Cowboy Baseball Opens Big 12 Play

Game Notes

Kansas (8-11) at #4 Oklahoma State (15-6)

Fri., March 25 • 6 p.m. / Sat., March 26 • 6 p.m. / Sun., March 27 • 1 p.m.
O'Brate Stadium (8,000) • Stillwater, Okla.

Video/TV: Big 12 Now On ESPN+ (Fri.) okstate.com/watch/ (Sat./Sun.) (Dave Hunziker & Tom Holliday)
Radio: KSPI 93.7 FM & stillwaterradio.net (Rex Holt & Matt Davis)
Live Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
Twitter In-Game Updates: @OSUBaseball

About Oklahoma State
     • Winners of eight in a row, OSU is 15-6 on the season, and the fourth-ranked Cowboys open Big 12 Conference play Friday against Kansas at O'Brate Stadium.
     • The Cowboys are coming off a 36-19-1 season in 2021 in which they earned an eighth consecutive NCAA Regional berth. OSU finished fourth in the Big 12 Conference standings at 12-12.
     • OSU returns 13 letterwinners from a year ago, including four position starters and nine pitchers. Highlighting the list are Preseason All-Americans Justin Campbell, Victor Mederos and Nolan McLean, as well as Jake Thompson, a Preseason All-Big 12 pick along with Campbell and McLean.
     • The 2022 season is OSU's 10th under head coach Josh Holliday, who is 334-183-2 at his alma mater.

About Kansas
     • Kansas is 8-11 on the season and coming off a midweek loss at Wichita State. The Jayhawks are hitting .256 while their pitching staff sports a 5.85 ERA.
     • Ritch Price is in his 20th season as KU's head coach and owns a 569-534-3 career record.
     • KU's starting pitching rotation vs. the Cowboys is expected to be:
     Friday: LHP Daniel Hegarty — 2-1, 7.62 ERA in nine relief appearances, 12 K, 4 BB in 13.0 IP
     Saturday: RHP Cole Larsen — 0-3, 5.04 ERA in five starts, 21 K, 7 BB in 30.1 IP
     Sunday: RHP Ryan Vanderhei — 3-1, 3.86 ERA in five starts, 33 K, 14 BB in 28.0 IP

Cowboys vs. Jayhawks
     OSU is 146-57 all time against Kansas, including a 15-10 mark under Josh Holliday. The Cowboys won last year's series in Lawrence with victories in the first two games.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T
     After being ranked as high as No. 7 in the preseason and rising to No. 3 on Feb. 21 to match its highest-ever ranking under Josh Holliday, OSU checks in as high as No. 4 in this week's Perfect Game poll. The Cowboys are also ranked No. 9 by D1Baseball, 10th by Baseball America, 13th in the USA Today coaches poll, 14th in the NCBWA rankings and 25th by Collegiate Baseball.
     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 under Josh Holliday — 10th in 2014 and fourth in 2016.

Number Two And A Long Way To Go
     With 335 wins, Josh Holliday ranks second on OSU's all-time wins list behind hall of famer Gary Ward, who guided the Pokes to 953 victories in 19 seasons, and he is one of only four coaches to reach the 300-win milestone with the Cowboys, joining Ward, Frank Anderson (329) and Toby Greene (318).
     Holliday recorded his 300th career win as a head coach when he led his alma mater to a 5-4 win over Bedlam-rival Oklahoma on March 30 in Stillwater.

Everybody's Golden All-American
     Justin Campbell is a consensus Preseason First-Team All-American as he earned that distinction from D1Baseball, Perfect Game and the NCBWA.
      The Cowboy right-hander is also one of 55 players on USA Baseball's Golden Spikes Award Watch List.

All-American Cowboys
     Joining Justin Campbell on the list of OSU Preseason All-Americans are Victor Mederos and Nolan McLean. Mederos was a Preseason All-America Second Team selection by Baseball America, while McLean earned third-team honors from D1Baseball.

Big 12 Love For The Pokes
     OSU was picked by league coaches to finish second behind Texas in the 2022 Big 12 Conference standings. Three Cowboys - Justin Campbell, Nolan McLean and Jake Thompson - were named to the Preseason All-Big 12 Team, while Victor Mederos was named the Preseason Newcomer of the Year and Roc Riggio the Preseason Freshman of the Year.

A Star Is Born
     Justin Campbell blossomed into an All-American in 2021, building an impressive resume by dominating on the mound and also being a threat with a bat in his hands.
     In 14 appearances (13 starts), the righty posted a 7-2 record and 2.57 ERA, and he recorded 102 strikeouts in 84 innings, marking the 18th time an OSU pitcher has recorded 100 strikeouts in a season. He became the 15th different Cowboy hurler to achieve the feat and the first since Thomas Hatch (112) and Trey Cobb (100) in 2016.
     Campbell earned All-American status from Collegiate Baseball, Perfect Game/Rawlings and Baseball America, and he was named All-Big 12 First Team as both a pitcher and utility player.
     Last season, Campbell also played in 30 games as a DH and pinch hitter and hit .269 with a home run, five doubles and 10 RBIs, and he was one of five finalists for the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award.
     Campbell became 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 only Cowboy to earn first-team accolades at two positions as Mercer was named to the first team as a utility player and made the second team as a shortstop in 2008.

No-No
     Justin Campbell joined an elite group by tossing a no-hitter against Kansas on May 8, 2021.
     Campbell's historic day 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-hitter as he struck out 11 and improved to 5-1 with his first-career shutout. 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 Cowboy hurlers combined for the feat.
     Campbell's no-hitter was the 19th in Big 12 history and the 12th by an individual.

'K'onsistency
     Justin Campbell leads the Big 12 and ranks eighth nationally with 49 strikeouts. He has posted double digit strikeouts in each of his last three starts (10-12-10) and has struck out at least eight in all five of his starts on the season.
     In 2021, Campbell struck out 10 or more in five of his 13 starts and had six games of eight-plus Ks.

Jake Rakes
     Jake Thompson has established himself as one of the Big 12's top hitters, sporting a .402 batting average that ranks fourth in the conference. He is also third in the league with 33 hits, fourth with 23 RBIs and fifth with a .500 on-base percentage.
     Thompson, who Josh Holliday calls one of the best two-strike hitters he's ever coached, has reached base safely in 36 of OSU's last 37 games, including a streak of 25 consecutive games during that stretch, and he leads the Cowboys with 10 multi-hit games.
     A sixth-year graduate student who has found a home at his fourth college stop, Thompson is OSU's leading returning hitter after posting a .342 batting average last season, and he was the Big 12's top hitter in conference-only games in 2021 with a .393 average.

Small Town, Big Time
     What is it about OSU closers and small towns?! We don't know, but Trevor Martin is continuing a trend this season.
     Martin hails from Asher, Oklahoma, population 412, and the right-hander is 1-0 with a Big 12-best six saves and a 3.29 ERA in a team-high 12 stints out of the bullpen this season. He's also tallied 25 strikeouts in 13 2/3 innings of work. He ranks fifth nationally in saves and eighth in appearances.
     In 2014, Brendan McCurry set OSU's single-season saves record with 19 to earn first-team All-America honors. A native of Tupelo, Oklahoma, population 330, McCurry is also the Cowboys' leader in career saves with 27. His brother, Randy, had 10 saves in 2009 and finished his career with a dozen.
     Another small-town Oklahoma kid, Jordy Mercer, from Taloga, Oklahoma, population 300, served as OSU's closer from 2006-08 and ranks second on OSU's all-time list with 17 saves.

Late-Inning Heroics
    The Cowboys have shown a flair for the dramatic to find success late in games and emerge victorious.
     • In the series finale and rubber game at Vanderbilt, the Cowboys scored two runs in the ninth inning to break a 5-5 tie and claim the win.
     • The Cowboys trailed Wright State 6-2 in the ninth inning of the second game of their Sunday doubleheader but scored four runs to send the game to extra innings before getting a walk-off win in the 10th.
     • OSU was down 4-1 after seven innings in its series opener at Arizona State but plated four runs in the eighth inning and two in the ninth to secure a 7-5 victory.
     • In game two of the BYU series, neither team had scored entering the eighth inning. The Pokes rallied for three runs with two outs and went on to a 3-0 win.
     • Trailing 4-3 in the seventh against DBU, the Cowboys rallied for two runs in the inning en route to a 5-4 win.
     • Jake Thompson's two-out, three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning in the series finale against Seton Hall snapped a 3-3 tie in a game OSU went on to win 6-4.

Short Hops
    • OSU currently sits at No. 28 in the official NCAA RPI, while Kansas is No. 146.
    • The Cowboys' pitching staff ranks second in the Big 12 with a 3.46 ERA and 233 strikeouts.
    • OSU's .988 fielding percentage ranks fourth nationally and leads the Big 12. The Cowboys have committed just nine errors on the season.
    • Cowboy pinch hitters are 14-for-27 (.519) on the season.

Game Notes

Kansas (8-11) at #4 Oklahoma State (15-6)

Fri., March 25 • 6 p.m. / Sat., March 26 • 6 p.m. / Sun., March 27 • 1 p.m.
O'Brate Stadium (8,000) • Stillwater, Okla.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Justin Campbell

Trevor Martin

Nolan McLean

Victor Mederos

Roc Riggio

Jake Thompson

Oklahoma State University Athletics