Previewing Opening Weekend for Oklahoma State Baseball

The long winter is finally over and baseball season is upon us! No longer will OSU fans need to be continuously disappointed by Travis Ford in the months without football.

The OSU baseball comes into the season with quite a bit of hype as most major outlets have the Cowboys in their preseason top 10. The Cowboys open the season with a trip to northern Texas for match ups against UT-Arlington and Stephen F. Austin.

Here is the schedule for the weekend:

2/19 vs. UT-Arlington 11 am
2/20 vs. Stephen F. Austin 11am, vs. UT-Arlington 2:30pm
2/21 vs. Stephen F. Austin 11 am

UTA is coming off a 24-32 season where they went 14-16 in the Sun Belt Conference. The Mavericks knocked off both TCU and Texas in midweek contests in 2015 so they know how to compete against Big 12 competition.

Head coach Darin Thomas returns his entire weekend rotation from last season so the Cowboys will be facing an experienced starter both times they play the Mavs. No pitching match ups have been announced for this series, which isn’t incredibly surprising as teams are still figuring out rotations.

I anticipate UTA will start it’s ace Joel Kuhnel on Friday. Kuhnel went 4-4 with a 3.55 ERA in 12 starts last season. His fastball can reach up to 95mph, which will be a fun test for the Cowboys lineup right out of the gate. Of any pitcher OSU will face this weekend Kuhnel has the best chance to beat them.

The Cowboys will run into either LHP Brad Vassar(2-7, 4.87) or LHP Jake Wilcox(2-2, 5.30) when they play the Mavs on Saturday.

Senior outfielder Matt McLean will lead UTA offensively. McLean is coming off an impressive season where he hit  .337/.448/.374 (AVG/OBP/SLG). Obviously, there is not too much power to worry about with McLean, but he will be hard to keep off the bases.

R.J. Williams is the  returning leader in home runs with only two last season. I imagine UTA will try to spray the ball around the yard instead of trying to hit the ball out of it.

As for SFA, they are coming off a 17-34 season in which they went 8-16 in the Southland, which wasn’t particularly strong in 2015.

The Lumberjacks may rely on returning innings leader RHP Jarred Greene to start on opening day, but his 2-4 record and 6.97 ERA may force SFA to use a newcomer to the rotation against UTA on Friday and Greene against OSU on Saturday.

SFA returns a few experienced relievers led by LHP Patrick Ledet, who posted a 1.53 ERA in 21 appearances out of the bullpen last year.

The Lumberjacks were not a great offensive team in 2015, hitting .263 with only 24 home runs as a team. SFA does return  Conner Fikes, who’s .307 average led the team last year, but I don’t think any other hitters will cause any problems for OSU.

The Cowboys have the tall task of replacing a very talented weekend rotation from last season. There are plenty of eligible candidates at this point and pitching coach Rob Walton will likely use these non-conference games to pick out the 3-4 best guys to put in the rotation when Big 12 play starts.

I think junior LHP Garrett Williams will ending up being the No. 1, but I think Holliday will lean on someone with more than nine career starts on opening day.

Potential candidates would be RHP Trey Cobb who is transitioning from the bullpen to the rotation. Cobb was a shutdown reliever, posting a 2.61 ERA in 31 appearances out of the bullpen.

RHP Michael Mertz will likely start at one point during the weekend. Perfect Game ranked him as the 18th best JC player in the nation he played at Cisco College in 2014. Mertz was limited to 3 2/3 innings in 2015 due to an injury, but he is now fully recovered.

Two-way player Connor Costello will start one game on the mound this weekend and then will spend the rest of his time in the outfield. Costello only started two games on the mound in 2014 as he focused primarily on hitting, but he saw an increased pitching workload in 2015. In 6 starts, Costello had 2-0 record with a 1.67 ERA.

Costello has added on to his fastball that can now touch 96 MPH and he’s also added a cutter to his repertoire. In my eyes Costello is the best candidate to get the start in game one.

The Cowboys bullpen will be hurt without the presence of Cobb, who has been dominant for the last two years. However, RHPs Blake Battenfield and Remey Reed are ready to close out games in a similar fashion.

Battenfield fits very well in that “Vince Wheeland role”, which involves getting the team out of a jam no matter what situation during the game. Injuries limited him  to only six appearances in last year, but Battenfield was a reliable piece in the bullpen in 2014.

Reed saw innings as a starter and reliever last season, but will focus primarily on a bullpn role this season. The potential Reed showed in his first year at OSU is incredible. In 46 innings last year Reed posted a 1.57 ERA and he will enter his junior season with a chance to Holliday’s go-to guy late in games.

OSU projected lineup

1. Garett McCain, LF
2. Donnie Walton, SS
3. Ryan Sluder, CF
4. Dustin Williams, 1B
5. Jon Littell/ Garrett Benge, DH
6. Collin Theroux, C
7. Corey Hassel RF
8. Jacob Chappell/ Benge, 3B
9. J.R. Davis, 2B

The Cowboys lineup is missing some familiar names, but top-to-bottom this is a solid lineup that is fully capable of competing with any team in the country.

The order they are in doesn’t so much matter, but I think McCain, Walton and Sluder have an insane amount of on-base potential at the top of the order. All three guys posted on-base percentages above .400 in 2015.

Sluder and Williams are the returning home runs leaders with six each. Both players saw big power boosts last season and I expect they will continue to develop. 20 home runs combined between these two guys wouldn’t surprise me.

Both Benge and Littell have the potential to become very special and they will both get chances to show that they can hit. Benge’s eye-popping .501 avg. and 19 home runs last season at a JC is enough to get me excited to see what he can do. Littell struggled in first season at OSU, hitting only .226 in 30 games played.

Favorable weather this winter has led to more outdoor practices for the Cowboys. Unlike previous years OSU should start off the season very polished and ready to beat lesser teams. However, it would be unrealistic to expect four wins right away.

Prediction 

Three wins, one loss to UTA