Janzen Keisel Keys Team No-Hitter in Home Opening Win over Cal Baptist
STILLWATER – Oklahoma State came home to O’Brate Stadium and found anything but a soft opening to the home baseball season. After losing two games last weekend in the College Baseball Showdown at Globe Life Stadium in Arlington, Texas; the Pokes were looking for a win. They got a challenge as Cal Baptist came in off winning two-out-of three at Oklahoma over the weekend. The Lancers threw two of their starting pitchers in relief and fired out their best bullpen throwers in limiting the Cowboys to seven hits. However, zero trumps seven when it comes to pitching and it led to a 2-0 Oklahoma State win.
“You have to get somebody to come out and give you a good start in order to move past that loss on Sunday and Janzen (Keisel) did that,” head coach Josh Holliday said. “He did that and did a heckuva job. That was a great thing to see. What heppened behind it was the bullpen responded. A no-hitter is the rarest of rare and you don’t see it very often.
The Cowboys started the BYU transfer in Keisel and the 6-4 righthander threw 80 pitches in five and a third innings to hold CBU to no hits. He walked one and struck out 11 in his first Cowboy outing.
Look for Keisel to appear on the weekends in the near future. Four other Oklahoma State pitchers followed keisel to the mound with Isaac Stephens going two innings. Drew Blake and Evan O’Toole each got one out to help finish the eighth inning and then Nolan McLean closed the ninth with three up and three down.
The no-hitter was the 12th in program history and the first for the Cowboys since Justin Campbell achieved the feat against Kansas on May 8, 2021. It was the third combined no-hitter by OSU and the first since Jason Bell, Brent Nichols, Rob Gaiko and Marcus Cuper no-hit Missouri Southern on March 16, 1993.
Furthermore, the no-hitter was the fifth in OSU history in a game that went nine innings, joining the 1993 combined no-no, Campell’s and no-hitters by Bob Richardson in 1968 and Jim Wixson in the 1960 College World Series.
Oklahoma State still needed to score and in the bottom of the eighth inning with one on and one out, first baseman Devid Mendham unloaded for an opposite field line drive home run over the wall in left field. It was Mendham’s fifth hit of the season and his second and third RBI. Mendham had two hits in the game and so did third baseman Aidan Meola.
Meola also had two glove gems in the field as he made a diving stop at third base and threw the runner out while still sitting on his bum. He also came back in the ninth inning with a barehanded running stop and throw to first base to get the out.
“It was good that Cal Baptist threw their best pitchers,” Holliday said. “I told our team that we will get everybody’s best shot, so just expect it. They will throw out everything they have. That is part of the job here, to be on point every game out.”
The Cowboys are now 2-2 on the season and will host another team from California in Loyola-Marymount this weekend with games on Friday (4 p.m.), Saturday (1 p.m.), and Sunday (1 p.m.).