Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Open Big 12 Play At K-State
March 25, 2010 | Cowboy Baseball
March 25, 2010
Oklahoma State (14-3, 0-0)
at Kansas State (16-3, 0-0)
March 26-28 • Manhattan, Kan.
Tointon Family Stadium
Fri. - 6:30 p.m./Sat. - 2 p.m./Sun. - 1 p.m.
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State is 14-3 on the season and opens Big 12 Conference play Friday at Kansas State. The series opener is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., with Saturday's game at 2 p.m. and the finale Sunday at 1 p.m.
OSU is 147-44 all time against Kansas State but dropped both games of a rain-shortened series to the Wildcats in Stillwater last season.
The Cowboys finished 9-16 in Big 12 play and in ninth place in the league standings in 2009.
OSU head coach Frank Anderson is in his seventh season at the helm of the Cowboys and has led the club to 247 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 .352 team batting average, with eight of the Cowboy regulars in the starting lineup hitting .300 or better, and the pitching staff sports a collective 3.40 ERA.
About Kansas State
Kansas State is 16-3 on the season and enters the weekend on a three-game winning streak. The Wildcats are 7-1 on their home field in 2010.
K-State is second in the Big 12 in hitting at .335 and leads the league with 47 stolen bases, while the Wildcats' pitching staff has a combined 3.56 ERA. KSU finished fourth in the conference last season with a 14-11-1 league mark.
Up Next For The Cowboys
OSU returns home next week for a pair of midweek games against Florida Gulf Coast before hosting Nebraska in a weekend series at Allie P. 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 751-160 (.824) 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 11-1 at home in 2010.
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 247-135, which includes an 88-71 mark in Big 12 play.
Cowboys In The Clutch
OSU is hitting .410 with runners in scoring position this season. The Pokes also sport a .333 average with two outs and have collected 51 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.
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.
Double Zero
OSU is coming off back-to-back shutout wins against Alabama A&M (26-0 and 4-0), marking the first time the Cowboys have accomplished that feat since consecutive shutout wins against Texas Tech on May 12 and May 13, 2000.
Dynamic Duo
Two of the Cowboys swinging the hottest bats heading into the weekend are Mark Ginther and Dane Phillips.
Ginther, a sophomore third baseman, is hitting .387 on the season and leads OSU with four homers and 24 RBIs. He is fifth in the Big 12 with an .733 slugging percentage.
Earlier this month, Ginther was named to the Dairy Queen Classic All-Tournament team after going 5-for-11 (.455) with five RBIs and a 1.091 slugging percentage in three games.
A freshman who has spent most of his time at designated hitter, Phillips leads OSU and ranks fifth in the Big 12 with a .431 batting average. He has hit safely in 15 of the Cowboys' 17 games this season and takes an 11-game hitting streak into the weekend.
The Thief
Junior second baseman Davis Duren leads the Big 12 with 16 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.
Duren is tied for the team lead with 24 RBIs and second in batting average (.390).
Duren's current 13-game hitting streak is the fourth longest in the Big 12 this season.
Season Over For The Closer
Oklahoma State sophomore closer Randy McCurry suffered a season-ending elbow injury while throwing his warm-up pitches in OSU's season opener vs. USC.
McCurry tied OSU's single-season record with 10 saves in 2009. In a team-high 28 appearances as a freshman, he was also 4-1 with a team-best 2.16 ERA and 54 strikeouts in 41.2 innings of work.
Short Hops
• OSU has committed just seven errors this season and sports a league-leading .989 fielding percentage. The Cowboys set a school record with a .976 fielding percentage in 2009.
• OSU's eight-game winning streak earlier this month was its longest since the Cowboys won 12 in a row during the 2008 season.
• Frank Anderson ranks fourth on OSU's all-time coaching wins list with 247. He is 34 wins shy of third-place Tom Holiday's 281 victories.
