feb 25

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Thursday, February 25, 2021

‘A day they’ll never forget’ Cowboys open O’Brate Stadium with a win over Little Rock

By Chris Becker An emotional 91-yearold Cecil O’Brate walked to the pitcher’s mound a little before 4 p.m. with OSU baseball coach Josh Holliday to throw out the ceremonial first pitch in the stadium that holds O’Brates name. After weeks and weeks of only getting to practice in their new home, the Cowboys finally got to take the field — it was the moment they had dreamed about. It couldn’t have gone any better. Right handed pitcher Justin Campbell delivered the first game pitch for a strike, and then proceeded to strike out the side. “It was awesome (to finally play in the stadium),” Cabbiness said. “Last week, we obviously opened up against Wichita State to get those jitters out, but today, I woke up with a whole different kind

of jitters. Although it wasn’t packed tonight, it was about as good as it could get.” The stadium officially hosted 2,635 baseball fans, instead of 7,000, due to COVID-19 restrictions. Holliday was focused on the game the majority of the time, but he did take some

time throughout and before the game to take in the moment. Although, he did admit he felt some emotions swirling, so he locked back into the game. “I enjoyed listening to the players talk about what was going on, a lot of smiles, a lot of grins and a lot of happy kids,” Holliday said. “There

was a lot of joy present in our group before the game and during the game taking in all of the first moments.” The Cowboys’ first hit came in the second inning with a double to left-center See Forget on pg. 4

‘Everything’s just perfect’ What OSU fans thought of Cowboy baseball’s new home

By Ben Hutchens Everyone from fans in middle school to fans who could be considered a little “old school” all agreed on

one thing: O’Brate Stadium is awesome. On Wednesday, the Oklahoma State baseball team played its first game in the brand new $70 million ballpark, O’Brate Stadium. It was a consensus among fans that the park was spectacular, but each fan had their own unique take on why the park was special.

Parker Wilson was one of the many fans enjoying O’Brate Stadium’s first game from the student section in right field. The students had set their sights on the visiting Arkansas Little Rock right fielder Noah Dickerson, or as he was simply called “No. 7.” Dickerson received a strange combination

of booing and cheering from the students whenever he did anything on the field. He couldn’t help but acknowledge the crowd when some of the heckling got creative. “You don’t want to play right field in O’Brate Stadium,” Wilson said. Russ Lambillotte, who drove from Tulsa for the game, mentioned the outfield corral seating equipped with grills and coolers was pretty cool, but the O’Brate Stadium amenity he was most excited to open up was the turf practice field outside of the left field gate. Once the field dries out from the snow, it will be open for fans to run around on and play catch. “I’ve got a 5-yearold granddaughter, and she loves to play, that’s all she’ll want to do,” Lambillotte said. Landry Davis and his friend, Parker, were some of the youngest kids soaking up O’Brate Stadium’s historic game. “I looked out over the field and I was amazed cause I have been to a couple of games at the old

stadium, and this is a big upgrade and it just looks so amazing,” Parker said. Davis enjoyed the food at the stadium and said the salted pretzel with cheese he ate was tasty. A fan called King Bryan got the nickname, King, from winning the “Tailgater of the year” award a number of years ago. From the comfort of his seat that he had padded with an OSU chair pad, he reflected on the new ballpark. “After 30 years, I mean Allie P (Reynolds stadium) was great when it first opened up, it was first class then, but we’re at a different level with this set up here,” Bryan said. “The suites look great from this angle, the concourse is big and wide, it looks great, the corrals were a great idea. Everything fan-wise is first class.” Bryan thinked long when asked what his favorite part of O’Brate Stadium was. “This chair right here. Perfect view, everything’s just perfect,” Bryan said. sports.ed@ocolly.com


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