About Oklahoma State
• Oklahoma State is eighteen-eight common and tied with Baylor atop the Big 12 Conference standings with a five-1 mark after triumphing league series towards Kansas State and TCU.
• The Cowboys are coming off a 31-26-1 season in 2018 in which they earned a sixth consecutive NCAA Regional berth. OSU is superior to the finals of the NCAA DeLand Regional, wherein they lost to host Stetson.
• OSU completed second in the Big 12 Conference standings in 2018 with a 16-eight mark, one recreation back of league champion Texas. It marked the fifth time in the remaining six seasons the Cowboys earned a top-two league end.
• OSU had 11 gamers earn All-Big 12 repute 12 months ago, led through 2018 Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Matt Kroon and All-Big 12 First Team starting pitcher Carson Teel. Seven of those all-convention Cowboys return in 2019.
• Four Cowboys function gamers who commenced as a minimum 35 games final season go back in 2019 — catcher/outfielder Colin Simpson, outfielder Trevor Boone, first/0.33 baseman Christian Funk and outfielder Carson McCusker.
• The 2019 season marks OSU’s seventh under head instruct Josh Holliday, who’s 249-140-1 at his alma mater.
About Central Arkansas
• Central Arkansas is 12-16 at the season, incorporating a 6-6 mark in Southland Conference play.
• Led by junior Josh Ragan (.340, 3 HR, 20 RBI), the Bears are hitting .239 as a team and average 4.7 runs consistent with the sport.
• UCA’s pitching body of workers sports a collective three. Sixty-two ERA and has recorded 243 strikeouts in 253.1 innings.
• The winningest educate in application history, Allen Gum is in his 9th season as Central Arkansas’ head educate and owns a 259-221 profession document.
Cowboys vs. Bears
Oklahoma State is five-2 inside the all-time collection against Central Arkansas, which includes a 2-2 mark underneath Josh Holliday.
Last 7 Meetings
2018 – OSU three, UCA 1 (Conway)
2017 – UCA 11, OSU 5 (Stillwater)
2015 – OSU 3, MSU 1 (Stillwater)
2013 – UCA eleven, OSU three (Stillwater)
2011 – OSU five, UCA three (Stillwater)
1947 – Oklahoma A&M 18, Arkansas Teachers 6; Oklahoma A&M five, Arkansas Teachers zero (Stillwater)
In The Polls
OSU dropped out of the country-wide rankings on March eleven after spending the first three weeks of 2019 within the polls; however, the Cowboys back to the rankings this week. The Pokes check-in as high as No. 23 in this week’s Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball polls and are twenty-fourth in the D1Baseball.Com ratings.
Last season, OSU entered the countrywide rankings for the first time on April 23 and remained in at least one ballot for 5 consecutive weeks before dropping out. From March 4, 2013, to April three, 2017, OSU 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 have been ranked as excessive as No. 3 (with the aid of the NCBWA in 2014).In addition, theyy have completed in the top 10 within the final national polls two times in the closing five seasons — tenth in 2014 and fourth in 2016.
High Five
OSU entered the 2019 season as the fifth-winningest team in NCAA records in winning percentage points at .661.
2,600 Club
Oklahoma State commenced 2019 as one of only 19 programs in Division I history to attain 2, six hundred victories, beginning the year with 2,617 all-time wins to rank 15th all-time. Of those 19 groups with 2,600 wins, best Florida State (seventy-one) has performed fewer seasons than OSU’s 107.
One More Season At Allie P.
The 2019 season marks the thirty-ninth and last season of OSU’s historic ballpark, Allie P. Reynolds Stadium, with the Cowboys set to start gambling within the new O’Brate Stadium in 2020. Allie P. Has been domestic to Oklahoma State baseball given that April 4, 1981, and in those 39 seasons, the Cowboys have installed a decisive home-area gain. OSU is 928-244-1 (.792) all-time at Reynolds Stadium and has lost extra than consecutive video games on its home turf, most effective 10 times (six in a row in 2007; 5 instantly in 2017; four in a row in 2016 and 2018; three instantly in 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017 and 2018). The Cowboys was 12-four on their domestic subject in 2019.
Scheduling Rarity
For only the second time below Josh Holliday, OSU opened Big 12 Conference play at home in 2019 whilst the Cowboys hosted Kansas State. Additionally, it marked just the third time seeing that 2003 (2005 and 2013) that the Cowboys started out league play at domestic, with thirteen street trips to start conference movement all through that span. Since the start of Big 12 Conference baseball in 1997, the Cowboys have opened league play on the street 17 times and just seven instances in Stillwater.
Building A Winner
In the first six seasons as head educate at his alma mater, Josh Holliday built an outstanding resume. Among the highlights:
• The Cowboys have earned six NCAA Regional berths, superior to two Super Regionals, and played inside the College World Series for the first time, considering Holliday changed into a senior for the Cowboys in 1999.
• OSU has finished first or 2nd within the Big 12 Conference standings in five of its six seasons beneath Holliday — first in 2014, second in 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2018.
• The Cowboys finished in the top 10 in the national rankings in 2014 (10th) and 2016 (4th) after finishing the 2013 season ranked as excessive as No. 19. In 2015, they had been ranked as high as seventeenth inside the very last polls
• In 2014, OSU received its first-ever Big 12 Conference ordinary season championship, and the 2017 club captured the second one Big 12 Championship identify in software records.
• OSU hosted NCAA Regionals in 2014 and 2015 and turned into the top-seeded crew each time.
• Holliday has coached 53 All-Big 12 performers, six All-Americans, two Big 12 Pitcher of the Year honorees, a Big 12 Player of the Year, and a Big 12 Newcomer of the Year.
SOS & RPI
Oklahoma State’s energy of schedule seems stout in 2019 because the Cowboys will face 10 NCAA Regional teams from a yr in the past, along with protecting country-wide champion Oregon State. Eight of OSU’s fighters had been nationally ranked within the preseason polls — UCLA (3), Michigan (17), Missouri State (24), TCU (16), Texas (14), Texas Tech (three), Oregon State (2) and Baylor (12) — and seven of these are nonetheless ranked, which include modern-day top-10 groups UCLA, Oregon State, and Texas. OSU is No. 19 within the modern-day official NCAA RPI; Central Arkansas is 202.
Close Calls
OSU is 63-37 in a single-run game under Josh Holliday, and sixty-five of the Cowboys’ a hundred and forty losses below Holliday have come through runs or much less.
Comeback Cowboys
Come-from-behind victories had been a trend for the Cowboys beneath Josh Holliday; OSU has overcome deficits to win 107 video games in Holliday’s seven seasons. However, the biggest deficit OSU has to conquer this season is six runs — the Cowboys trailed USC using a 6-zero margin after two innings on March 8 before coming lower back to win.
Go Pro
During Josh Holliday’s tenure as head instruct, Oklahoma State has had 37 gamers selected in the Major League Baseball Draft. Eleven of these Cowboys were picked in the pinnacle 10 rounds, inclusive of 2013 first-rounder Jason Hursh.
In 2016, OSU tied a software file with 11 MLB Draft selections. (The 2007 Cowboys also had eleven draftees). The eleven draft alternatives tied the Cowboys with Mississippi State for the 0.33 most of any Division I program in 2016 at the back of best Texas A&M (thirteen) and Southern California (12). Five of these went in the first 10 rounds, which marked the maximum pinnacle-10-round picks for OSU due to the fact five Pokes had been taken in the top-10 rounds in 2008. Seven of the OSU gamers drafted have been pitchers.
Chicks Dig The Long Ball
The Cowboys’ seventy-one domestic runs at some stage in the 2018 season have been the most by using an OSU group because, in 2009, the Pokes had eighty-one. OSU ranked 17th inside the NCAA in homers closing season. Maximum using an OSU player when you consider that Rebel Ridling had 18 in 2008. The last Cowboy to attain 20 spherical trippers in a season changed into Corey Brown, who smashed 22 in 2007. OSU smacked 11 homers in its series at Baylor, including posting seven in the game with two wins. That total marked OSU’s most domestic runs in recreation since the Pokes had 8 against Kansas in 2006; the school report is 11 in opposition to Chicago State in 1999. Led with the aid of Simpson, OSU returns a set that blended for forty-seven of its homers (sixty-six percent) final season. Eight exclusive Cowboys blended for OSU’s 27 homers in 2019; Andrew Navigato leads the way with seven.
Tank Smash
Colin Simpson, aka “Tank,” established himself as one of the Big 12’s top sluggers over his sophomore and junior seasons in 2017-18, a span at some point of which he smacked 29 home runs and collected 91 RBIs. He entered his senior season on Preseason All-American and All-Big 12 lists. Through 26 video games in ’19, Simpson leads the Cowboys with 22 RBIs, and he’s third nationally with five sacrifice flies. An All-Big 12 Second Team and ABCA/Rawlings All-Midwest Region performer final season, Simpson commenced all fifty-eight games for the Cowboys and hit .280 with a profession-excessive 18 home runs, a complete that ranked 17th nationally. He also crowned OSU in RBIs (fifty-one), total bases (130), walks (37), and slugging percent (.578) and turned into second in hits (sixty-three), runs (forty-eight), and stolen bases (eight). Primarily a catcher, Simpson began 43 video games at the back of the plate in 2018 but has gotten more time at DH and in the left subject this season; he commenced six games left a year ago and performed the placement inside the Cape Cod League over the summer. Simpson loved a breakout sophomore season for the Cowboys in 2017, collecting honorable mention All-Big 12 honors and leading OSU with 11 domestic runs simultaneously as rating 0.33 in RBIs (forty) and slugging percent (.492).
Boone Goes The Dynamite
Trevor Boone has determined his groove with the bat in his arms. At the belief of the Iowa series, the junior’s batting average stood at .194, and he had just one RBI. But because then, Boone has raised his common to .250 to go together with five homers and 18 RBIs. Boone had a breakout sophomore marketing campaign for the Cowboys in 2018, starting fifty-one video games in center field and earning honorable mention All-Big 12 honors. Boone went on a tear at the plate with the start of Big 12 Conference play; he becomes hitting .192 in 17 games before the conference-commencing collection at Texas; however, he raised his average over the following 39 video games to .270. In OSU’s 24 Big 12 video games, Boone hit .293 with seven homers and 24 RBIs, both of which ranked 2nd at the crew. Included in Boone’s surge was a game towards Baylor wherein he tied an OSU document via turning into handiest the twelfth participant in OSU records to hit 3 domestic runs in a recreation (it’s been completed on 14 occasions). Boone homered in each of his first 3 at-bats towards the Bears in Saturday’s contest.
Hit The Slugging Switch
Carson McCusker has picked up proper where he left off in 2018, beginning each recreation for the Cowboys this season (25 of these within the outfield) and hitting a crew-excessive .344 simultaneously as rating 2d in the Big 12 with eleven doubles. In the second game of the Kansas State series, McCusker tied an OSU single-sport report with two triples, turning into the primary Cowboy because 2011 attain that mark. Over the first 5 weeks of his first season in an OSU uniform in 2018, McCusker made just one begin and accumulated the best one hit, a unmarried, in 11 at-bats. Things modified in a hurry for the sophomore in a doubleheader sweep of TCU on March 31. McCusker started both games of the dual bill in right field and went four-for-6 with 3 home runs, all solo pictures, at the same time as additionally making several spotlight-reel protecting performs within the outfield. Following that breakout overall performance, McCusker commenced 34-directly games in the proper field and was one of the Cowboys’ most regular performers, hitting .314 with six homers and eleven RBIs in league play and incomes honorable point out All-Big 12 accolades.
Clutch Carter
Bryce Carter spent four seasons at Stanford from 2015-18, playing in 97 games for the Cardinal (he was granted a harm redshirt season in 2017 after acting in nine video games). However, the Oklahoma native chose to spend his final collegiate season in Stillwater as a graduate switch for the Cowboys. Carter has had a right away impact for OSU, beginning 25 video games and posting a .306 batting average to go with 19 RBIs. Sixteen of his RBIs have to include outs, and he is hitting .481 (13-for-27) with runners in a scoring role.
New Kid On The Block
A thirty-sixth-round draft pick of the Los Angeles Angels in the last 12 months’ Major League Baseball Draft, Hueston Morrill chose the Cowboys over professional baseball. He is having a full-size impact in his first collegiate season. The freshman center infielder has spent the general public of his time at second base and is amongst OSU’s leading hitters with a .301 batting common. “Huey” also leads the Cowboys with seven stolen bases, and he has 9 multi-hit games, inclusive of a 4-for-five effort in his 2d beginning of the season against Wright State (2/23).
Back On The Bump
OSU became without 3 key pitchers and potential weekend starters for a maximum of 2018 — Jensen Elliott, Parker Scott, and Mitchell Stone — but the go back of that trio has given the Cowboys a lift in 2019.
• A Freshman All-American in 2016 after going 9-three in 17 starts, Elliott turned into three-0 via 4 outings in 2017 earlier than present process Tommy John Surgery ultimate April. The righty back to the mound for his 2018 debut on May 13 and pitched in 4 video games over the very last few weeks of the season. He is three-1 with a three. Forty-four ERA in seven starts offevolved in 2019.
• Scott pitched in six video games as a freshman in 2017, starting two times, earlier than an arm injury ended his season. Unfortunately, the southpaw suffered some other setbacks when he underwent TJS that November. However, he again to the mound for the first time considering that March 12, 2017, against Michigan and tossed a scoreless inning, and he earned his first-career win in relief vs. K-State.
• Stone started games on the primary two weekends of his freshman season in 2018 however broke his foot on March 2; he did no longer go back to motion and changed into granted a clinical redshirt. In his first start of 2019 at UT Rio Grande Valley, the southpaw earned his first-profession win with the aid of tossing five 1/3 scoreless innings and placing out six. He has made 5 starts this season and is 1-1 with a 3. Sixty-six ERA.
Dealing
Peyton Battenfield is coming off a sophomore season in which he earned honorable point-out All-Big 12 accolades, and he is poised for even greater popularity in 2019. The right-hander has made 11 comfort appearances this season and is three-2 with a 2.08 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 26.0 innings; his .172 opponent batting common is the 1/3 first-class inside the convention, and he ranks 6th in ERA. Battenfield turned in a professional performance at USC as he took the mound to open the third inning and tossed seven scoreless frames, permitting the simplest two hits and racking up a profession-high seven strikeouts on one hundred and one pitches, to earn the win. In 2018, Battenfield led OSU with 26 appearances (25 in comfort) and became 2-3 with a couple of saves and a 4.66 ERA; he also had 62 strikeouts in 56 innings.
Fear The Beards
A pair of Cowboy righties have been a massive improvement to the OSU pitching staff over the first month of the season. Junior Ben Leeper has emerged as OSU’s closer and is prospering in that position as he has posted 4 saves and a 3-zero record. The Texan has allowed the handiest one run over 15 2/three innings in 14 appearances whilst striking out 21. In OSU’s win over sixteenth-ranked Michigan, Leeper took the mound at Dodger Stadium to open the bottom of the tenth and struck out the aspect to cozy OSU’s 3-2 victory. He also has saved in opposition to UT Rio Grande Valley and Wichita State. Leeper has gone through Tommy John’s surgical treatment two times, missing his senior season of excessive college and most of the 2016 and 2017 seasons with the Cowboys. He entered 2019 with a 1-2 report and eleven.02 ERA in 19 career outings at OSU.However, Standlee was expected to be a key contributor to the OSU staff in 2018 but changed into compelled to redshirt the season after being declared academically ineligible. Taking the mound for his first season in 2019, Standlee has regarded in 10 video games and is 2-zero with a store and a three. Eighty-one ERA and he is 2nd at the Cowboys with 29 strikeouts. Standlee made his first-profession start against Missouri State and changed into dominant over seven shutout innings, allowing only six singles even as placing out eight, the most strikeouts using a Cowboy pitcher this season.
From The Start Or Out Of The Pen
Senior Joe Lienhard has validated to be a precious commodity during his career, whether or not it be as a starter or reliever. The righty has made 67 professional appearances, 27 of these as a starter, and is eleven-7 with a shop and a four. Forty-eight ERA to go with 162 strikeouts in 181.0 innings. Lienhard is 2nd on OSU with 12 appearances ( begins) this season and is two-1 with a 2.67 ERA. After coming out of the bullpen in his first seven outings, Lienhard got the begin towards No. 16 Michigan at Dodger Stadium tossed 5 1/3 strong innings, permitting simply one run on 4 hits and placing out 3; he also began towards K-State on Saturday. As a junior, Lienhard turned into an All-Big 12 honorable mention selection. He went four-1 in 8 Big 12 starts, including the convention opener at Texas. He labored a career-high 8 1/3 innings and struck out eight (additionally a career great) even as handiest giving up one run. Lienhard’s father, Steve, pitched on four College World Series teams at OSU from 1984-87 and posted a 12-four document with three saves.
