Cowboy Baseball Back In Arlington To Take On BYU

Game Notes

#6 Oklahoma State (7-5) vs. BYU (7-3)

Thurs., March 10 • 6:30 p.m. / Fri., March 11 • 6:30 p.m. / Sat., March 12 • 2:30 p.m.
Globe Life Field (40,300) • Arlington, Texas

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

About Oklahoma State
     • OSU is 7-5 on the season, and the sixth-ranked Cowboys return to action Thursday when they open a three-game series against BYU at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. The series was originally scheduled for BYU's home field in Provo, Utah, but inclement weather resulted in the venue relocation.
     • 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 326-181-2 at his alma mater.

About BYU
     • BYU is 7-3 on the season. The Cougars are hitting .277 while their pitching staff sports a 3.24 ERA.
     • Mike Littlewood is in his ninth season as the Cougars' head coach and owns an 245-190 career record.
     • GU's starting pitching rotation vs. the Cowboys is expected to be:
     Thursday: RHP Jack Sterner — 0-1 with a 2.87 ERA in three starts, 14 K, 4 BB in 15.2 IP
     Friday: RHP Janzen Kiesel — 2-0, 2.35 ERA in three starts, 19 K, 7 BB in 15.1 IP
     Saturday: RHP Nate Dahle — 0-2, 4.76 ERA in three starts, 15 K, 3 BB in 11.1 IP

Cowboys vs. Cougars
     OSU is 12-4 all time against BYU, including a 3-0 mark under Josh Holliday. The two teams last met in 2020 in Stillwater, with the Cowboys sweeping a three-game series.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T
     After being ranked as high as No. 7 in the preseason polls and rising to No. 3 to match its highest-ever ranking under Josh Holliday, OSU checks in at No. 6 in this week's Baseball America and
D1Baseball rankings and No. 8 in the Perfect Game poll. The Cowboys are also ranked 11th by the NCBWA, are 12th in the USA Today coaches poll and come in at 16th in the Collegiate Baseball rankings.
     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.

300 Club
     Josh 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.
     Holliday is one of four coaches to reach the 300-win milestone at OSU, joining Gary Ward (953), Frank Anderson (329) and Toby Greene (318), and he ranks third on the all-time wins list with 327.

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.

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

Jake Rakes
     Jake Thompson has established himself as one of the Big 12's top hitters, sporting a .444 batting average that ranks third in the conference. He is tied for the league lead with 20 hits and is fourth with a .554 on-base percentage.
     Thompson, who Josh Holliday calls one of the best two-strike hitters he's ever coached, has reached base safely in 28 of OSU's last 29 games, including a streak of 25 consecutive games during that stretch, and he leads the Cowboys with six 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 pair of saves in a team-high seven stints out of the bullpen this season.
     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.

Short Hops
    • OSU currently sits at No. 44 in the official NCAA RPI, while BYU is 75th.
    • The Cowboys' pitching staff ranks second in the Big 12 with a 3.35 ERA and 133 strikeouts.
    • Justin Campbell is tied for the Big 12 lead and ranks 23rd nationally with 27 strikeouts.
    • OSU's .987 fielding percentage ranks sixth nationally and is tops in the Big 12. The Cowboys have committed just six errors on the season.
    • Cowboy pinch hitters are 10-for-18 (.556) on the season.

Game Notes

#6 Oklahoma State (7-5) vs. BYU (7-3)

Thurs., March 10 • 6:30 p.m. / Fri., March 11 • 6:30 p.m. / Sat., March 12 • 2:30 p.m.
Globe Life Field (40,300) • Arlington, Texas

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Players Mentioned

Justin Campbell

Trevor Martin

Nolan McLean

Victor Mederos

Jake Thompson

Oklahoma State University Athletics