‘Country Strong’: After Breaking Out at Last Season’s Regional, Kollin Ritchie Enters This Postseason as the Cowboys’ Star

TUSCALOOSA REGIONAL PREVIEW

STILLWATER — Kollin Ritchie had a solid sophomore season in 2025, but the end of it was a prelude of what was to come.

Ritchie stepped into the spotlight at the Athens Regional last season, hitting .538 with 10 RBIs, six runs scored and five home runs across four games, leading the Cowboys to the brink of a Super Regional appearance.

“It was good to finally get in some good positions and show myself that I can get in those positions a lot,” said Ritchie of last season’s Regional. “Helped the team out quite a bit late last year, so it kind of gave me some confidence going into this year that I can be one of those guys, especially last year we were gonna lose Shooby (Nolan Schubart). So, just being able to realize that I can help the team out and be a player like he can helped me out a little bit.”

“I think everybody kind of has that belief in themselves that they can be that guy, when they can help the team out in any way, but I guess definitely getting out there and doing it helps.”

A year removed from that breakout weekend, Ritchie will head to another SEC school for an NCAA Regional, as Oklahoma State will take part in the Tuscaloosa Regional with Alabama, USC-Upstate and Alabama State. But this year, Ritchie is already hanging out in the spotlight.

He is hitting .335 as a junior this season, leading the Cowboys in runs scored (75), home runs (29), RBIs (73) and slugging percentage (.828). That home run total is good for third nationally, while his runs scored tally is tied for eighth and his RBIs are tied for 13th.

“He’s uniquely strong — that’s real strong,” said Holliday back on May 1 after a game Ritchie went 4-for-4 with three home runs. “He was like that when he got here. He got like that his senior year of high school. He became a man two years before most kids. A lot of guys, by the time they’re sophomores, they start to get man strength. His senior year (of high school), he was man strong. …

“As time has gone on, he has gained a greater working knowledge of the art of hitting. He’s now become a two-sided hitter. He can hit both to the left and right, you saw that on display tonight. He’s also become a multispeed hitter. He can now hit both hard and soft pitches, and he’s learned how to be a focal point, meaning people are really trying to keep him from beating them and yet he’s still finding ways to not miss the pitch he gets. And he might only get one an at-bat. So, it’s a lot of things — it’s all of those things together.”

Holliday went and got Ritchie out of Atoka. For those unfamiliar with Oklahoma geography, that’s a town of about 3,000 in the southeast portion of the state. In his senior year as a Wampus Cat, a mascot that is a nod to Cherokee mythology, Ritchie hit .531 with 11 home runs and 47 RBIs.

When recalling Ritchie’s recruitment, Holliday noted that not a lot of people knew about him, but the attention started to tick up a bit late. The Baltimore Orioles ended up taking him in the 19th round of the 2023 MLB Draft, but Ritchie elected to stick with his college commitment.

He had a strong freshman season, playing in 53 games and making 37 starts in 2024. He hit .271 with seven home runs before taking a step forward during his sophomore season ahead of his big breakout at last year’s Athens Regional.

“If you go try to get that guy out of California, you’re gonna fight UCLA and USC for him,” said Holliday on April 3 after a game Ritchie hit a three-run home run in. “If you go try to get that guy out of Texas, you’re fight Texas and Texas A&M for him. If you go try to get him out of the south, you’re gonna fight the entire SEC for him. What I’m trying to say is when you try to get physically gifted players who can do something like boom, one pitch, boom, 440-foot home run, you either one, have to go get them, which they’re hard to get. Or, two, you have to build them, which means you better be patient, and nobody in the world even knows what the word patience is anymore.

“You get those guys when you can, right? Ritchie, he’s a find. That’s a 6-foot-1, 225-pound country strong, tough, powerful dude who is becoming a hell of a baseball player. But, it took a little time, and now we’re getting to enjoy watching, I think, a fabulous baseball player.”

Ritchie has started to creep up in an OSU record book that is tough to climb given some of the baseball giants who have played at Oklahoma State.

His 29 home runs this season tie for the fourth-most in a season in program history alongside Pete Incaviglia’s 1984 season. Ritchie is one homer away from tying Lamont Matthews (1999) and Monty Fariss (1988) for second all-time. He’s already six home runs ahead of any player Josh Holliday has coached in his 14 seasons leading the Cowboys.

“When you play baseball at OSU, to do anything that’s the most of anything, you gotta be pretty good because the dudes before us set a standard I’m not sure anyone will ever touch,” Holliday said. “Whether it’s what Pete did, or what Robin (Ventura) did, or what the guys on this wall did, or what many, many others did, that’s our history. We cherish it. So, we celebrate when somebody does something special.”