'We're Gonna Know Where We're At': Oklahoma State Baseball Prepares 2024 Season Opener

We're just days away from the opening pitch of the Division I college baseball season. Expectations are high once again in Stillwater for the OSU Cowboys and head coach Josh Holliday. The Pokes are coming off a Big 12 regular season title and regional appearance in 2023, and are picked 3rd in the Big 12 preseason poll.

There will be several new faces on the field at O'Brate Stadium this season, but the Cowboys return five starters and 16 letterwinners from a year ago, led by Preseason All-Big 12 selections Nolan Schubart and Carson Benge. Also returning to the lineup are 2023 Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Tyler Wulfert and Colin Brueggemann, both of whom were All-Big 12 Second Team performers last season.

The Cowboys open the season with a three-game series at Sam Houston beginning Friday, February 16th. The Pokes will then have midweek games at Abilene Christian and Dallas Baptist before the home opener against Central Michigan on March 1st.

Head coach Josh Holliday met with the media to preview the season.

On the team’s development in the fall

“We had a good fall. Obviously a lot of new players. So our first chance to get on the field with them and get to know them as competitors and start to figure out adjustments and just kind of understand how they operate and how maybe we could make some jumps with our newcomers and then see how our returners came back from the summer so fall was a good period for us. Did guys make jumps? Yeah, lots of guys did. We had a successful fall. We were pretty on point from day one of the semester up until we wrapped in November, and kids did a nice job in the offseason as well. So yeah, I would say it was a good fall. Yes, very much so.”

On Brian Holiday

“Brian is awesome. He's a wonderful kid. He's one of the best teammates that I've ever seen. He's at the field. He's constantly working. He's constantly supporting teammates, he had a very good fall on the mound. Elite competitor, great teammate, very versatile pitcher who has the ability to pitch in any role that we deem best for the team. He could start, he could close. He’s got four good pitches and tons of confidence. He's a real bright spot. He's absolutely wonderful.”

On pitching rotation and roles for the first week

“We're going to get through this weekend and see kind of how all the kids feel. We've been battling some flu. We've had some kids down for three, four or five days with flu. Getting guys in shape. Taking care of arms. We need this weekend and early next week to see how our guys feel before we set a rotation for week one. We have a number of guys that are in the mix to start games. But really, quite honestly, when your pitch count in the first week is only at 60-75 pitches it’s going to take two or three pitchers pieced together combined to pitch through those games. Our pitchers are not at the 100 and 115 pitch mark yet, there's just been no way to get them there. So that'll be something where we'll have to match up and piece that first weekend together, put a good game plan together and then kind of go from there.”

 On where the team is

“It’s going to be fun to watch how guys take on these opportunities. I think the emergence and the veteran leadership to help guys feel at home right away has been really good. To welcome in first-year team members and let them know we need you now. This is not a wait and see type of setting. We need you to come in here and be you. That's why you were recruited here. Those have been fun things to watch evolve and to see the leadership emerge. Those things are exciting.

 “Obviously we're going to be new at a few positions with the graduation and the draft, and we will be new up the middle. That'll be fun to see how the guys in the middle of the field – Lane Forsythe, Aidan Meola, Avery Ortiz, and a couple good young freshmen – handle those opportunities to play. That will be a key part of our team. We do have some veteran players returning in the outfield that have got a lot of good innings under their belt that have proven they can play at a very high level. We return good players on the corners with Tyler Wulfert and Colin Brueggemann. The catching position is going to be a really important position to this team. Chase (Adkison) caught a vast majority of the innings last year and was really a heck of a player by the end of the season. So Ian (Daugherty), Beau (Sylvester) and Charlie (Carter), those guys are going to have to step into that position which they can do, and I believe that they'll do well.

 “And then on the pitching side, just tremendous opportunity for innings. We have some guys back that have made great strides. Drew Blake had a really good fall. He emerged last year as a redshirt freshman and has only gotten better. (Evan) O'Toole returns, I think he had five or six quality wins last year. Janzen Keisel had a good summer. Gabe Davis returns, Brennan Phillips returns. There's a lot of kids that really got started on their journey last year and have a chance to really move it forward. And then we brought in a lot of newcomers – there's a lot of guys here that are new to you guys and hopefully they’ll introduce themselves quite well when the season starts. And those guys will form our rotation and staff. A couple of key guys for me is getting Ryan Bogusz back healthy. Ryan's been a really important piece of our pitching staff over his five-year window, and he’s working his way back towards health. Same can be said with Ryan Ure, a big part of our team two years ago as an emerging freshman and we lost him last year to injury. And then getting Carson Benge stretched out and establishing what his pitch role might be along with his outfield role. All those things combined to put together our pitching plan, number of transfers, some guys that have stepped up. Dominick Reid is a guy that didn't pitch much last year but had a great summer and a really outstanding fall. I liked the potential that Dom brings. So a lot of new faces and lots of opportunity. I think is the best way I could describe kind of where this particular team is at if you're trying to get a feel for it.”

On the younger players

“I think younger players learn, first and foremost, how to go about their business correctly from what they observe. And our veteran players have set a great example of how to do things the right way. And then over time, people start to trust you, whether you're younger or older, doesn't really matter how old you are, as long as you've earned their trust. And I've seen some young players already established that they're here for the right reasons. And their work ethic is good, their commitment to the team is good. And then really your age is irrelevant. It's just about doing the right thing and showing up ready to compete. So yeah, I'm pleased with a number of our newcomers and how quickly they've adopted the right way to do things and committed themselves to what it takes to play at a high level. That's how you prepare. It's how you handle your business, how you operate in the classroom, how you follow through on your appointments, always being on time showing up at the field ready. Those are high-level qualities. And we've got a lot of guys that are displaying those, even though they might only be 18 years old.”

On team depth

“I do have a good confidence in the depth. You know, how we eventually settle in and line it up and what it looks like, I couldn't tell you with 100% certainty right now. But I'm going to be excited to see how kids respond when given the ball. And then we'll watch and figure out how we match up best and work our way towards a rotation and a pitch plan on a weekly basis to give us a really good shot to win four- or five-game weeks, which is essentially what the season becomes. It becomes a series of weeks in which you need to pitch four, or in some weeks, five really good games and go out there and line your guys up. So that's always the goal is to find the way the ballclub stacks up best where we can go out there one day at a time. Match up, have the necessary bullets to get people out. But I think, again, pitch count wise and getting into the season and getting everybody back, that's what the early segment of your season is for. Hopefully you go out there and you figure those things out. And we're certainly taking on a great challenge and going on the road and playing good teams. So it'll grow us up. It'll help us know where we're good. And help us know where we have to improve.”

On Drew Blake

“Drew’s very versatile. His pitch count and his ability to go through the batting order more than once is certainly something that could be there for us. But he's also a tremendous weapon in terms of being able to shut down late innings, pitch around traffic and shut games down. So he has both the power component in a short look of a late inning guy and but also the skill that he's developed to possibly get through the order a couple of different times, which would be more of that approach as a starter. Oftentimes, the development of a third pitch to where a power relief pitcher who's not relying solely on the velocity of the fastball and in the sharpness of a breaking ball. That third pitch is kind of the missing link when guys want to transition and throw more of a four- or five-inning pitch plan, and he's worked really hard and has a good changeup now to go along with his fastball and his slider. So all potential things. But like I said in the early stages of the season, you're probably going to see having to put games together with three or four inning chunks out of your guys since nobody's ready to go out there and throw 115 pitches yet. We just don't have the weeks from the time we get back to the first pitch to get the guys quite there. We'll have kind of some piggy backs and make plans going into games with somebody to close.”

On Nolan Schubart

“Nolan, like many guys who have great freshman seasons, sometimes I think the expectation is ‘Well just double it. If you can do that as a freshman, why can't’ you?’ That's not realistic; baseball is hard. When a freshman comes in and has 74 RBIs and double-digit doubles, double-digit homers, well, you don't just double that just because you got older. Baseball is hard. And people start to pay a little bit more attention to you. Other players in the lineup that used to gain the other team's focus are gone. And now you become one of the more focused on parts of the offense. The other team wants to try to slow you down. All he'll need to do is be himself, understanding he may get pitched a little different or he may be a guy now that people try to say ‘Hey, don't let that guy beat you’. Whereas last year, maybe they're trying to stay away from a Nolan McLean or maybe they're trying to stay away from a Roc Riggio or something. And then he was the one that sat there and made them pay. He'll find himself probably pitched a little differently. But we have good coverage in our batting order, and he just needs to be himself. I think where I've seen him improve the most is understanding how hard it is to physically stay strong through the entire year. He, like most guys, went out in the summer and saw that a 60 some odd game college season and another 50 games in the summer, the games are pretty demanding on your body. So he's a stronger version of himself. But yeah, he's like any good sophomore player. And in his case, he's actually one of the rare, young age-appropriate players in his grade. He's a young sophomore. So when you have young players versus say a 23- or 24-year-old player who's been in the weight room and been on a college campus for five or six years at different stages in their development, that's a good compliment to him. He very well could be a freshman age-wise. That's how young he is.”

 On the catcher position

“The catching position is a difficult one. It's as much emotionally and mentally demanding as physically because you have to be on point at all times. The catcher cannot afford to ever go back there and not be in the right headspace. He has to play every pitch correctly. It's a lot like playing quarterback. You have to constantly know your responsibilities. You have to be the pitcher’s partner in everything that's going on, and you work closely with the coaching staff. So it's a mentally demanding position. So super important. It does take its toll on you physically, a lot of balls hit the dirt and ricochet off your body and you're the only guy in the field that’s standing up and squatting down the whole time and throwing the ball. So there's just a lot that goes into the position. But it's typically always been a position where two guys can be each other's greatest support, and I see it being very much a two-man position now. And we’ve got a good young catcher in Charlie Carter that could do his part as well. So those guys can handle it. No doubt in my mind. They're tough kids, and they're good players. I’m looking forward to watching them perform.”

On Rob Walton

“Rob's been great. He's had a really good vibe with this group of kids since day one. And the work ethic has been exceptional. Every single day guys are chasing it. When you see guys get to the facility, and they're taking care of themselves, and they're studying film, and then they're mindful in their practice. They're there, they're working on things at a deep level, you can tell the guys know what the adjustments are they need to make, you can tell the focus is there. I've been very pleased with the way our pitching staff has worked towards this. I think Rob's got a great feel for where the kids are at. And a lot of that goes into kind of how you figured out how to put them in the right roles with the personalities, the ability to execute pitches at certain stages of the game with certain types of pitches. All that kind of goes into the strategy side and then putting guys in the right roles. And I think we’ve got a good pulse right now where our pitching staff is at, I feel good about that. And Rob has done a heck of a job with this group so far.”

On what Lane Forsythe brings to the team

“Experience. Lane played three years at Mississippi State, was on the field a lot and was part of a lot of winning. I jokingly said he's got something I want, that's a national championship ring. But he's got good experience, he's got the ability to play a very solid defensive shortstop, which is obviously important to the defense and to the team. I think he's got something in his own mind that he feels like he's got left to prove, which I always liked when a player feels like they've got last year, best year type approach to what's going on. Obviously that's a big part of what drew us to him and ultimately why he chose to come here in the transfer process. It was a chance to come in here and jump on the field at shortstop and have a great senior year. He’s a really, really steady defensive presence on the field for us. He is (the first option at shortstop).”

On first games on the road

“The first eight games are tough. They're all on the road, too. It's an opportunity. You know, we've had great weather here for the last 10 days, as everybody knows it's been beautiful outside, but we've also had some early springs where we're literally sitting here trying to cancel series and move them to places and melt snow and get rid of ice. And you've got teams traveling to Stillwater to play you and you have guarantees to get them here, and you're sitting here going ‘Does trying to play home baseball in late February make a lot of sense?’ So this is a chance to know we're gonna play. We know we're playing good teams, we think we're going to get pretty good weather. We're going to go put our cleats in the dirt against some of the best teams in college baseball. And we're not going to wonder where we're at. We're gonna know where we're at. And then we're going to know exactly where we have to get better. And then we're going to attack it one day at a time. And I think for us, at least, I'm the crazy man who put the schedule together, I'm kind of looking forward to it. Because I think those times on the road and those times together, the first big win will be exciting, the first tough loss, it'll stink, but we'll respond to it, and we'll handle whatever comes our way. But we're going to be a whole lot more in the process two weeks in than we would be if say, we took a path of less resistance. And we're ultimately trying to get great. And the beginning of the season is gonna help us get there.”

On Cecil O’Brate’s passing

“To sit here and try to sum up, you know what his gift to Oklahoma State and in particular the Cowboy Baseball stadium, it would be impossible to put it into words. What I will say is, what I learned in going to his celebration of life and going to Garden City and hearing all of his closest friends and family talk is, it was as enjoyable and exciting and life changing experience for him to come back to Oklahoma State and to reconnect with the school and the passion of the university and to make that gift and build O’Brate Stadium. According to them, it was just as exciting for him as it was for us. And that was a really cool thing to hear and understand how much that meant to him. Bringing the family to the games, family reunions at the stadium in the summer, loading up his closest friends and family and coming and sitting in a suite and just sharing with people the pride that the stadium created in him, his name on it, his family's name on it, I think was just a perfect match of a generous, lifelong giving man who, when you when you go up there and hear there’s over a thousand kids he's put through college through his foundation, the countless number of charities and projects that he had been a part of over his life, over $100 million invested in this community alone. Just a remarkable life that he lived of helping people and caring about people, and I'm just thankful that we got a chance to be part of kind of what he loved to do. And that was to make things better. And he definitely did that for us. O’Brate Stadium will sit on that corner forever. And that thing will be lit up, and it'll be a source of pride.”