Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Set For Season Opener
February 19, 2010 | Cowboy Baseball
Feb. 19, 2010
Oklahoma State (0-0)
vs. Oklahoma Christian (3-3)
Feb. 20 • 3:00 p.m.
Allie P. Reynolds Stadium (4,000)
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State opens the 2010 season with a home contest against Oklahoma Christian Saturday at 3 p.m. at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.
With 233 career wins, head coach Frank Anderson is entering his seventh season at the helm of the Cowboys, who are coming off a season in which they finished 34-24. OSU advanced to the finals of the NCAA Clemson Regional, and with that appearance, became the only Big 12 Conference team to advance to a Regional championship round each of the last four seasons.
OSU returns five position starters from a year ago, including three players who batted over .300. The pitching staff returns a group that accounted for 56 percent of its wins in 2009, as well as the majority of its saves.
The Cowboys are 2-0 all time against Oklahoma Christian, winning 13-5 on April 1, 1981, and defeating the Eagles by an 11-3 count on March 24, 1983. Both games were in Stillwater.
OSU is 51-20-1 all time in season openers and is 58-14 in home openers. The Cowboys lost their first-ever game in Reynolds Stadium on April 4, 1981, but are 26-2 in their season opening game at their current ballpark since.
Oklahoma Christian
Oklahoma Christian is 3-3 on the season. The Eagles, an NAIA program in Edmond, Okla., are coached by Chuck White, who led the team to a 19-26 mark in 2009.
Up Next For The Cowboys
Following its opener against Oklahoma Christian, OSU will head to Los Angeles to compete in the Dodgertown Classic. The tourney field includes USC, UCLA and Vanderbilt. The Cowboys will face both USC and UCLA on their home fields and then will battle Vanderbilt on Sunday at Dodger Stadium.
On The Air & The Web
All OSU baseball games are carried live by Stillwater Radio on KSPI 93.7 FM and/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).
About Oklahoma Christian
The Eagles are 3-3 on the season after losing both games of a doubleheader against Bacone on Wednesday.
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 740-159 (.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 was 19-9 at Reynolds Stadium in 2009.
200 Club
With the Cowboys' 2009 season-opening win over BYU, Frank Anderson became the fifth head coach in OSU history to reach 200 career victories. He is the third-fastest coach to reach the milestone in Stillwater behind Gary Ward and Tom Holliday.
Anderson is in his seventh season at OSU and owns an overall career record of 233-132, which includes an 88-71 mark in Big 12 play.
Aluminum Assault
Over the last several seasons, OSU has established itself among the top hitting teams not only in the Big 12 Conference but on a national scale.
In 2009, the Cowboys ranked among the Big 12's best in batting average (third at .300), triples (second with 21), home runs (third with 81) and slugging percentage (second at .503).
OSU returns leading hitter Tom Belza from last season's club, along with Kevin David and Mark Ginther, both of whom hit over .300. Belza and David also ranked second and third on the team in RBIs last season.
OSU led the Big 12 in three offensive categories in 2008 -- batting average (.326), slugging percentage (.531) and home runs (89). The Cowboys finished second in the league in runs, hits, triples and RBIs.
In '06, OSU led the Big 12 in homers, triples and slugging percentage, and in 2007 the Cowboys led the Big 12 in six offensive categories and ranked second in two more.
Kings Of The Hill
OSU also continued a trend of having one of the league's most reliable pitching staffs in 2009.
Four different Cowboy hurlers had at least five wins in 2009, and the pitching staff ranked third in the Big 12 in saves (15), strikeouts (516) and batting average against (.264).
The good news is that OSU's pitching staff returns 56 percent of its wins from last season, and pitchers who combined for 14 of the Cowboys' 15 saves.
OSU returns pitchers who accounted for 255 strikeouts last season, as well as returning five of its six hurlers with the lowest ERAs (min. 10 appearances).
In 2008, the Cowboys led the Big 12 with a 3.98 team ERA and also topped the league with 21 saves. OSU's 3.98 ERA marked the only the second time since 1974 that the Cowboys finished the season with a team ERA under 4.00 (also did it in 2005).
New Faces
The Cowboys' 2010 roster includes 17 newcomers, with eight freshmen and eight junior college transfers and one player who is starting his collegiate baseball career as a junior.
Four of OSU's newcomers were selected in last June's Major League Baseball Draft: Kevin Chambers (47th round by Detroit), Andrew Heaney (24th round by Tampa Bay), Dane Phillips (49th round by Seattle) and Nico Rosthenhausler (50th round by Detroit
Highlighting the freshman class are Heaney, a southpaw hurler who could be in OSU's starting weekend rotation, and Chambers, a versatile player who could see time at first base, in the outfield and on the mound.
The group of JUCO newcomers includes Rosthenhausler, an offensive star at South Mountain Community College, and Devin Shines, the son of former major leaguer and current assistant coach for the New York Mets Razor Shines.
No Thanks
A trio of Cowboys from last season's club were 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.
