Cowboy Baseball Travels To League-Leading West Virginia

Game Notes

#3 Oklahoma State (24-9, 7-2) at #24 West Virginia (21-10, 5-1)

Fri., April 15 • 5:30 p.m. / Sat., April 16 • 3 p.m. / Sun., April 17 • 12 p.m.
Monongalia County Ballpark (3,500) • Morgantown, W.Va.

Video/TV: ESPN+ (Andrew Caridi & Kyle Davis)
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 24-9 overall and tied for second in the Big 12 standings with a 7-2 conference mark. Up next, the third-ranked Cowboys will take on league-leading West Virginia in Morgantown this weekend.
     • 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 344-186-2 at his alma mater.

About West Virginia
     • West Virginia is 21-10 on the season and atop the Big 12 standings with a 5-1 conference mark. The Mountaineers are hitting .271 while their pitching staff sports a 4.30 ERA.
     • Randy Mazey is in his 10th season as WVU's head coach and owns a career 284-218 record. He also has head coaching stints at Charleston Southern and East Carolina.
     • WVU's starting pitching rotation vs. the Cowboys is expected to be:
     Friday: RHP Jacob Watters — 2-1, 3.38 ERA in 11 appearances (four starts), 37 K, 21 BB in 29.1 IP
     Saturday: LHP Ben Hampton — 5-2, 3.02 ERA in eight starts, 51 K, 10 BB in 50.2 IP
     Sunday: RHP Zach Bravo — 3-0, 5.20 ERA in nine appearances (five starts), 19 K, 9 BB in 27.2 IP

Cowboys vs. Mountaineers
     OSU is 20-12 all time against West Virginia, including an 17-12 mark under Josh Holliday. The Cowboys won last season's series in Stillwater with victories in the final two games.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T
     In this week's national rankings, OSU checks in as high as No. 3 in the Baseball America and Perfect Game polls. The Cowboys are ranked No. 4 by Collegiate Baseball, No. 5 by D1Baseball, No. 6 in the USA Today coaches poll and No. 7 by the NCBWA.
     OSU has been nationally ranked for 27 consecutive weeks dating back to the 2021 preseason polls. Its highest-ever ranking under Josh Holliday came March 28 when they were No. 2 in the Perfect Game poll.
     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.

RPI
     OSU currently sits at No. 22 in the official NCAA RPI, while West Virginia is No. 42.

Big Time In Big 12
     Entering the 2022 conference schedule, Josh Holliday ranked fifth all time among head coaches in winning percentage in Big 12 play at .597. In his first eight seasons, he led the Pokes to a 111-75 mark.

We're Going Streaking
     OSU's 11-game winning streak in March was 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.

Flashing The Leather
     OSU's .984 fielding percentage ranks fourth in the NCAA; the Pokes have made 19 errors in 2022.

If You Build It...
     OSU ranks seventh nationally in average home attendance; in 16 home dates at O'Brate Stadium this season, the Cowboys are averaging 5,575 fans.

'K'onsistency
     Justin Campbell leads the Big 12 and ranks ninth nationally with 73 strikeouts. He has posted double digit strikeout totals three times and has struck out at least eight in seven of his eight starts.
     In 2021, Campbell struck out 10 or more in five of his 13 starts and had six games of eight-plus Ks.

Jake Rakes
     With a team-leading .328 batting average and 31 RBIs, Jake Thompson has established himself as one of the Big 12's top hitters.
     Thompson, who Josh Holliday calls one of the best two-strike hitters he's ever coached, has reached base safely in 45 of OSU's last 49 games, including a streak of 25 consecutive games during that stretch, and he leads the Cowboys with 12 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.
     Martin hails from Asher, Oklahoma, population 412, and the right-hander is 1-2 with a Big 12-best nine saves in a team-high 18 appearances (17 in relief) this season. He's also tallied 34 strikeouts in 21.0 innings of work. He's already tied for fifth on OSU's single-season saves list - and one away from moving into a tie for second - and he ranks fourth nationally in saves and 14th 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.

Canadian Cowboy
     David Mendham's baseball journey has taken him from his native Canada to Oklahoma to South Carolina and back to Oklahoma, where he appears to have found a home in Stillwater.
     The OSU first baseman is on a tear at the plate, where he's hit safely in 15 of the Cowboys' last 18 games, including posting a nine-game hitting streak, the longest by a Cowboy this season.
     Mendham has raised his season batting average from .194 after the March 16th game against DBU to its current .316 mark, which ranks second on the team. He is OSU's leading hitter in Big 12 play at .314.
     Mendham leads OSU with 11 doubles and is second with 23 RBIs and a .520 slugging percentage.

Fab Frosh
     True freshman Zach Ehrhard has established himself at the top of the OSU lineup as one of the Cowboys' most consistent bats.
     Primarily OSU's right fielder, Ehrhard is third on the team with a .314 batting average and has hit safely in 24 of the 30 games in which he's had a plate appearance, including turning in 11 multi-hit efforts.

Two-Way Talent
     Nolan McLean's powerful bat has been a fixture in the middle of the Cowboys' order throughout the season, and he has also seen increased work on the mound of late.
     The sophomore leads the Cowboys with seven home runs and is second with eight doubles. He has hit safely in 11 of OSU's last 14 contests.
     McLean, a hard-throwing right-hander, has also made 10 relief appearances on the season and has racked up 20 strikeouts in 11.0 innings. He recorded his first-career save at Wichita State on April 5 and notched his first win vs. Oklahoma on April 9.

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 pitcher is also one of 45 players on USA Baseball's Golden Spikes Award midseason 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.

Roman's Numerals
     Roman Phansalkar is having a career year as a key part of OSU's bullpen.
     In his first two seasons at OSU spanning 2020 and 2021, the righty pitched in 15 games and had 21 walks and 17 strikeouts while allowing 26 runs (19 earned) in 19 1/3 innings.
     This season, Phansalkar is 3-2 with a 2.10 ERA in 14 relief appearances, and he's struck out 22 while walking just seven in 30.0 innings of work.
     Phansalkar ranks fifth in the Big 12 with a 1.80 ERA in conference-only games, having allowed just two earned runs in 10 innings.

Armed & Dangerous
     OSU's pitching staff ranks second in the Big 12 with a 4.01 ERA and is tops in the league in opponent batting average, with teams hitting just .227 against the Cowboys.
     The Pokes also rank second in the league in strikeouts with 364 (11 shy of the leader) and have allowed the third-fewest walks with 120 (eight more than the lowest).
     Justin Campbell ranks eighth in the conference with a 3.40 ERA, while four other Cowboys with at least nine appearances sport ERAs under 4.00.

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.
     • The Pokes trailed 3-1 with two outs in the eighth inning at Wichita State before rallying for three runs and going on to a 5-3 win.
     • Down 7-4 after seven innings in the second game of the Bedlam Series, OSU plated three runs in the eighth, tying the game on a two-run homer by Roc Riggio, then won the game on a walkoff wild pitch in the ninth.

Number Two And A Long Way To Go
     With 344 wins, Josh Holliday ranks second on OSU's all-time head coach wins list behind hall of famer Gary Ward, who guided the Pokes to 953 victories in 19 seasons.
     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.

Game Notes

#3 Oklahoma State (24-9, 7-2) at #24 West Virginia (21-10, 5-1)

Fri., April 15 • 5:30 p.m. / Sat., April 16 • 3 p.m. / Sun., April 17 • 12 p.m.
Monongalia County Ballpark (3,500) • Morgantown, W.Va.

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Players Mentioned

Justin Campbell

Zach Ehrhard

Trevor Martin

Nolan McLean

Victor Mederos

David Mendham

Roman Phansalkar

Roc Riggio

Jake Thompson

Oklahoma State University Athletics