Trevor Martin Earns Big 12 Pitcher of the Week and Other Cowboy Highlights
STILLWATER – Oklahoma State baseball is camped out in Arlington, Texas on Monday night waiting to play Sam Houston State in beautiful Globe Life Field on Tuesday evening. The Cowboy baseballers opened their season in solid fashion winning two-out-of-three games on the home turf in Nashville of powerhouse and No. 2-ranked Vanderbilt. Several of the polls came out with week one editions and Oklahoma State basically traded places with Vanderbilt. Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball had the Cowboys No. 3 and D1 Baseball had them No. 4 in their poll. Vanderbilt slid back to No. 7 in Baseball America and No. 4 in Collegiate Baseball and No. 5 in D1 Baseball.
Oklahoma State also had a first week award winner in the Big 12 as reliever Trevor Martin, the sophomore out of Asher, Okla. was named the Big 12 Pitcher of the Week. Asher appeared twice in the series with a save on Saturday pitching the final inning of the 4-3 win over the Commodores.
Martin then came in on Sunday to put out a fire in the eighth inning as Vanderbilt tied the game at 5-5. In the top of the ninth, the Oklahoma State bats got two runs with doubles by Jake Thompson and Griffin Doersching providing the RBI power for a 7-5 lead. Martin came back and put down Vanderbilt in the bottom of the ninth to pick up the win.
Martin ended the weekend with the two appearances allowing one run, it was earned, one walk, and six strikeouts. He is 1-0 with a save and has an era of 3.37. The other celebrated pitching performance out of the bullpen was from Roman Phansalkar as he pitched four innings and got the win on Saturday. The Tommy John surgery bounce back and native of Edmond with two parents that attended Oklahoma State, Phansalkar scattered five hits allowing just one run, it was earned, he struck out three with his turbo sinker and he did not walk a batter. He is 1-0 on the season.
The pitchers were helped by the defense as the Cowboys got through the first series of the season without committing an error in the field.
From the offensive side, Norther Kentucky transfer Griffin Doersching is hitting .500 with the only home run of the weekend and three doubles and three RBI. Jake Thompson was good with the bat too. The veteran is hitting .600 with six hits, two doubles, and the RBI in the Sunday win over Vanderbilt.
"The kids made a statement. I got to sit and watch, and I liked what I saw," said OSU head coach Josh Holliday. "I'm really proud of the kids. I'm super impressed by the way they responded after Friday night… The last two days we showed character and toughness. Great job by the kids.
"It was a heck of a win. When you give the lead back and it's tied, sometimes kids don't know how to respond. Boy did our guys deliver. When you go play the No. 1 team in the country on the road and you can win two out of three, those are strong wins to start the season."
It’s a good start to the season with the Sam Houston State game and then the Cowboys come home and try to get in a weekend series with Wright State in spite of “old man winter.”