Oklahoma State selected for regional,
— Shortly after the Monday morning announcement that extended the Oklahoma State baseball team’s season, Josh Holliday went to work. The Cowboys’ coach had to study the three opponents his team could see this weekend, but he didn’t mind.
“I love this,” he said. “My brain is at peace. It would be fried if we weren’t getting to play this week. Saying goodbye to the kids would be emotionally devastating and hard, and I didn’t want that. I’m thrilled to get to study the opponents and prepare our team.”
The Cowboys won’t have to worry about the alternative. For the sixth time in Holliday’s six seasons as coach, OSU will play in the NCAA Tournament. The Cowboys are the No. 3 seed in the DeLand Regional in Florida, with host Stetson, South Florida and Hartford; they will play USF at noon Friday to open the regional.
OSU enters the NCAA Tournament at 29-24-1 with a second-place finish in the Big 12, the nation's No. 2 RPI conference. The Cowboys began the season 11-10-1 before going on a 16-4 run that included four sweeps of conference opponents, positioning themselves for a Big 12 title.
But they fell a game short and suffered a quick twogame exit in last week’s Big 12 Tournament as part of a 2-10 slump down the stretch. For the first time under Holliday, players had to sweat through Monday morning’s selection show.“I didn’t know what us coming,” pitcher Carson Teel said. “We didn’t put ourselves in a great spot . ... I just wanted to see our name.”
The Cowboys were among the final quarter of teams announced, adding to the pressure for some. Relief filled the locker room once “Oklahoma State” appeared on screen.
“We were little kids on Christmas,” Teel said.
With his team having played the second-most road games in the country while being challenged in and out of conference play, Holliday remained confident in OSU’s body of work. Senior infielder Andrew Rosa wasn’t worried, either.“We knew we were in the whole time,” Rosa said. “Not a doubt in my mind. We played well enough to be in and we deserved to be in.”
OSU will try to advance to its third super regional in five years. The 2016 Cowboys lasted only three games in the Big 12 Tournament but used the additional downtime to recover, eventually earning the program’s first trip to the College World Series since 1999.
With similar time off, this year’s players bonded and enjoyed meals with one another. Teel and fellow pitchers Jensen Elliott, Joe Lienhard and Jonathan Heasley visited Karsten Creek to support the Cowboy golf team in the national championships.