2021 Oklahoma State Cowboy Baseball Season Superlatives

2021 Cowboy Baseball team pic - pistols firing

2021 Oklahoma State Cowboy Baseball

August 11, 2021 | Cowboy Baseball

• Oklahoma State finished the season with a 36-19-1 record. The Cowboys were fourth in the Big 12 Conference standings with a 12-12 league mark.

• The Cowboys earned an eighth consecutive NCAA Tournament bid.

• OSU's NCAA Regional berth was the 46^th in program history, which ranks as the fourth most in NCAA history.

• OSU opened O'Brate Stadium with a game against Little Rock on Feb. 24. The Cowboys were 7-2 winners.

• A crowd of 6,362 set an OSU baseball single-game home attendance record as O'Brate Stadium was officially dedicated on May 20 vs. New Orleans. The celebration included a ceremonial first pitch by the 43^rd President of the United States, George W. Bush.

• The Cowboys were ranked in at least one national poll every week during the 2021 season, peaking at No. 9 in mid-March. They finished No. 24 in the Collegiate Baseball rankings.

• OSU came in at No. 14 in the final NCAA RPI.

• OSU advanced to the Big 12 Championship title game for the third time in the last four tournaments and the fifth time in eight tourneys under Josh Holliday.

• Justin Campbell, Caeden Trenkle and Christian Encarnacion-Strand were named to the Big 12 Championship All-Tournament Team.

• OSU's 9-0 start to the 2021 season was its best-ever start to a season under Josh Holliday, surpassing that of the 2014 Cowboys, who won their first seven games.
   Until posting a tie in the series finale vs. Grand Canyon, the Pokes had tallied 14 consecutive victories after winning their final five games of 2020 prior to the cancellation of the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Justin Campbell became the 120^th and 121^st All-Americans in OSU history as both were named to various All-America teams including:
    • Collegiate Baseball – Encarnacion-Strand and Campbell (second team)
    • NCBWA – Encarnacion-Strand (first team)
    • Baseball America – Campbell (third team)
    • Perfect Game/Rawlings – Campbell (second team)
    • ABCA – Encarnacion-Strand (third team)

• Christian Encarnacion-Strand became the 26^th player in OSU baseball history to earn first-team All-America honors and the first since 2017.

• Justin Campbell was named to a pair of Freshman All-America teams. He earned NCBWA Freshman All-America First Team honors as a starting pitcher and was selected to the Baseball America Freshman All-America Second Team as a utility player.

• Christian Encarnacion-Strand was a semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy.

• Justin Campbell was one of five finalists for the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award and was on the Golden Spikes Award Watch List.

• Christian Encarnacion-Strand was named the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year, the fourth Cowboy to win the award.

• OSU had nine players garner All-Big 12 accolades in 2021. Named to the All-Big 12 First Team were Christian Encarnacion-Strand, who was a unanimous pick as an infielder, and Justin Campbell, who made the first team as both a utility player and pitcher. Brett Standlee was named to the All-Big 12 Second Team, while six Cowboys — Cade Cabbiness, Max Hewitt, Carson McCusker, Parker Scott, Jake Thompson and Caeden Trenkle — were honorable mention selections.

• Trevor Martin was named to the 2021 Big 12 All-Freshman Team.

• Justin Campbell became only the second player in OSU history to earn All-Big 12 honors at two different positions in the same season, joining Jordy Mercer on that list. He is the first Cowboy to earn first-team accolades at two positions.

• Two Cowboys earned ABCA/Rawlings All-Central Region honors as Christian Encarnacion-Strand was named to the first team while Justin Campbell collected second-team honors.

• Justin Campbell was named to the 2021 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team. He is the 12^th player in program history to compete for a USA Baseball Collegiate National Team.

• The Cowboys collected nine Big 12 Conference weekly awards on the season.
    • Week 2 (3/1) - Brock Mathis, Big 12 Co-Newcomer of the Week
    • Week 3 (3/8) - Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Big 12 Co-Newcomer of Week
    • Week 4 (3/15) - Justin Campbell, Big 12 Pitcher of the Week & Big 12 Co-Newcomer of Week
    • Week 5 (3/22) - Parker Scott, Big 12 Pitcher of the Week
    • Week 7 (4/5) - Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Big 12 Player of the Week
    • Week 10 (4/26) - Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Big 12 Player of the Week
    • Week 12 (5/10) - Justin Campbell, Big 12 Pitcher of the Week
    • Week 13 (5/17) - Cade Cabbiness, Big 12 Player of the Week

• Justin Campbell was named a Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Week on May 10. He earned the Golden Spikes Award Performance of the Week, the NCBWA Pitcher of the Week and the College Baseball Foundation Pitcher of the Week on May 11.

• Josh Holliday became the fourth coach in program history to lead OSU to 300 wins as he recorded his 300th career win against Oklahoma on March 30. With 320 career wins, Holliday ranks third on OSU's all-time coaching wins list.

• Christian Encarnacion-Strand hit for the cycle against UAPB on April 21 to become just the fifth OSU player in the Big 12 Conference-era to achieve the feat and first since 2017.
   Encarnacion-Strand went 5-for-5 in the game against the Golden Lions. He homered in his first at-bat before reeling off a double, single, another homer and a triple in his final AB in the seventh inning.

• Justin Campbell recorded 102 strikeouts, marking the 18th time an OSU pitcher has recorded 100 strikeouts in a season. He is the 15th different Cowboy hurler to achieve the feat and the first since 2016.

• The OSU pitching staff tossed seven shutouts, the 11^th most in the NCAA in 2021. The total tied for the fourth highest in a season in program history and marks only the eighth time the Cowboys have recorded seven or more shutouts in a season.

• Christian Encarnacion-Strand posted a 19-game hitting streak, the longest by a Cowboy since 2013 and the ninth longest in program history.

• Justin Campbell posted a career-high 14 strikeouts in seven scoreless innings against Oral Roberts on March 9; the 14 strikeouts were just two shy of the OSU single-game record. In that game, Campbell teamed with Mitchell Stone, Kale Davis and Brett Standlee to strike out 19, with that total only one shy of the OSU and Big 12 record for a nine-inning game.

• Justin Campbell tossed a no-hitter at Kansas on May 8. It marked only the third nine-inning no-hitter by an OSU pitcher in the 110-year history of the program and the first since 1968. It was the ninth no-hitter by an individual in program history, with five of those coming in seven-inning games and one in a five-inning contest.
   Campbell needed just 99 pitches to secure the no-no, and he struck out 11. He issued just one walk, which came with one out in the eighth inning and was the only thing that kept him from a perfect game.
   The no-hitter was the first for OSU since 1993 when four Cowboys combined for the feat. It was the 19^th no-hitter in Big 12 history and the 12^th by an individual.

• Jake Thompson led the Big 12 in conference-only games with a .393 batting average.

• OSU had three players selected in the 2021 Major League Baseball Draft.
    • Christian Encarnacion-Strand, 3B, 4^th round, pick 128 – Minnesota Twins
    • Justin Wrobleski, LHP, 11^th round, pick 342 – Los Angeles Dodgers
    • Brett Standlee, RHP, 17^th round, pick 506 – San Francisco Giants

• OSU had a conference record 20 players earn Academic All-Big 12 honors First Team. That total marks the most overall recognitions and the most first-team honorees by any baseball program in the conference since the Big 12 formed in 1996. Making the list were Colton Bowman, Cade Cabbiness, Zach Cable, Wyatt Cheney, Kale Davis, Alix Garcia, Dylan Gardner, Max Hewitt, Brock Mathis, Carson McCusker, Riley Metzger, Hueston Morrill, Bryce Osmond, Roman Phansalkar, Parker Scott, Noah Sifrit, Mitchell Stone, Jake Thompson, Caeden Trenkle and C.J. Varela.

• Additionally, five Cowboys made the team with a 4.0 grade point average, the most ever in league history. Earning that distinction were Alix Garcia, Carson McCusker, Riley Metzger, Jake Thompson and Caeden Trenkle.

• OSU set a program record with a 3.39 GPA for the spring 2021 semester. Fourteen Cowboys earned a 4.0 GPA in the spring, while 36 were named to the Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll with a 3.0 or higher GPA.

• Carson McCusker and Jake Thompson were named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District 7 First Team.