Cowboy Baseball Back In Action Against ORU

Tuesday, April 19

Stillwater, OK

6:00 PM

Oklahoma State University

Oral Roberts

Buy Tickets

Caeden Trenkle

April 18, 2022 | Cowboy Baseball

Game Notes

Oral Roberts (21-12) at #2 Oklahoma State (26-10)

Tues., April 19 • 6 p.m.
O'Brate Stadium (8,000) • Stillwater, Okla.

Video/TV: ESPN+ (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
     • OSU is 26-10 overall and atop the Big 12 standings with a 9-3 conference mark. Up next, the second-ranked Cowboys will open a four-game homestand at O'Brate Stadium when they host a midweek contest Tuesday against Oral Roberts before a showdown against TCU 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 346-187-2 at his alma mater.

About Oral Roberts
     • Oral Roberts is 21-12 on the season and enters Tuesday's contest on a four-game wininng streak. The Golden Eagles are hitting .285 while their pitching staff sports a 4.14 ERA.
     • Ryan Folmar is in his 10th season as ORU's head coach and owns a 301-203 career record. Folmar was a four-year letterwinner at Oklahoma State as a catcher from 1994-97.

Cowboys vs. Golden Eagles
     OSU is 37-38 all time against Oral Roberts, including a 5-10 mark under Josh Holliday. The Cowboys won the last meeting earlier this season on March 23 in Tulsa, posting a 9-4 victory.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T
     In this week's national rankings, OSU checks in as high as No. 2 in the Baseball America poll, which matches its highest-ever ranking under Josh Holliday. The Cowboys are also No. 3 in the D1Baseball, Perfect Game and Collegiate Baseball polls. The Cowboys are ranked No. 4 in the USA Today coaches and NCBWA polls.
     OSU has been nationally ranked for 28 consecutive weeks dating back to the 2021 preseason polls.
     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. 16 in the official NCAA RPI, while Oral Roberts is No. 127.

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 .985 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 17 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 eighth nationally with 81 strikeouts. He has posted double digit strikeout totals three times and has struck out at least eight in eight of his nine 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 .316 batting average and 35 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 47 of OSU's last 52 games, including a streak of 25 consecutive games during that stretch, and he leads the Cowboys with 12 multi-hit and nine multi-RBI 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 3.97 ERA in a team-high 19 appearances (18 in relief). He is second in the Big 12 with nine saves and has tallied 37 strikeouts in 22.2 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 seventh 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 17 of the Cowboys' last 21 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 .309 mark, which is second on the team. He is OSU's second-leading hitter in Big 12 play at .298.
     Mendham leads OSU with 12 doubles and a .527 slugging percentage and is second with 26 RBIs.

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 .308 batting average and has hit safely in 24 of the 31 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 eight home runs and is second with 10 doubles. He has hit safely in 14 of OSU's last 17 contests.
     McLean, a hard-throwing right-hander, has also made 11 relief appearances on the season and is 1-0 with two saves; he has racked up 21 strikeouts in 12.0 innings. He recorded his first-career save at Wichita State on April 5 and notched his first win vs. Oklahoma on April 9.

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 2.30 ERA in 16 relief appearances, and he's struck out 23 while walking just nine in 31.1 innings of work.
     Phansalkar owns a 2.38 ERA in conference-only games, having allowed just three earned runs in 11.1 innings over a team-high seven appearances.

Armed & Dangerous
     OSU's pitching staff ranks second in the Big 12 with a 3.95 ERA and leads the league in strikeouts with 396 and opponent batting average, with teams hitting just .224 against the Cowboys.
     The Pokes have allowed the third-fewest walks in the conference with 131 (10 more than the lowest).
     Justin Campbell ranks sixth in the conference with a 2.98 ERA, while five other Cowboys with at least nine appearances sport ERAs under 4.00.

K Kounter
     OSU's pitching staff ranks fifth nationally with 396 strikeouts, and the Cowboys are sixth in the NCAA with an average of 11.1 strikeouts per nine innings.