PREVIEW: Oklahoma State vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff

The Cowboys return to Stillwater this week for a midweek matchup against the Arkansas Pine-Bluff Golden Lions. The Cowboys are coming off of a big weekend in Lubbock, TX, taking 2-of-3 from No. 4 Texas Tech, whereas Pine-Bluff is coming off of a series loss against Texas Southern, only winning 1-of-3 series games.

Here are the quick hits:

Arkansas-Pine Bluff (13-26, 9-21 away) vs. Oklahoma State (23-16, 15-7 home)

Ballpark: Allie P. Reynolds Stadium, Stillwater, OK

First Pitch: 6 p.m.

Free Stream:

The Opponent

At the plate, the Golden Lions are led by outfielder Jordan Knox, who has a slash line (batting average/on base percentage/slugging percentage) of .336/.413/.527. Knox leads the team in all three statistical categories. As a team, they are slashing .244/.346/.353, which is respectable. I would not expect anyone on this team to jump the yard on the Cowboys tonight, with Dontrell Brown leading the team with only four home runs. This team does have quite a few patient hitters though, with 151 walks as a team.

From the pitching side, it isn't very pretty. The Golden Lions have a team ERA of 6.81, with their lowest ERA from a pitcher with a few innings under his belt, Jacob Waters, is 4.67. Of every pitcher to log at least one inning this year, they all have more walks than strikeouts. Ouch. When they actually do put the ball over the plate, teams are hitting .297 against them.

The Cowboys

It's the year of Garretts for Oklahoma State. Garrett McCain leads the way for the Cowboys, with a .372/.489/.554 slash line, and Garrett Benge has a .304/.424/.568 slash line. The Garretts have also fired up the Gap Band 12 times this year combined (McCain with four, Benge with eight). The Cowboys' slash line as a team is very impressive, .267/.375/.421.

Oklahoma State pitching has been inconsistent at best this year, with a team ERA of 4.19, with an opponent batting average of .257. No starter has been named, but this likely could be a bullpen game because starting pitching depth is very limited. With a weekend series with Texas coming up, I bet the main starters will be saved for then. Likely it could be a combination of Brady Basso, CJ Varela, Jake Cowan, Johnathan Heasley, and others.

The Cowboys will not leave the state of Oklahoma to finish out the regular season. The farthest they will have to travel is to Tulsa to face Oral Roberts and, of course, the Bedlam series. 10 of their last 14 will be at Allie P. Reynolds stadium.

Let's hope the Cowboys can get this weekday victory and give them some momentum going into the big weekend against the Texas Longhorns! #GoPokes