons and accumulated 610 home runs, 2,402 RBIs and nine All-Star selections.
   Holliday won four Silver Slugger Awards and played in three World Series, including winning a title with St. Louis in 2011, while Ventura racked up six Gold Gloves as a third baseman and also spent five seasons (2012-16) as the manager of the Chicago White Sox and led them to 375 wins.

Extra Innings At Allie P.
   OSU's historic ballpark, Allie P. Reynolds Stadium, enters its 40th season in 2020 and will play host to 14 games before the Cowboys move into the new O'Brate Stadium on March 20.
   Allie P. has been home to Oklahoma State baseball since April 4, 1981, and in those 39-plus seasons, the Cowboys have established a decisive home-field advantage.
   OSU is 940-247-1 (.792) all time at Reynolds Stadium. In the stadium's history, the Cowboys have lost more than two consecutive games on their 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, '12, '13, '14, '17 and '18).

Building A Winner
   In seven seasons as head coach at his alma mater, Josh Holliday has built a sparkling resume. Among the highlights:
   • The Cowboys earned seven NCAA Regional berths, advanced to three Super Regionals and played in the College World Series for the first time since Holliday was a senior for the Cowboys in 1999.
   • OSU finished first or second in the Big 12 Conference standings five times, claiming the program's first-ever regular season Big 12 title in 2014 and finishing 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 2019, they were ranked as high as 11th in the final polls.
   • The Pokes have added three Big 12 championships to the program's total. 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. The Cowboys also claimed the conference tourney title in 2019.
   • OSU hosted NCAA Regionals in 2014 and 2015 and was the top-seeded team both times. The Cowboys were also awarded a No. 9 national seed and host and top-seed status of the NCAA Oklahoma City Regional in 2019.
   • Holliday has coached 62 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
   Oklahoma State's strength of schedule ranked as the nation's second toughest in 2019, and the Pokes will face stout opposition again this season, with 10 NCAA Regional teams from a year ago on the slate. Nine of OSU's opponents were ranked in the preseason polls — Arizona State (3), Texas Tech (3), UCLA (8), Oklahoma (16), TCU (20), Texas A&M (20), Dallas Baptist (23), Texas (24) and Oregon State (25).

Close Calls
   OSU is 72-40 in one-run games under Josh Holliday, and 71 of the Cowboys' 155 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 120 games in Holliday's eight seasons.

Go Pro
During Josh Holliday's tenure as head coach, Oklahoma State has had 45 players selected in the Major League Baseball Draft. Thirteen 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.
   In 2019, OSU's eight draft picks tied for the ninth most of any Division I program; all eight were selected in the first 30 rounds, tying the Cowboys for the fifth-highest total in Division I.

Back On The Bump
   Parker Scott struggled with injuries that cost him the majority of his first two seasons in Stillwater, but the southpaw emerged healthy in 2019 and proved to be a valuable member of the Cowboys' rotation.
   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 that caused him to redshirt in 2018.
   A year ago, Scott returned to the mound for the first time since March 12, 2017 and tossed a scoreless inning against Michigan (3/10) before earning his first-career win in relief vs. K-State (3/24).
   Scott went on to make 15 appearances, eight as a starter, and went 3-1 with a 2.18 ERA and 51 strikeouts in 45 1/3 innings. He led the Big 12 in conference-only games with a 1.11 ERA while racking up 31 strikeouts in 24 1/3 innings of work.
   Scott turned in one of the best performances of his career in the opener of the Big 12 Baseball Championship as he tossed six innings and allowed just one run on four hits while striking out four to earn a win against TCU.
   In two starts this season, Scott is 2-0 with a 0.75 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 12 innings of work.

Canadian Cowboy
   In his third and final season in an OSU uniform, senior Max Hewitt is poised to cap his career with his best year in Stillwater.
   Through the first two-plus weeks of the season, Hewitt owns a .483 batting average (14-for-29), which ranks fourth in the Big 12.
   A native of Ontario, Canada, Hewitt played in 57 games over his first two OSU seasons, 28 of those as a starter, and hit .260 with nine RBIs and two extra-base hits. He has already driven in seven runs this season and tallied two doubles and a triple.
   Used primarily as a middle infielder over the last two seasons, Hewitt made his debut as OSU's catcher in the second game of 2020 and has started five games behind the dish for the Pokes after having not previously played the position since high school.

Welcome, Glad You're Here
   OSU's 2020 recruiting class was ranked as high as No. 3 nationally, and a number of players are expected to have an immediate impact this season.
   The Cowboys' starting lineup on opening weekend included four newcomers — transfers Brock Mathis, Jake Thompson and Kaden Polcovich and freshman Caeden Trenkle — while two-thirds of the starting pitching rotation was comprised of true freshmen in right-handers Bryce Osmond and Justin Campbell.
   In a vote of the league's head coaches, Polcovich was selected as the Preseason Big 12 Newcomer of the Year, while Osmond was tabbed the Preseason Freshman of the Year.
   Polcovich comes to Stillwater after two standout junior college seasons at Northwest Florida State. With the versatility to play on the infield and in the outfield, the switch hitter and hit .273 last season with 12 home runs, 38 RBIs and 16 stolen bases in 53 games. He followed that up by being named to the 2019 All-Cape Cod League Team last summer.
   Osmond enjoyed a highly decorated career at Jenks High School, where he was a prep All-American. A possible two-way player as a right-handed pitcher and shortstop, he was rated the No. 53 overall prospect in the 2019 Major League Baseball Draft by MLB Pipeline, and he was a 35th-round pick of the Washington Nationals last June.

Here For The First Time
   Of the 34 players on OSU's active roster, 21 of those are either true freshmen (11), redshirt freshmen (3) or sophomores (7).
   Of the 14 hurlers who took the mound for OSU on opening weekend, eight were newcomers, including five true freshmen and a sophomore who had never pitched at the college level.
   Three of the top five hitters in the OSU lineup are newcomers, with Caeden Trenkle (.361), Kaden Polcovich (.333) and Jake Thompson (.333) also combining for 30 of the Cowboys' 63 RBIs on the year.

One-Hit Wonder
   C.J. Varela turned in the 25th one-hit performance on the mound in OSU program history in the Cowboys' 12-0 win in the series finale vs. Little Rock.
   The senior right-hander worked all seven innings, allowing only one hit — a single that resulted in the Trojans' lone baserunner of the game — and striking out five.
   Varela's one-hitter was the 14th in program history in a game that went seven innings. The Cowboys have had seven one-hit performances in nine-inning games, three that went six innings and one in a five-inning contest.

Cowboy Baseball Heads To Texas For Frisco Classic

Game Notes

Oklahoma State (7-2) at the Frisco College Baseball Classic

Fri., Feb. 28/3 p.m. • Sat., Feb. 29/2 p.m. • Sun., March 1/3 p.m.
Dr. Pepper Ballpark (10,316) • Frisco, Texas

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Cade Cabbiness

Justin Campbell

Alix Garcia

Max Hewitt

Ben Leeper

Brock Mathis

Carson McCusker

Hueston Morrill

Bryce Osmond

Kaden Polcovich

Parker Scott

Brett Standlee

Jake Thompson

Caeden Trenkle

C.J. Varela

Oklahoma State University Athletics

Cowboy Baseball Heads To Texas For Frisco Classic

Game Notes

Oklahoma State (7-2) at the Frisco College Baseball Classic

Fri., Feb. 28/3 p.m. • Sat., Feb. 29/2 p.m. • Sun., March 1/3 p.m. Dr. Pepper Ballpark (10,316) • Frisco, Texas

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Cade Cabbiness

Justin Campbell

Alix Garcia

Max Hewitt

Ben Leeper

Brock Mathis

Carson McCusker

Hueston Morrill

Bryce Osmond

Kaden Polcovich

Parker Scott

Brett Standlee

Jake Thompson

Caeden Trenkle

C.J. Varela

Related Videos

Fri., Feb. 28/3 p.m. • Sat., Feb. 29/2 p.m. • Sun., March 1/3 p.m.
Dr. Pepper Ballpark (10,316) • Frisco, Texas