Oklahoma State Baseball Releases Daunting 2018 Schedule

Oklahoma State is counting down the days until the first pitch of the 2018 season. The Cowboys, the defending Big 12 Tournament champions, open the season on Feb. 16 with a three-game series at Texas State. OSU will face 11 teams that made the NCAA Tournament last year. Five of those matchups will be taking place in Stillwater.

"I like the challenges this schedule presents us," said coach Josh Holliday in a news release.

"We're going on the road early and playing some quality opponents and, as always, our midweek opponents give us as good a midweek schedule as anyone in the country with the outstanding play in the Midwest — every Tuesday and Wednesday we're playing NCAA Regional-type opponents. And once again, the Big 12 should be just as good as it has been if not better, with a number of teams returning deep, experienced rosters.”

Coming off of an up-and-down year where the Cowboys went 30-25, this year features an undoubtedly tougher schedule. After losing seniors Ryan Sluder, Trey Cobb, Dustin Williams and Tyler Buffett, the Cowboys will look to the likes of Carson Teel (3.06 ERA, 5-4 record over 28 appearances), Ryan Cash (.274/.296/.413 last year), and Cameron Dobbs (.220/.273/.346) to lead the charge. Jensen Elliott will be returning from Tommy John surgery, and the Cowboys hope he will return to pre-injury form.

After going 11-12 against teams with the top 25 RPI’s (ratings percentage index) in the country, the Cowboys will face 13 teams listed on D1baseball.com’s Top 100 Programs list. While the list isn’t official rankings, it takes into account “recent history, coaching staff quality, facilities, scholarship/financial aid situation, conference dynamics, and recruiting and player development proficiency.” Oklahoma State is listed at No. 21 on the list, while some of their notable competition will come from TCU (No. 4), Texas Tech (18), Texas (20), Dallas Baptist (28), Arizona State (29), Oklahoma (35) and Missouri State (40).