Oklahoma State baseball's strong finish to the regular season ultimately overcame a mid-season collapse, and the Cowboys were rewarded with an at-large regional bid in the NCAA Tournament.

The Pokes are the No. 3 seed in the Athens Regional, along with host Georgia (No. 7 national seed), No 2 seed Duke and No. 4 seed Binghampton. They will face Duke on Friday, May 30 at 5 p.m. (CDT).

“I’m so thrilled for this team for the fact that from now on, they’ll never, ever quit at anything they do because they’ll have something to look back on and say ‘Hey, when something seems like a big task or hard to figure out or I’m not sure I can do this,’ they’ll have this experience to draw from,” said OSU head coach Josh Holliday, who has led the Cowboys to the NCAA tourney in each of his years at the helm. “It’s been an unbelievable thing to watch the kids stay with the challenge, to respond to it and then to find themselves and the success.

“We’re really thankful for this opportunity. Going into this, you don’t know where you fit in the grand scheme of things, but we’re honored that we were chosen. A lot of good teams were in the mix for this opportunity. Being chosen for it, having earned it and being given a chance to continue on is a lot for where we’ve been as a team and what we’ve fought to do.”

The bid maintains OSU's NCAA Tournament streak in the Josh Holliday era, extending it to 12 seasons in a row (minus the cancelled Covid season). It is also the 50th regional appearance in school history. That number is tied for third nationally with Miami and trails only Texas (64) and Florida State (61),