PROVO, Utah — BYU baseball welcomes Oklahoma State to Provo for a three-game Big 12 series, March 26-28 at Miller Park. The Cowboys and the Cougars will meet for the 23rd time on the diamond and just the first meeting in Provo.
BROADCAST PLANS. All three games will be broadcast live on ESPN+ and will also be available on the BYU Radio app, BYUradio.org and 107.9 FM in Utah County.
WEEKLY RECAP. BYU is coming off a five-game road trip that included a 18-5 win at Utah Tech on March 17, followed by three losses at No. 20 West Virginia, March 19-21, and a wild 6-5 win over Utah on Tuesday evening in SLC.
REIGNING POW. BYU shortstop Ryder Robinson was recognized last week as the Brooks Wallace Award National Player of the Week by the College Baseball Foundation. Presented annually to the nation’s most outstanding shortstop by the College Baseball Hall of Fame, the Brooks Wallace Award also recognizes one shortstop each week as the national player of the week.
Robinson, from American Fork, Utah, was 8 for 16 (.500) with three home runs, a triple, four RBI, four walks and six runs scored the week of March 9-15. On the year, he is hitting .323 with six home runs, 16 RBIs and 21 runs scored in 23 starts and leads the Cougars in stolen bases with seven in eight attempts.
BAT CATS. In addition to Robinson, BYU is lead offensively by Ezra McNaughton and Crew McChesney. Both have started all 23 games and are in the top three in nearly every offensive category. McNaughton is the team leader in runs (21), hits (38), home runs (8), RBI (29), total bases (68), slugging (.673) and OBP (.442), while McChesney leads in doubles (9), triples (2) and extra bases (17).
ON THE HILL. Seven different Cougars have recorded a win on the mound this season, including Ashton Johnson and Nate Gray who each have two. Johnson has thrown 21.1 innings over nine games with 23 strikeouts and a save, while Gray has pitched 23.1 innings over seven games with 23 strikeouts. BYU will start junior lefthander Justis Reiser on the mound Thursday, senior lefty Wayland Crane on Friday and sophomore righthander Cayson Bell on Saturday. Reiser has appeared in five games and will making his first start, while Crane has appeared in six games—all starts, and Bell has one start in six appearances.
THE MATCHUP. BYU is 11-12 on the year and 2-4 in Big 12 play. Meanwhile OSU enters the weekend series at 16-8 and is tied with the Cougars at 2-4 in conference play. They are coming off a 2-1 home series win over Baylor and a 16-2 midweek loss at Missouri State.
SERIES HISTORY. The Cowboys leads the all-time series 17-5 with the most recent meeting being a three-game series at No. 19 ranked OKU in 2024. The first meeting between the two schools was a 7-5 Oklahoma State win on Feb. 22, 1979, at the Desert Baseball Classic in Las Vegas. The Cowboys have never played in Provo. The teams were scheduled to play three-games at Miller Park on March 10-12, 2022, but a winter snowstorm caused the series to be moved to Globe Life Park home of the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas.
KNOW THE FOE. In 2025, Oklahoma State went 30-25 (15-12) and finished seventh in the Big 12 regular season. The Cowboys defeated Baylor in the first round of the Big 12 Conference Baseball Championship before falling to Kansas in the quarterfinals. OSU was picked to finish eighth in the 2026 Big 12 Preseason Baseball Poll.
The Cowboys are led by 14-year head coach Josh Holliday (491-271-2) who has led OSU to five Big 12 Baseball Titles, 12 NCAA Regional Appearances and three Super Regional berths.
Offensively OSU is led by Aidan Meola and Kollin Ritchie who leads the team or are second in almost every offensive category. Ritchie leads the Cowboys in at bats (91), hits (28), home runs (14), RBI (37), total bases (78) and slugging (.835). Meola is second in home runs (8), RBI (26), batting average (.318) and slugging (.708).
Ethan Lund leads the OSU pitching staff with three wins and 55 strikeouts and is second in innings pitched with 30.1. Three other Cowboys have recorded two wins on the year including Noah Wech (2-1), Hudson Barrett (2-1), Mario Pesca (2-2). Pesca leads the team in innings pitched (32.1) and is second in strikeouts (34). Lund will start game one on Thursday, followed by Pesca in game two on Friday and Barrett in game three Saturday.