Two Midweek Games On Tap For Cowboys
Oklahoma State (17-8) vs. Wichita State (17-9)
Tue., 6:30 p.m.
Allie P. Reynolds Stadium
Missouri State (11-16)
Wed., 6:30 p.m.
Hammons Field
STILLWATER, Okla. – Oklahoma State is 17-8 and coming off its first Big 12 Conference series victory of the season by winning a pair of games against Nebraska in Stillwater. The Cowboys return to action with a pair of midweek games against teams from the Missouri Valley Conference. OSU will host Wichita State Tuesday at 6:30 at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium before a trip to Springfield, Mo., Wednesday to take on Missouri State at Hammons Field.
OSU head coach Frank Anderson is in his seventh season at the helm of the Cowboys and has led the club to 250 wins in his career. The Pokes are coming off a season in which they finished 34-24 and advanced to the finals of the NCAA Clemson Regional. With that showing, OSU became the only Big 12 Conference team to advance to a Regional championship round each of the last four seasons.
OSU leads the Big 12 with a .342 team batting average, with eight of the Cowboy regulars in the starting lineup hitting .300 or better, and the pitching staff sports a collective 5.09 ERA.
About The Wichita State
Wichita State is 17-9 overall and has won three of its last four games. The Cowboys are 51-28 all time against the Shockers, including a 4-1 win at WSU last season.
Missouri State is 11-16 after sweeping a three-game series against Oral Roberts last weekend. The Cowboys defeated the Bears, 8-2, last month in Stillwater and are 6-1 all time against MSU.
Up Next For The Cowboys
Following the pair of midweek contests, OSU will return to Big 12 Conference action Friday when they open a three-game series against Texas Tech at Reynolds Stadium.
On The Air & The Web
All OSU baseball games are carried live by Stillwater Radio and will air on KSPI 93.7 FM or 780 AM. Rex Holt, who is in his 28th season with Cowboy baseball (15th as the play-by-play voice), will call the action, with Matt “Chief” Davis providing color commentary.
Radio broadcasts and live stats can also be accessed via www.okstate.com (links are available under Schedule/Results).
Home Sweet Home
Allie P. Reynolds Stadium has been home to Oklahoma State baseball since 1981, and in those 29 seasons the Cowboys have been nearly unbeatable on their home field.
The Cowboys are 754-162 (.823) all-time at Reynolds Stadium and have lost more than two consecutive games on their home turf only once (six in a row in May 2007).
OSU is 14-3 at home in 2010.
Hot Hitters
Oklahoma State leads the Big 12 in hitting with a .342 batting average and is also tops with a .519 slugging percentage. The Cowboys are second in the league in doubles (75) and on-base percentage (.417)
Freshman Dane Phillips ranks second in the Big 12 with a .429 batting average and has hit safely in 22 of OSU’s 25 games, including turning in a recent 15-game hitting streak.
JUCO transfer Luis Uribe was named to the Dairy Queen Classic All-Tournament Team last month and is second on the Cowboys with a .366 batting average.
Mark Ginther, a sophomore third baseman, is hitting .358 and leads OSU with five home runs and 29 RBIs. He also leads the Cowboys and is seventh in the Big 12 with an .632 slugging percentage.
Over the last 11 games, junior catcher Kevin David has raised his season batting average 85 points after going 18-for-45 (.400) with two home runs and nine RBIs????. He is second on the team with four homers and third with 25 RBIs.
Cowboys In The Clutch
OSU is hitting .411 with runners in scoring position this season. The Cowboys also sport a .320 average with two outs and have collected 67 two-out RBIs.
No Thanks
A trio of Cowboys from last season’s club was selected in the 2009 Major League Baseball Draft but spurned pro ball to return to Stillwater.
Tyler Lyons was a 10th-round pick of the New York Yankees, Thomas Keeling was a 20th-round choice of the Yankees and Kevin David was selected in the 35th round by the Chicago Cubs.
Eleven players on the OSU roster have been Major League Baseball Draft picks. That marks the second-highest total in the Big 12, trailing only Texas’ 13.
Double Zero
OSU’s back-to-back shutout wins against Alabama A&M (26-0 and 4-0) marked the first time the Cowboys had accomplished that feat since consecutive shutout wins against Texas Tech on May 12 and May 13, 2000.
Six different Cowboy pitchers combined for the shutouts.
Catch Them If You Can
OSU ranks second in the Big 12 this season with 50 stolen bases, a number which has already surpassed its total from ’09 (45).
Davis Duren and Dusty Harvard both rank among the top five in the league in steals.
The Cowboys are on their way to becoming the first OSU team to top 100 steals since the 1999 team had 117. OSU’s highest stolen base total since ’99 is 90, which came in 2002.
From 1981-94, OSU topped the century mark in steals 11 times, including a school-record 190 thefts in 1985.
Lyons Climbing The Charts
Tyler Lyons is poised to finish his OSU career with his name scattered throughout the Cowboys’ pitching record book.
A native of Lubbock, Texas, Lyons is 21-8 in his OSU career, one win shy of moving into the top 10 on the Cowboys’ career list.
Lyons already ranks seventh on OSU’s career innings pitched list with 266.2 and is 10th on OSU’s career strikeouts list with 221. Lyons’ has 36 career starts, which ranks 10th on the Cowboys’ career list.
The southpaw is also on the verge of cracking the top 10 on the Cowboys’ career list for appearances as his 57 are eight shy of that mark.
K Is For Keeling
Cowboy junior Thomas Keeling continues to rack up strikeouts at an impressive rate.
Keeling leads OSU with 42 strikeouts and has had at least nine Ks in five of his six appearances this season. With 41 Ks in 27 innings, Keeling is averaging 13.63 strikeouts per nine innings, which ranks in the top five nationally.
Keeling was named the Big 12 Conference pitcher of the week on April 5 after he tossed 7.1 scoreless innings, allowed only four hits and racked up 11 strikeouts to earn his first-ever Big 12 win in the opener vs. Nebraska.
Keeling’s strikeout total ranks fifth in the Big 12, and each of the pitchers above him has at least one more outing than the Cowboy.
As a redshirt sophomore last season, Keeling recorded 73 strikeouts in just 51.0 innings. His 12.88 strikeouts per nine innings would have ranked fourth nationally had he had three more innings of work to qualify for the NCAA minimum.
In 87.0 career innings, Keeling has racked up 127 strikeouts. He had a career-high 12 Ks last season at Arizona.
ReKord Setters
Pitchers Kevin Chambers and Brian Denneny combined to break an OSU record that had stood for nearly 46 years with their performances in the second game of a March 23 doubleheader against Alabama A&M.
The Chambers-Denneny duo combined for 20 strikeouts, breaking OSU’s previous single-game record last set on April 25, 1964 in a 14-inning game against Kansas.
Chambers started and racked up 15 Ks, tying the Allie P. Reynolds Stadium record and finishing just one shy of OSU’s single-game record of 16 (set by Derek Brandow against Iowa State in the 1992 Big Eight Tournament).
Chambers had 15 strikeouts in just six innings of work, while Denneny added five over the final three frames.
The Thief
Junior second baseman Davis Duren leads the Big 12 with 19 stolen bases. Against Oklahoma Christian, Duren swiped four bags, the most by a Cowboy since 2004 and one shy of the school’s single-game record.
Last season, Duren was 14-of-15 on stolen base attempts to lead the Cowboys.
From his leadoff spot in the lineup, Duren is second on the Cowboys with 28 RBIs to go along with a .348 batting average.
Duren’s recent 14-game hitting streak is tied for the fourth longest in the Big 12 this season.
Vote For Cowboy Greats
To commemorate the final year of the College World Series being played in Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium in 2010, the NCAA is creating a CWS Legends Team, and six former OSU Cowboys are nominated for the team.
The Legends Team will represent those student-athletes who had the best CWS performances in the 60 years the CWS has been played at Rosenblatt Stadium. OSU’s nominees for the team are third baseman Robin Ventura (1986-87), catcher Mike Day (1982-85), designated hitter Pete Incaviglia (1983-85), outfielder Wayne Weatherly (1966-68), pitcher Tom Borland (1954-55) and shortstop Danny Thompson (1968).
Fans can vote online for players they think should be selected as members of the CWS Legends team at www.ncaa.com.
Updated 04-06-2010
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