Cowboy Baseball Concludes Non-Conference Play With Home Series

East Tennessee State (20-22) at #16 Oklahoma State (30-14)

Fri., May 5 • 6 p.m. / Sat., May 6 • 6 p.m. / Sun., May 7 • 1 p.m.
O'Brate Stadium (8,000) • Stillwater, Okla.

Video/TV: Big 12 Now On ESPN+
(Dave Hunziker, Robert Allen & Tom Holliday)
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

     • OSU is 30-14 overall and tied for second in the Big 12 standings with an 11-7 conference mark. Up next, the Cowboys host East Tennessee State in a weekend series at O'Brate Stadium in their final non-conference games of the regular season.
     • 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 392-213-2 at his alma mater. The Cowboys have earned an NCAA Region berth each year under his watch.

About East Tennessee State

     • East Tennessee State is 20-22 on the season and fifth in the Southern Conference standings at 6-9.
     • Joe Pennucci is in his sixth season as ETSU's head coach and owns a 148-117 career record.
     • OSU and ETSU have never met on the baseball diamond.
     • ETSU's starting pitching rotation vs. the Cowboys is expected to be:

     Friday: LHP Colby Stuart — 1-3, 4.95 ERA in 14 appearances (three starts); 30 K, 9 BB in 43.2 IP
     Saturday: RHP Nathanial Tate — 6-3, 3.66 ERA in 12 starts (2 CG); 68 K, 32 BB in 66.1 IP
     Sunday: RHP Cade Carlson — 3-0, 1.91 ERA in 13 appearances (two starts); 30 K, 12 BB in 33.0 IP

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. 16 by Collegiate Baseball, 20th by Baseball America, 23rd by USA TODAY Sports and 26th by the NCBWA.
     OSU has been nationally ranked for 49 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. 18 in the official NCAA RPI; ETSU is 205th.

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 11th in the NCAA with 465 strikeouts, and they have three pitchers — Juaron Watts-Brown, Ben Abram and Isaac Stebens — in the top seven in the conference in punchouts.
     OSU's 11.0 strikeouts per nine innings this season is tops in the Big 12 and ranks eighth 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 .299 team batting average.
     • Six regulars in the OSU starting lineup are hitting at least .300. Roc Riggio leads the way with a .354 average that ranks ninth in the Big 12.
     • OSU's 111 doubles rank fifth nationally.
     • The Pokes have smashed a Big 12-best 79 home runs, which ranks 20th nationally. Fifteen players have homered, and Roc Riggio leads the team with 14 round trippers to rank third in the league.
     • OSU's .540 slugging percentage leads the Big 12 and is 16th nationally.
     • The Cowboys have scored 354 runs and tallied 452 hits on the season.
     • OSU has posted five run-rule wins.

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 .354 and ranks in the top five in the Big 12 in home runs (14), RBIs (46), total bases (119) and slugging percentage (.739) and is in the top 10 in seven other offensive categories.
    Random Fact: As an eighth grader, Riggio committed to play baseball at UCLA.

Two-Way Too

     Nolan McLean isn't the only two-way standout for the Cowboys as Carson Benge has become a force at the plate and on the mound in his first collegiate season.
     After redshirting last season to rehab following Tommy John surgery, Benge has been a constant in the OSU lineup as both a right-fielder and DH, and he leads the team with a .358 batting average to go along with seven homers, 10 doubles and 32 RBIs. He is the Pokes' second-leading hitter in Big 12 play with a .375 batting average, and he has 15 RBIs in league games.
     On the mound, Benge has made eight starts and is 1-1 with 30 strikeouts in 27 2/3 innings. He earned the first win of his career in a midweek outing against Wichita State in which he allowed just one run and struck out five in five innings of work, and he racked up a career-high nine Ks in the May game vs. ORU.
     Random Fact: Carson's older brother, Garrett, was a two-time All-Big 12 infielder for the Cowboys in 2016 and 2017.

Meet The New Guy

     OSU bolstered its starting pitching staff with the addition of transfer Juaron Watts-Brown..
     Watts-Brown picked up his first win in an OSU uniform against Austin Peay as he recorded eight strikeouts for the second consecutive game. He moved to 2-0 with a 13-strikeout performance vs. Utah Tech and notched his third win with another 13 K effort, this one against Baylor.
     Against Texas, Watts-Brown tossed a season-high eight innings and struck out 12 while allowing just one run on three hits in a 128-pitch effort to move to 4-1 on the year.
     The righty leads the Big 12 and ranks sixth nationally with 89 strikeouts, and his 13.73 strikeouts per nine innings is seventh in the NCAA. He is fourth in the league in opponent batting average at .203 to go along with a 4.01 ERA that ranks seventh; his 58 1/3 innings pitched are the fifth most in the conference.
     Watts-Brown transferred to OSU after earning Freshman All-America honors at Long Beach State last season. He went 4-4 with a 3.68 ERA in 15 appearances, including 12 starts, for the Dirtbags and racked up 111 strikeouts in 73 1/3 innings.
     During the month of May, Watts-Brown went 3-0 with a 1.64 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 33 innings, and he posted double-digit strikeout games in four of his last five starts of the season.
     Watts-Brown's first collegiate season also saw him toss the first complete game no-hitter in LBSU history, and he set the school record for strikeouts per nine innings in a season with 13.62.
    Random Fact: Watts-Brown was the West Yosemite League Player of the Year in baseball, football and basketball during his career at Hanford HS; he played quarterback on the gridiron and forward in hoops.

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 6-2 on the season, with his six wins the most on the Cowboys' staff. He ranks fifth in the Big 12 with 64 strikeouts and is averaging 10.87 strikeouts per nine innings.
     Random Fact: Abram won a bronze medal with Canada at the 2018 U-18 Pan American Championships.