Cowboy Baseball Closes Out Regular Season On The Road

Game Notes

#8 Oklahoma State (34-17, 13-8) at Baylor (25-24, 6-15)

Thurs., May 19 • 6:30 p.m. / Fri., May 20 • 6:30 p.m. / Sat., May 21 • 3 p.m.
Baylor Ballpark (5,000) • Waco, Texas

Video/TV: Big 12 Now on ESPN+(John Morris & Pat Combs)
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 34-17 overall and tied for third in the Big 12 standings with a 13-8 conference mark. The eighth-ranked Cowboys will conclude the regular season at Baylor with a series beginning Thursday.
     • 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 354-194-2 at his alma mater.

About Baylor
     • Baylor is 25-24 on the season, which includes a 6-15 mark in Big 12 play. The Bears are hitting .269 while their pitching staff sports a 5.51 ERA.
     • Steve Rodriguez is in his seventh season as BU's head coach and owns a 196-142 mark at the school.
     • BU's starting pitching rotation vs. the Cowboys is expected to be:
     Thursday: RHP Jake Jackson — 4-4, 7.87 ERA in 14 appearances (eight starts), 70 K, 18 BB in 65.1 IP
     Friday: TBD
     Saturday: RHP Blake Helton — 0-1, 2.92 ERA in four appearances (three starts), 8 K, 8 BB in 12.1 IP

Cowboys vs. Bears
     OSU is 48-44 all time against Baylor, including a 13-10 mark under Josh Holliday. Last season, the Cowboys took 2-of-3 games against the Bears in Stillwater to claim a series win.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T
     In this week's national rankings, OSU checks in as high as No. 8 in the D1Baseball, USA Today coaches and NCBWA polls. The Cowboys are ranked No. 9 by Perfect Game, 10th by the NCBWA, 13th by Baseball America and 16th by Collegiate Baseball.
     OSU has been nationally ranked for 32 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. 14 in the official NCAA RPI, while Baylor is No. 78.

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.

Flashing The Leather
     OSU's .982 fielding percentage ranks eighth in the NCAA; the Pokes have made 33 errors in 2022.

Jake Rakes
     With a team-leading .335 batting average, 12 home runs, 14 doubles and 50 RBIs, Jake Thompson is one of the Big 12's top hitters, ranking in the top 10 in the league in seven offensive categories.
     Thompson, who Josh Holliday calls one of the best two-strike hitters he's ever coached, has reached base safely in 61 of OSU's last 67 games, including a streak of 25 consecutive games during that stretch, and he leads the Cowboys with 19 multi-hit and 14 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.

'K'onsistency
     Justin Campbell leads the Big 12 and ranks fifth nationally with 118 strikeouts. He has posted double digit strikeout totals five times and has struck out at least eight in 10 of his 13 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.

100 K
     Justin Campbell notched his 100th strikeout of the season against Texas, marking the 19th time in program history a Cowboy pitcher has recorded 100-plus Ks in a season.
     Campbell also became only the fourth Cowboy to reach the milestone twice, joining Tom Borland (1954-55), Jason Bell (1994-95) and Matt Smith (1999-00). Campbell had 102 strikeouts in 2021.
     Campbell's 243 career strikeouts are one shy of entering the top 10 on OSU's all-time list.

Small Town, Big Time
     What is it about OSU relievers 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 3-3 with nine saves in a team-high 26 appearances (22 in relief). One of 62 pitchers on the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Award Midseason Watch List, Martin is second in the Big 12 in saves and has 58 strikeouts in 38.0 innings of work. He's tied for fifth on OSU's single-season saves list and is one away from moving into a tie for second.
     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.

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 .307, which ranks third on the Cowboys.
     Brown, who holds the longest hitting streak by a Cowboy this season at 13-games, is the Cowboys' second leading hitter in Big 12 play with a .300 average.

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 workload on the mound.
     The sophomore leads the Cowboys with 12 home runs and is second with 13 doubles. He is OSU's leading hitter in Big 12 play with a .308 average, and he has six homers and 17 RBIs in league games.
     McLean, a hard-throwing right-hander, has also made 18 relief appearances on the season and is 1-1 with four saves; he has racked up 33 strikeouts in 20.2 innings.

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 5-2 with a 1.76 ERA in 23 relief appearances, and he's struck out 37 while walking 16 in 46.0 innings of work.
     Phansalkar leads the Big 12 with a 1.69 ERA in conference-only games, having allowed only four earned runs in 21.1 innings over a team-high 12 appearances.

Armed & Dangerous
     OSU leads the Big 12 with 558 strikeouts and a .233 opponent batting average, and the Pokes rank second with a 4.33 ERA,
     Both Justin Campbell and Bryce Osmond are 4-1 in Big 12 play, and Osmond's 3.62 ERA in conference-only games ranks as the eighth lowest in the league.

K Kounter
     OSU's pitching staff ranks fifth nationally with 558 strikeouts, and the Cowboys are also fourth in the NCAA with an average of 11.0 strikeouts per nine innings.
     The Cowboys are currently on pace to surpass the program record for strikeouts in a season, which is held by the 1999 staff with 584.

Bombs Away
     Graduate transfer Griffin Doersching smacked 47 home runs in four seasons at Northern Kentucky, and that power surge has continued in Stillwater.
     The first baseman/DH has 10 homers in 110 at-bats in 29 games. He missed 22 games after breaking his foot on Feb. 27; he returned to the lineup on April 5 and has homered eight times in OSU's last 19 games. Many of his shots are of the tape measure variety, including a 513-foot shot against Texas Tech and a 500-foot blast against Wichita State.

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, OSU 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.
     • Facing a 3-1 deficit with two outs in the eighth at Wichita State, OSU plated three runs in the inning and won 5-3.
     • 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.
     • With the series opener at Texas tied 6-6 with two outs in the ninth inning, Zach Ehrhard delivered a two-RBI double that provided the winning runs. In Sunday's finale vs. the Longhorns, OSU trailed 7-0 entering the seventh but rallied for 10 runs in the inning, highlighted by a three RBI double from Roc Riggio and a grand slam from Griffin Doersching, en route to a 10-8 win and series sweep.

Game Notes

#8 Oklahoma State (34-17, 13-8) at Baylor (25-24, 6-15)

Thurs., May 19 • 6:30 p.m. / Fri., May 20 • 6:30 p.m. / Sat., May 21 • 3 p.m.
Baylor Ballpark (5,000) • Waco, Texas

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Players Mentioned

Marcus Brown

Justin Campbell

Griffin Doersching

Zach Ehrhard

Trevor Martin

Nolan McLean

Victor Mederos

Bryce Osmond

Roman Phansalkar

Roc Riggio

Jake Thompson

Oklahoma State University Athletics