Cowboy Baseball Set For Round 3 With Wichita State

Game Notes

#7 Oklahoma State (27-13) at Wichita State (13-27)

Tues., April 26 • 6:30 p.m.
Riverfront Stadium (12,000) • Wichita, Kan.

Video/TV: None
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 27-13 overall and second in the Big 12 standings with a 10-5 conference mark. Up next, the seventh-ranked Cowboys travel to Wichita, Kan., to take on Wichita State at Riverfront Stadium before a trip to Austin to square off against No. 6 Texas 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 347-190-2 at his alma mater.

About Wichita State
     • Wichita State is 13-27 on the season. The Shockers are hitting .246 while their pitching staff sports a 5.90 ERA.
     • Eric Wedge is in his third season as WSU's head coach and owns a career 57-52 record. He spent 10 seasons as a Major League Baseball manager with stints at Cleveland and Seattle.
     • WSU's starting pitcher against the Cowboys is expected to be left-hander Jace Miner, who is 0-2 with a 9.37 ERA in nine appearances (four starts) and has 12 strikeouts and 12 walks in 16.1 innings of work.

Cowboys vs. Shockers
     OSU is 64-35 all time against Wichita State, including a 12-3 mark under Josh Holliday. The Cowboys have defeated the Shockers twice this season, once in Wichita and once in Stillwater.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T
     In this week's national rankings, OSU checks in as high as No. 7 in the USA Today coaches poll. The Cowboys are also No. 8 in the Baseball America, D1Baseball and NCBWA rankings, No. 9 in the Collegiate Baseball poll and are ranked 10th by Perfect Game.
     OSU has been nationally ranked for 29 consecutive weeks dating back to the 2021 preseason polls; the Cowboys reached No. 2 twice this season, marking their highest-ever ranking under Josh Holliday.
     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. 28 in the official NCAA RPI, while Wichita State is No. 178.

Flashing The Leather
     OSU's .983 fielding percentage ranks seventh in the NCAA; the Pokes have made 23 errors in 2022.

'K'onsistency
     Justin Campbell leads the Big 12 and ranks sixth nationally with 95 strikeouts. He has posted double digit strikeout totals four times and has struck out at least eight in nine of his 10 starts. He racked up a career-high 14 punchouts in the series opener against TCU.
     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 .325 batting average and 41 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 51 of OSU's last 56 games, including a streak of 25 consecutive games during that stretch, and he leads the Cowboys with 14 multi-hit and 11 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 3.45 ERA in a team-high 21 appearances (19 in relief). He is second in the Big 12 with nine saves and has 45 strikeouts in 28.2 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 10th nationally in saves.
     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.
     A first baseman/DH, Mendham has provided a consistent bat in the middle of the order. He's hit safely in 19 of OSU's last 25 games, including posting a nine-game hitting streak.
     Mendham has raised his season batting average from .194 after the March 16th game against DBU to its current .296 mark, which is third on the team.
     Mendham leads OSU with 13 doubles and is second with 27 RBIs.

What Can Brown Do For You
     Marcus Brown has been on a tear at the plate over the last month, raising his batting average from .256 prior to the start of conference play to .317, which ranks second on the Cowboys.
     Brown is on a 12-game hitting streak, the longest by an OSU player this season, and he is the Cowboys' leading hitter in Big 12 play with a .400 average, which also ranks fifth in the conference.

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 nine home runs and is third with 10 doubles. He has hit safely in 18 of OSU's last 21 contests.
     McLean, a hard-throwing right-hander, has also made 13 relief appearances on the season and is 1-0 with two saves; he has racked up 28 strikeouts in 16.0 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 2.36 ERA in 17 relief appearances, and he's struck out 29 while walking 12 in 34.1 innings of work.
     Phansalkar owns a 2.51 ERA in conference-only games, having allowed just four earned runs in 14.1 innings over a team-high eight appearances.

Armed & Dangerous
     OSU's pitching staff ranks second in the Big 12 with a 4.22 ERA and leads the league in strikeouts with 449 and opponent batting average, with teams hitting just .228 against the Cowboys.
     The Pokes have allowed the third-fewest walks in the conference with 149.
     Justin Campbell ranks fourth in the conference with a 2.89 ERA, while five other Cowboys with at least nine appearances sport ERAs under 4.00.

K Kounter
     OSU's pitching staff ranks third nationally with 449 strikeouts (behind Florida State and Southern Miss), and the Cowboys are fifth in the NCAA with an average of 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings.

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 game two of the Bedlam Series, OSU plated three runs in the eighth, tying the game on a two-run homer by Roc Riggio, and won the game on a walkoff wild pitch in the ninth.

Game Notes

#7 Oklahoma State (27-13) at Wichita State (13-27)

Tues., April 26 • 6:30 p.m.
Riverfront Stadium (12,000) • Wichita, Kan.

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Players Mentioned

Marcus Brown

Justin Campbell

Trevor Martin

Nolan McLean

Victor Mederos

David Mendham

Roman Phansalkar

Roc Riggio

Jake Thompson

Oklahoma State University Athletics