Cowboy Baseball Heads To Michigan For Non-Conference Weekend

#17 Oklahoma State (28-13) at Michigan (21-18)

Fri., April 28 • 3 p.m. (CDT) / Sat., April 29 • 1 p.m. (CDT) / Sun., April 30 • 11 a.m. (CDT)
Ray Fisher Stadium (2,500) • Ann Arbor, Mich.

Video/TV: Big Ten Network+
(Brian Bosech)
Radio: 93.7 KSPI FM (Rex Holt & Matt Davis)
The Varsity Network - okla.st/GetVarsity
Live Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
Twitter In-Game Updates: @OSUBaseball

About Oklahoma State

     • Winners of five in a row, OSU is 28-13 overall and second in the Big 12 standings with an 11-7 conference mark. Up next, the Cowboys travel to Ann Arbor for a weekend series at Michigan.
     • The Cowboys are coming off a 42-22 season in 2022 in which they made their ninth consecutive NCAA Regional appearance. OSU finished tied for second in the Big 12 standings with a 15-9 conference mark, one game out of first place.
     • OSU was the No. 7 national seed in last year's NCAA Championship, the program's highest ever tourney seeding, and was an NCAA Regional host for the fourth time under Josh Holliday; the Pokes advanced to the NCAA Regional finals for the sixth time under Holliday.
     • Led by Nolan McLean and Roc Riggio, OSU returns six position starters and 13 letterwinners from '22.
     • The 2023 season is OSU's 11th under head coach Josh Holliday, who is 390-212-2 at his alma mater. The Cowboys have earned an NCAA Region berth each year under his watch.

About Michigan

     • Michigan is 21-18 on the season and coming off a series win at home against Michigan State.
     • Tracy Smith is in his first season as UM's head coach. Smith has previous head coaching stops at Miami (Ohio), Indiana and Arizona State and has over 800 career wins.
     • OSU is 5-2 all time against Michigan, with all seven meetings coming under Josh Holliday. The two teams last met in 2019 at the Dodgertown Classic at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, with the Cowboys winning, 3-2, in 10 innings. They also played three-game series in Ann Arbor in 2015 and in Stillwater in 2016; OSU won 2-of-3 games in each of those.
     • UM's starting pitching rotation vs. the Cowboys is expected to be:

Friday: LHP Connor O'Halloran— 7-2, 2.49 ERA in 11 appearances (10 starts); 76 K, 16 BB in 72.1 IP
Saturday & Sunday: TBA

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

     OSU was ranked as high as No. 8 in the preseason national polls, receiving that ranking from USA TODAY Sports. This week, the Cowboys are ranked No. 17 by Collegiate Baseball, 21st by Baseball America and 24th by USA TODAY Sports and the NCBWA.
     OSU has been nationally ranked for 48 consecutive weeks dating back to the 2021 preseason polls. The Cowboys reached No. 2 twice in 2022, marking their highest-ever ranking under Josh Holliday.
     From March 4, 2013 to April 3, 2017, a streak of 77 consecutive weeks, OSU was ranked in at least one national poll. During that time, the Cowboys spent 18 weeks in the Top 10, climbing as high as No. 3. They have finished in the top 10 in the final polls twice under Josh Holliday — 10th in 2014 and fourth in 2016.

RPI Talk

Oklahoma State enters the weekend No. 29 in the official NCAA RPI; Michigan is 84th.

K Kounter

     The 2022 OSU pitching staff shattered the program record for strikeouts in a season with 679, besting the previous mark by 91.
     The Cowboys' 679 strikeouts ranked fifth nationally, and they ranked seventh in the NCAA in strikeouts per nine innings at 10.7.
     With an influx of new arms, this year's staff has continued to pile up Ks. The Cowboys lead the Big 12 and rank ninth in the NCAA with 431 strikeouts, and they have three pitchers — Juaron Watts-Brown, Ben Abram and Isaac Stebens — in the top six in the conference in punchouts.
     OSU's 11.0 strikeouts per nine innings this season is tops in the Big 12 and ranks 11th nationally.

Cowboys Who Rake

     OSU's offense is putting up some impressive numbers at the plate.
     • The Cowboys rank third in the Big 12 with a .300 team batting average.
     • Six regulars in the OSU starting lineup are hitting at least .300. Carson Benge leads the way with a .351 average that ranks 10th in the Big 12.
     • OSU's 104 doubles rank fifth nationally, 16 behind national leader Virginia.
     • The Pokes have smashed a Big 12-best 76 home runs, which ranks 11th nationally. Fifteen players have homered, and Roc Riggio leads the team with 12 round trippers to rank third in the league.
     • OSU's .548 slugging percentage leads the Big 12 and is 12th nationally.
     • The Cowboys rank 29th nationally with 334 runs and 35th with 422 hits.
     • OSU has posted five run-rule wins this season.

Roc Rolled — And He's Doing It Again

     Roc Riggio enjoyed a Freshman All-American season in 2022, starting 53 games for the Cowboys and hitting .295 with 11 home runs, 14 doubles and 47 RBIs.
     The second baseman caught fire at the plate in the postseason and was named to the all-tournament team at both the Big 12 Baseball Championship and the NCAA Stillwater Regional. In 10 games, he hit .458 (22-for-48) with six doubles, five homers and 19 RBIs.
     Riggio is swinging a hot bat once again in 2023. He's hitting .340 and ranks in the top five in the Big 12 in home runs (12), doubles (14), total bases (109), runs (45) and slugging percentage (.699) and is in the top 10 in five other offensive categories.
    Random Fact: As an eighth grader, Riggio committed to play baseball at UCLA.

Stillwater Slingers

     A pair of hometown hurlers have stepped up for the Cowboys this season.
     Southpaw Drew Blake picked up the win in relief in the season opener vs. Missouri as the redshirt freshman worked two shutout innings in relief. Blake's 19 appearances are tied for third in the Big 12.
     Blake had a career-best performance in the series finale and series-clinching win vs. Texas as he tossed four shutout innings and allowed just one hit while striking out five.
     Isaac Stebens tossed four scoreless innings out of the bullpen in his debut against Vanderbilt, then worked two more shutout frames with four Ks in the combined no-hitter against Cal Baptist.
     A righty in his first season at OSU after a JUCO All-American career at Cowley County CC, Stebens is 4-1 with three saves, a 2.66 ERA and 58 strikeouts in 44.0 innings. He is second in the conference in ERA, fourth in opponent batting average at .191 and fifth in strikeouts.
     Stebens earned his first-career save in the second game of the Texas series and has also notched saves in the series opener vs. TCU and the non-conference Bedlam game.
     Random Fact: Blake's dad, Randy, was teammates with Josh Holliday on the Stillwater High School football team in the mid-1990s; Holliday was the Pioneers' quarterback, and Blake starred at wide receiver.

Big Ben

     Ben Abram spent his first four collegiate seasons at Oklahoma, where he made 53 career appearances, but the Canadian right-hander has thrived after making his way to Stillwater for his final go around.
     Abram's first three outings for the Cowboys came out of the bullpen, and he allowed seven runs in 5 2/3 innings while striking out just five.
     But Abram was given a midweek start against Arizona State on March 8 and did a 180, winning four-straight starts beginning with the game against the Sun Devils in which he struck out eight in six innings.
     After picking up a midweek victory over Dallas Baptist, Abram allowed just one run in six innings to lead OSU to a win at Texas Tech before improving to 4-0 with a career-high 10-strikeouts against Baylor.
     Abram is 5-2 on the season, with his five wins tied for the most on the Cowboys. He ranks sixth in the Big 12 with 55 strikeouts and is averaging 10.53 strikeouts per nine innings.
     Random Fact: Abram won a bronze medal with Canada at the 2018 U-18 Pan American Championships.

Iron Man

     Chase Adkison has been a mainstay behind the plate this season. After splitting time at catcher with Ian Daugherty over OSU's first five games (Daugherty started three of those), Adkison has been a rock at the position following an injury to Daugherty, and he has produced at the plate as well as defensively.
     Adkison started 24 consecutive games at catcher (Feb. 25/Gm. 2-April 21) and 34 of OSU's last 36 contests behind the dish.
     In 36 games, Adkison is hitting .317 with four homers, seven doubles and 23 RBIs. He owns a .995 fielding percentage and has thrown out nine runners trying to steal.
     Random Fact: Adkison owns and operates a business, The Glove Plug, where he buys, sells and trades baseball gloves on Instagram (@the_glove_plug_).

Howling

     Tyler Wulfert battled injuries early in the season but has been a constant and productive force in the lineup over the last six weeks.
     The Cowboy third baseman is OSU's leading hitter in Big 12 play with a .400 average, and he has posted six home runs, six doubles and 15 RBIs in league games.
     Wulfert is hitting .341 on the season and of his 31 hits, 18 have gone for extra bases (8 HR, 9 2B, 3B) to produce a .725 slugging percentage.
    Random Fact: Wulfert's dad, Mark, was an 11th-round pick of the San Diego Padres in the 1995 MLB Draft and played two professional seasons for the Class A Clinton LumberKings.