Oklahoma State University Athletics

Non-Conference Bedlam In Tulsa Up Next For Cowboy Baseball
March 28, 2022 | Cowboy Baseball
Game Notes
#2 Oklahoma State (18-6) vs. Oklahoma (14-8)
Tues., March 29 • 7 p.m.
ONEOK Field (7,833) • Tulsa, Okla.
 Video/TV: SoonerSports.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
    • Winners of 11 in a row, OSU is 18-6 on the season and opened Big 12 Conference play with a series sweep of Kansas over the weekend. The second-ranked Cowboys travel to Tulsa for a non-conference Bedlam showdown against Oklahoma Tuesday night before returning to league play this weekend at Kansas State.
    • 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 Oklahoma
    • Oklahoma is 14-8 on the season and coming off a series win at home against Baylor. The Sooners are hitting .290 while their pitching staff sports a 5.36 ERA.
    • Skip Johnson is in his fifth season as OU's head coach and owns a 126-88 career record.
    • OU is expected to start Braden Carmichael on the mound against the Pokes. The southpaw is 1-0 with a 9.24 ERA in five appearances (two starts) and has 12 strikeouts and seven walks in 12 2/3 innings.
Cowboys vs. Sooners
    OSU is 179-155 all time against Oklahoma, including a 27-9 mark under Josh Holliday. The Cowboys went 4-2 against the Sooners last season, including a midweek win at ONEOK Field.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
    In this week's national rankings, OSU checks in as high as No. 2 in the Perfect Game poll, which marks its highest-ever ranking under Josh Holliday. The Cowboys are also ranked No. 6 by D1Baseball and Baseball America, No. 8 by the NCBWA, No. 9 in the USA Today coaches poll and No. 10 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.
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.
'K'onsistency
    Justin Campbell leads the Big 12 and ranks seventh nationally with 58 strikeouts. He has posted double digit strikeout totals three times and has struck out at least eight in all six 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 .389 batting average that ranks sixth in the conference. He is also fifth in the league with 35 hits and seventh with 24 RBIs and 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 39 of OSU's last 40 games, including a streak of 25 consecutive games during that stretch, and he leads the Cowboys with 11 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 seven saves and a 3.07 ERA in a team-high 13 stints out of the bullpen this season. He's also tallied 27 strikeouts in 14 2/3 innings of work. He ranks fourth nationally in saves and 15th 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. 24 in the official NCAA RPI, while Oklahoma is No. 44.
   • The Cowboys' pitching staff ranks second in the Big 12 with a 3.32 ERA and 270 strikeouts.
   • OSU's .990 fielding percentage leads the NCAA. The Cowboys have committed just nine errors on the season.
We're Going Streaking
    OSU's current 11-game winning streak is the third longest of the Josh Holliday head coaching era. The Pokes won 14 in a row in 2020-21 (last five games of COVID shortened '20 season and first nine of '21) and went on a 12-game win streak in 2014.
    The program record for longest winning streak is 30 games, set by the 1986 Cowboys.
Â
Players Mentioned
The Power of One: The Full Story of Shirtless Section 231
Thursday, October 16
Coaching Search Update with Chad Weiberg - Inside Oklahoma State Athletics
Thursday, October 16
David Taylor on his first season with Cowboy Wrestling and the future - 10-15-2025 News Conference
Wednesday, October 15
Jacie Hoyt Previews 2025-26 Cowgirl Basketball Season (10-13-2025)
Tuesday, October 14