Oklahoma State baseball facing familiar foes in Stillwater Regional
STILLWATER — Once the field of the Stillwater Regional for the NCAA baseball tournament was announced on Monday morning, Oklahoma State coach Josh Holliday knew he needed to get to work.
But most of it was a refresher course. The 11th-seeded Cowboys have played four games against the teams heading to O’Brate Stadium for this week’s regional, which opens with Washington facing Dallas Baptist at noon Friday, followed by OSU and Oral Roberts at 6 p.m.
“You know you’re gonna be engaged in a competitive tournament,” Holliday said. “Ours is certainly competitive with our familiarity with Oral Roberts, having played them twice, Dallas Baptist twice. And then Washington, a team we don’t know quite as much about. But obviously, they were competing in the Pac-12 race all the way to the very end.”
The Cowboys have won 18 of their last 23 games and are playing with an increased confidence over the last several week, riding an offense that is among the most potent around, and a pitching staff that showed significant growth over the Big 12 Tournament last week.
“This team is really coming together here toward the end,” sophomore second baseman Roc Riggio said. “It’s special. Every good team talks about how it’s special, but the way we have competed together and fought back, overcome some losses, it shows a lot about this squad, about this coaching staff and about this program.
“I think we’re in a good spot.” Here’s a look at the teams the Cowboys will face in the Stillwater Regional:
No. 2 seed Dallas Baptist
Record: 45-14
NCAA Tournament history: 12th appearance, 9th consecutive (21-24 record)
Leading hitter: The Patriots have multiple players with strong batting averages and power numbers, but atop the list is freshman catcher Jay Grant, who leads the team in home runs (21) and doubles (17), is second in RBIs (62) and third in batting average (.337).
Leading pitcher: Sophomore righthander Ryan Johnson leads a balanced starting rotation with a n 8-3 record, 3.87 ERA and 109 strikeouts over 81 1⁄ in
3 nings.
OSU’s all-time record vs. DBU: 15-8
Short hops: Dallas Baptist is one of five programs to make the last nine NCAA Tournaments, along with Oklahoma State, Florida, LSU and Vanderbilt. …DBU has only been eligible for the NCAA postseason since 2006, after making the jump to Division I in 2004. … The Patriots have made two NCAA Super Regionals, in 2011 and 2021. … DBU’s 45 wins are third-most in the nation this season.
No. 3 seed Washington
Record: 34-18
NCAA Tournament history: 12th appearance, first since 2018 (27-23 record)
Leading hitter: Redshirt junior Will Simpson is batting .335 with 18 home runs and 56 RBIs, leading the team in the latter two categories.
Leading pitcher: Redshirt junior lefthander Stu Flesland III has a 7-2 record over 15 starts, posting a 3.92 ERA with 77 strikeouts in a team-high 85 innings. Opponents are batting .251 against him.
OSU’s all-time record vs. Huskies: 4-1
Short hops: Washington is in its first year under head coach Jason Kelly, a former Huskies pitching coach who returned this season after his mentor, Lindsay Meggs, retired last summer. … The Huskies advanced to the CWS in 2018, the only time they’ve made it out of the regional round in their previous 11 postseason appearances. … The Huskies come in having lost four of their last five games, which immediately followed a seven-game winning streak.
No. 4 seed Oral Roberts
Record: 46-11
NCAA Tournament history: 30th appearance, 2nd consecutive (35-58 record)
Leading hitter: While others have better power numbers, junior Jonah Cox ranks fifth nationally with a .422 batting average as one of only 25 qualified players batting over .400. He’s second on the team with 58 RBIs, to go with nine home runs and 26 stolen bases.
Leading pitcher: Jenks product Brooks Fowler, a sophomore righthander, has a team-best 2.81 ERA, leading a balanced starting rotation. He has a 9-1 record over 14 starts, holding opponents to a .214 batting average.
OSU’s all-time record vs. ORU: 41 37
Short hops: ORU won the Summit League for the 21st time in program history. … The roster includes 10 players from Oklahoma high schools, and three others who came from out of state, but first attended lower-level Oklahoma colleges before transferring to ORU. … Ryan Folmar is in his 11th season as the team’s head coach, following a decade as an assistant for the program. An OSU alumnus, Folmar began his coaching career as the Cowboys’ director of operations from 19992003, following a four-year playing career with the Cowboys and two years in the Colorado Rockies organization.