Cowboy Baseball Takes On Texas A&M

Oklahoma State (29-16, 9-9 Big 12)
vs. Texas A&M (26-19-1, 6-12 Big 12)
Friday, April 29 • 7 p.m.
Saturday, April 30 • 7 p.m.
Sunday, May 1 • 2 p.m.
Olsen Field (7,053)

All-Time Series:
Oklahoma State leads 25-18 in a series that dates back to 1916.

Last Season:
May 26, 2004 Oklahoma State 6, Texas A&M 5 Arlington
April 4, 2004 Texas A&M 9, Oklahoma State 7 Stillwater
April 3, 2004 Oklahoma State 7, Texas A&M 2 Stillwater
April 2, 2004 Oklahoma State 4, Texas A&M 3 Stillwater

Polls:
OSU is ranked No. 29 by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. Texas A&M is not ranked.

The Coaches:
OSU’s is 67-40 in his second season as head coach and is 3-1 against Texas A&M. A&M’s Mark Johnson is 872-427-2 in 20 years in College Station. He is 14-20 all-time against Oklahoma State.

Radio/TV:
93.7 FM Rex Holt (Play-by-Play) is in his 23rd season.

What’s On Tap
Oklahoma State heads down the home stretch of the regular season starting with a trip down south to take on Texas A&M this weekend. The Cowboys and Aggies will open up the Big 12 series on Friday at 7 p.m. and will play again at 7 p.m. on Saturday and at 2 p.m. on Sunday. The three games will be the only games OSU will play in a 15-day span.

About Texas A&M
Texas A&M is 26-19-1 overall and 6-12 in Big 12 play after dropping two of three to Kanas State in Manhattan last weekend. A&M fell to Texas-San Antonio by a 6-3 score on Tuesday.
The Aggies were ranked as high as No. 8 in the country at one point this year but have lost seven of their last 10 conference games.
Junior shortstop Cliff Pennington leads the team with a .351 batting average to go along with six homers, 12 doubles and 35 RBIs, while also displaying a slick glove with only four errors this year. A&M is hitting .280 as a team and are averaging just over five runs per game overall, while batting at a .262 clip in 18 conference games and scoring 3.8 runs per contest.
The Aggies pitching staff is led by ace southpaw Jason Meyer (5-3, 2.88) who was the Big 12 Freshman Pitcher of the Year in 2004. A&M has a 3.45 team ERA overall and a 4.40 mark in conference play.
Series Notes: Oklahoma State won three of four matchups last season including a first round win at the Big 12 tournament in Arlington ... OSU is 15-13 against A&M since the Big 12 began play in 1997 ... both teams last trip to Omaha was in 1999 ... OSU is 5-7 in College Station since 1997 and won series there in 1997 and 2001.

Texas Recap
Oklahoma State played No. 1 Texas down to the wire in all three games of the Big 12 series last weekend in Stillwater, losing the first two before rebounding with a win in the finale on Sunday.
After a shaky defensive start in Friday’s series opener, both starting pitchers settled down and pitched complete games with Texas coming away with a 4-3 win. OSU starter was the hard luck loser as two early Cowboy errors led to two unearned runs for the Longhorns. Cowley allowed four runs, two earned, on six hits with six strikeouts and three walks in dropping only his third decision of the year.
Texas broke an 8-8 ninth inning tie with three home runs to defeat Oklahoma State 12-8 on Saturday. Both teams rallied from three run deficits to tie the game and the Longhorns got out of a bases loaded jam in the bottom of the ninth to preserve the win.
Sunday’s contest looked like a mismatch on paper as Oklahoma State started who was 2-3 on the year with an ERA over six against freshman Adrian Alaniz who was 3-0 on the year and was the national pitcher of the week after no-hitting Oklahoma the previous Saturday. Oklahoma State’s stud freshman ended any thoughts of a repeat performance in the first inning with a solo homer over the centerfield wall to give OSU a 1-0 lead. Texas tied the game in the third, only to see the Cowboys regain the lead with two runs of their own in the bottom half. Rivas out dueled Alaniz by giving up two runs in eighth innings to pick up the win. closed out the game in the ninth to record his fifth save of the year. The game, shown nationally on ESPN2, marked the first loss by Alaniz since his freshman year of high school and pushed Oklahoma State’s conference record to 9-9 on the year.

Cowboy Veterans Heat Up
Cowboy veterans and had solid weekend’s at the plate and seem to be getting back into form down the home stretch of the season.
Ryal had two hits in all three games against Texas over the weekend and finished 6-for-11 (.545) with three RBI and a run scored. He boosted his batting average from a season low of .311 before the weekend to .326 heading into the A&M set.
Gutierrez went 5-for-10 at the plate with a double, homer and three RBIs against the Longhorns. In his last four games, “Gutz” is 7-for-14 (.500) and has bumped his season batting average to .327 entering the weekend.

Rounding Into Form
Junior righthander had a rough couple of outings in his first Big 12 starts in April, but has come into his own over his last two appearances. Rivas moved into the starting rotation at the start of the month, but losses to Nebraska and Texas Tech pushed his record to 1-3 with a 7.82 ERA.
He bounced back with a solid relief outing in the third game of the Missouri series on April 17, allowing just two runs over seven innings with three strikeouts and two walks in picking up his second win of the year. The El Paso product then got the starting nod against Texas last Sunday and beat the Longhorns 3-2. He gave up two runs on six hits with five strikeouts and evened his overall record at 3-3 on the year.

Brown’s Big Bat
Freshman has been on a tear offensively and has become a driving force in the Oklahoma State lineup in the month of April.
Brown is not only making a push for the Big 12’s Freshman of the Year award, he should also be considered for All-America honors for his contributions this year. The Tampa, Fla., product went 5-for-11 against Texas last weekend with a homer, triple, double and three runs scored. He is now 17-for-36 (.472) in his last nine Big 12 games with three homers, six RBIs and 11 runs scored.
He leads OSU and is sixth in the conference with a .380 batting average to go with nine homers and 34 RBI. Both his batting average and homer totals are tops among freshman in the conference. Brown also leads the Cowboys with a .417 average in 18 conference games, third best in the Big 12, to go along with three homers and 12 RBI. He enters the Texas A&M series with a team best 10-game hitting streak as well.

Carr Leads Nation In Home Runs And RBIs
was added to another watch list this week after maintaining his spot as the nation’s RBI leader. Carr’s 73 RBIs are tops in the country and he is tied with Jason Maxey of Towson for the home run lead with 17. USA Baseball announced on Tuesday that he was one of 40 players named to the initial Golden Spikes Award Watch List. The Felton, Calif., product’s homer total is the most by a Cowboy since current Houston Astro Luke Scott hit 20 in 2001. Carr is hitting .352 overall and also leads the conference in total bases (132) and is second in hits (64) and slugging percentage (.725) and fourth in triples (4).

On Deck
The Cowboys will have the next week off for finals before hosting in-state foe Oral Roberts in the regular season home finale on Tuesday, May 10. OSU will then take on Oklahoma in the annual roving Bedlam series the weekend of May 13-15.

Cowboy Notes
Oklahoma State leads the Big 12 with 73 homers, a .320 batting average, a .545 slugging percentage and 386 runs scored ... and are tied for the conference lead with five triples ... is third in the Big 12 in runs scored with 49, fourth in hits (60) and third in walks with 33 ... is fifth in the conference in home runs (11) and RBIs (45) ... leads the conference with 85.1 innings pitched and eight wins ... is fourth in the league with 72 strikeouts ... Richmond is second in the Big 12 in opponents batting average at .165 ... OSU is fourth in the league with a .970 fielding percentage ... Six of the nine Cowboy offensive starters are hitting .300 or better entering the weekend ... OSU has hit 15 homers in its last nine Big 12 games after hitting just one in its first nine conference tilts ... matched his win total of last year in his win over Missouri on April 16 ... OSU only has one of its last 11 contests at Reynolds Stadium (vs. Oral Roberts May 10).

Oklahoma State Listed In Several NCAA Statistical Rankings
Oklahoma State is listed among the top clubs in the country in several statistical categories released by the NCAA on Tuesday. Heading into the Texas A&M series, OSU is second in the nation in home runs (73), third in home runs per game (1.62) and fifth in slugging percentage (.545). The Cowboys are also 10th in triples per game (0.49) and in scoring (8.6 runs per game).
Two Pokes are among the nation’s leaders in individual categories led by who was second in the nation in RBIs per game (1.62) and sixth in homers per game (0.38). Staff ace was tied for seventh in the nation with eight wins on the year as six other pitchers have nine wins in 2005.

Carr and Wright Named To Wallace Award Watch List
First baseman and leftfielder Ty Wright were named to the Wallace Award Watch List recently by the College Baseball Foundation.
The Wallace Watch list of 2005 nominees will be trimmed to 12 semi-finalists by Tuesday, May 22nd. The list will then be narrowed to the three finalists following the NCAA Super Regionals, at a press conference in Omaha on Thursday, June 16, 2005.
Dedicated to the memory of former Texas Tech shortstop and assistant coach, Wallace was a slick-fielding shortstop at Texas Tech from 1977 to 1980. After playing two years in the Texas Rangers organization, he returned to Texas Tech and served as a graduate assistant and later as an assistant coach. In the summer of 1984 he was diagnosed with cancer and fought the disease courageously until his death on March 24, 1985, at age 27.

Broadcast Info
Every Oklahoma State game will be broadcast this season on the KSPI network of stations. Rex Holt, will once again call all of the action for the Cowboys. Former Cowboy coaching great Gary Ward will join Rex in the booth from time to time this season. The 2004 Cowboy Baseball Hall of Fame inductee is spearheading the schools effort in raising money for the renovation of Reynolds Stadium.
You can listen to the rest of the Cowboys’ baseball games this season on 93.7 KSPI FM in Stillwater or via the internet at www.okstate.com.

Coach Anderson Radio/TV Show
Fans can listen to coach on his weekly radio show every Monday from 5:30-6:30 p.m. on 93.7 KSPI FM. The show started on Feb. 14 and is co-hosted by Rex Holt at the new Rib Crib restaurant on Perkins Road.
Coach Anderson’s weekly television show began on April 2 and will be shown on Saturday’s at 7:30 a.m. on Fox 23 in Tulsa and at 4 p.m. on Fox 25 in Oklahoma City. The show, co-hosted by Tom Dirato and Fox 23 sports director Ron Terrell, features highlights, analysis and feature stories with the Cowboy baseball team.

Oklahoma State University Athletics

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