Cowboy Baseball Set For Start Of Postseason At Big 12 Championship

Game Notes

#4-seed Oklahoma State (36-18)
at the Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship

Wed., May 25-Sun., May 29 • Globe Life Field (40,300) • Arlington, Texas

Video/TV: ESPNU & Big 12 Now on ESPN+ (Joey Zanaboni & Mike Rooney; Clay Matvick & Greg Swindell)
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 36-18 on the season and finished tied for second in the Big 12 standings with Oklahoma and Texas Tech, with all three teams posting a 15-9 conference mark. The fourth-seeded Cowboys open play at the Big 12 Baseball Championship Wednesday at 9 a.m. against fifth-seeded Texas at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
     • The Cowboys currently sit at No. 18 in the official NCAA RPI.
     • The 2022 season is OSU's 10th under head coach Josh Holliday, who is 356-195-2 at his alma mater. The Cowboys have earned an NCAA Region berth each year under his watch.

Cowboys At The Big 12 Baseball Championship
     • OSU is making its 23rd appearance at the Big 12 Baseball Championship and owns a 32-39 all-time record in the tournament, including a 19-12 mark under Josh Holliday.
     • The Cowboys have advanced to the tourney final five times under Holliday — 2014, '15, '17, '19 & '21.
     • OSU has won three Big 12 Championship titles. In 2004, the Cowboys defeated Missouri 10-9 in 13 innings in Arlington, Texas; the 2017 tourney saw the Pokes knock off Texas in the title game in Oklahoma City as OSU became the first No. 8 seed in tourney history to claim the crown. In 2019, the Cowboys claimed another crown, defeating West Virginia, 5-2, in the final.
     • OSU is the No. 4 seed in this year's double-elimination Big 12 tourney field and is on the side of the bracket with top-seeded TCU, fifth-seeded Texas and No. 8-seed Baylor.

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 ranked No. 8 by Perfect Game and the NCBWA, No. 9 by D1Baseball, 13th by Baseball America and 15th by Collegiate Baseball.
     OSU has been nationally ranked for 33 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.

Big 12 Love For The Pokes
     OSU placed a conference-high five players on the 2022 All-Big 12 First Team as Justin Campbell, Griffin Doersching, Nolan McLean, Roman Phansalkar and Jake Thompson earned that distincton. The five first-teamers are the second most in program history - only the 2014 Cowboys had more with six.
     The Cowboys had 12 All-Big 12 honorees in total. McLean also made the second team and honorable mention, while Marcus Brown, Trevor Martin, David Mendham, Hueston Morrill and Bryce Osmond were also honorable mention performers.
     Zach Ehrhard and Roc Riggio were named to the Big 12 All-Freshman team; Ehrhard was a unanimous selection.

Big Time In Big 12
     Josh Holliday ranks fifth all time among head coaches in career winning percentage in Big 12 play at .600. In nine seasons, he has led the Pokes to a 126-84 mark in league games.

Flashing The Leather
     OSU's .980 fielding percentage ranks 12th in the NCAA; the Pokes have made 38 errors in 2022.

Armed & Dangerous
     OSU leads the Big 12 with 574 strikeouts and a .236 opponent batting average, and the Pokes rank second with a 4.44 ERA.

K Kounter
     OSU's pitching staff ranks sixth nationally with 574 strikeouts, and the Cowboys are also eighth in the NCAA with an average of 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings.
     The Cowboys are on pace to surpass the program record for strikeouts in a season, which was set just last season with 588.

Jake Rakes
     With a team-leading .359 batting average, 13 home runs, 16 doubles and 54 RBIs, All-Big 12 First Team outfielder Jake Thompson is one of the conference's top hitters, ranking in the top 10 in the league in eight offensive categories.
     Thompson, who Josh Holliday calls one of the best two-strike hitters he's ever coached, has reached base safely in 64 of OSU's last 70 games, including a streak of 25 consecutive games during that stretch, and he leads the Cowboys with 22 multi-hit and 15 multi-RBI games.
     A sixth-year graduate student who found a home at his fourth college stop, Thompson is OSU's leading returning hitter after posting a .342 batting average last season; 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 is sixth nationally with 123 strikeouts, a total that ranks as the ninth most in a season in OSU history. He has posted double digit strikeout totals five times and has struck out at least eight in 10 of his 14 starts. He tallied 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 & Klimbing
     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 247 career strikeouts rank ninth on OSU's all-time list. Of the others in the top 10 only one, Darren Dilks (243 K in 1980-81), had an OSU career of less than three years; Campbell had 22 strikeouts in 20 1/3 innings over four starts during the COVID 19-shortened 2020 season.

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 27 appearances (22 in relief). He is second in the Big 12 in saves and has 59 strikeouts in 39.0 innings of work. He's tied for fifth on OSU's single-season saves list, one away from moving into 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 went on a tear at the plate during conference play, raising his batting average from .256 prior to the start of league action to .314, which ranks third on the Cowboys.
     Brown, who holds the longest hitting streak by a Poke this season at 13-games, hit .318 in Big 12 play.

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 emerged as OSU's closer. He is one of 10 semifinalists for the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award.
     The sophomore leads OSU with 13 home runs and is second with 15 doubles. He was the Pokes' second-leading hitter in Big 12 play at .330, and he had seven homers and 20 RBIs in league games.
     McLean, a hard-throwing right-hander, has also made 20 relief appearances on the season and is 1-1 with five saves; he has racked up 34 strikeouts in 22.0 innings.

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 All-Big 12 First Team DH has 11 homers in 122 at-bats in 32 games, with seven of those long balls coming in Big 12 play. He missed 22 games after breaking his foot on Feb. 27; he returned to the lineup on April 5 and has homered nine times in OSU's last 22 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.

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 blossomed into an All-Big 12 First Team performer. He is 5-2 with a 2.51 ERA in 25 relief appearances and has struck out 38 while walking 19 in 46.2 innings of work.
     Phansalkar posted a 3.27 ERA in conference-only games, allowing eight earned runs in 22.0 innings over a team-high 14 appearances.

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.
     • Trailing by a run after six in the series finale at Baylor, the Pokes scored three in the seventh and four in the eighth to propel them to victory.