OSU Baseball: Freeman Earns All-America Honors

Oklahoma State pitcher Michael Freeman has been named to the 2015 Louisville Slugger All-America Second Team, it was announced today by Collegiate Baseball newspaper.

A senior southpaw, Freeman becomes the 115th All-American in OSU baseball history and the third under Cowboy head coach Josh Holliday, joining 2014 All-Americans Brendan McCurry and Zach Fish.

Named the 2015 Big 12 Conference Pitcher of the Year, the 6-foot-8 Freeman solidified a spot in OSU's weekend rotation and in 14 starts is 10-2 with a 1.05 ERA. He leads the Big 12 with 102.2 innings pitched, four complete games and a .183 opponent batting average and ranks second in wins, ERA and strikeouts (92). Following his first start of the season at Arizona State (Feb. 15), he has allowed just eight earned runs in 93.0 innings (0.77 ERA) over his last 13 starts, and he ranks fourth nationally in ERA.

In Big 12 play, Freeman was 5-2 with three complete games and a 0.80 ERA in seven starts and recorded 49 strikeouts in 56 innings. In his only losses, he allowed just one earned run combined as the Cowboys lost those games 3-2 and 2-1.

Freeman tied a record by capturing Big 12 Pitcher of the Week honors four times this season — March 2, 23 and 30 and April 27 — to become one of only three pitchers in Big 12 history to achieve that feat (West Virginia's Harrison Musgrave in 2013 and Texas A&M's Ryan Rupe in 1998).

Of Freeman's non-strikeout outs this season, 160 have come via ground ball and only 40 via fly out, and he has induced 11 ground ball double plays. Factor in his 92 strikeouts, and 86 percent of Freeman's outs have come via ground ball or strikeout.