Closing the door
Oklahoma State could earn its third regular-season or tournament conference title since Josh Holliday became the Cowboys’ coach with a sweep of Baylor this weekend.
STILLWATER — As he had during the five preceding falls, Josh Holliday spent his first few months with the 2018 version of the Oklahoma State baseball team believing those Cowboys had great potential. The gap to get there, though, was wider than previous years.
In the months since, the Cowboys, a team dependent on young players and newcomers with a handful of veteran pillars, have shrunk that margin. OSU enters this weekend’s series at Baylor capable of winning the Big 12 before the season’s final week; a sweep of the Bears would earn the Cowboys their third regular-season or tournament conference title since Holliday became their coach ahead of the 2013 campaign.
“We need to finish, and that’s been the key to every great season,” he said. “It’s not the beginning. It’s not even the middle. It’s the finish. All the good teams finish strong, and that’s gotta be where we’re at now.”
OSU was picked to finish tied for sixth in the Big 12 in the conference’s preseason poll, but the Cowboys are 15-3 in league play, 2½ games ahead of second-place Texas. If OSU doesn’t sweep the Bears but wins the series, one victory over Texas Tech at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium or one Texas loss to TCU during those three-game series next weekend would give the Cowboys the conference crown.
“When those preseason Big 12 rankings came out and we saw where they had us finishing up, we’d be lying to you if that didn’t put a chip on our shoulders,” senior outfielder Jon Littell said. “It speaks volumes to how our guys just stuck with it and haven’t let opinions of other people get in our way.”
The Cowboys’ success has come with a lineup that includes seven underclassmen or players who weren’t on last year’s team. Holliday said this team has experienced more growth than any other during his time as OSU’s coach.
That development has put the Cowboys in a position to host a postseason regional for the third time under Holliday, said Aaron Fitt, who covers college baseball nationally for D1Baseball. com, adding Holliday is in the conversation for national coach of the year honors.
“If they win the Big 12, they probably host,” Fitt said. “That’s kind of the long and short of it.”
Holliday’s Cowboys also hosted regionals in 2014 and 2015. Littell, the only player left who got on the field in that 2015 regional, said he would love the opportunity to bring another postseason through Allie P. before OSU stops using the stadium as its home ballpark in 2020.
“That’s what Oklahoma State baseball is all about, playing at the highest level,” he said. “If we were able to do that here, it’d be a huge blessing.”
Although he enjoyed the past regionals, Holliday is focused on the present, unwilling to think too far ahead. There remains room to grow.
“Championship baseball is exciting,” he said. “It’s just different. You just feel it, so that’s been fun to have that here a couple of times, but we’ve got a lot of work to do for that to become a reality.”