OMAHA, Neb. – Oklahoma State had been a regular attendee at the College World Series, but had not been since 1999.
Head coach Josh Holliday led the Cowboys back to Omaha this season after a memorable postseason run. The second-place team in the Big 12, OSU was sent to Clemson, S.C., as the No. 2 regional seed. The Cowboys went 3-0, including two victories over the No. 7 national seed Tigers. OSU headed across the state to Columbia for the Super Regional. The Cowboys beat South Carolina twice to advance to the College World Series.
“I just really want to celebrate my team,” OSU head coach Josh Holliday said. “What an amazing accomplishment for us. I don’t think since 1990 has Oklahoma State played this deep into the College World Series. That’s a long time ago, 26 years.
“What an amazing collection of kids to bring us here, to bring our fans here, to bring our alumni together, to make OSU baseball something special that people are rallying around, and to do it in the way we did by taking on great challenges, overcoming adversity, with a gritty, gritty tough bunch of kids. They should be celebrated.”
The Cowboys made their 20th trip to Omaha this year, the sixth-highest total in NCAA history. OSU made three CWS appearances during the 1950s, five in the 1960s, seven consecutive years in the 1980s and four in the 1990s. The Cowboys won a national championship in 1959 and last reached the title game in 1990.
When asked what he would remember most from this postseason run, Trey Cobb said, “A lot of days in a hotel in South Carolina.”
“The pitching was incredible,” Cobb added. “The hitting was so timely and so clutch. We didn’t trail until the two games we lost.
“You’d get up 1-0 and you felt it was 10-0. It was incredible. This last month has been really special.”
“Getting here is not easy,” Holliday said, “and they brought us back. So I give the kids so much credit for their love for their program and for sticking together and for being tough. We had our ups and downs, but the kids never quit on what they had invested in. They were so invested they wouldn’t stop. I guess that’s how we got here, the amount they put in every single day, the bank was too full of care to just let it go.”