Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Host Florida Gulf Coast
March 29, 2010 | Cowboy Baseball
March 29, 2010
Oklahoma State (14-6)
vs. Florida Gulf Coast (14-8)
March 30-31 • Stillwater, Okla.
Allie P. Reynolds Stadium
Tues. - 6:30 p.m./Wed. - 6:30 p.m.
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State is 14-6 on the season and will be looking to snap a three-game losing streak when it hosts Florida Gulf Coast Tuesday and Wednesday at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium. Both games are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. starts. The midweek contests against the Eagles will be the first ever between the Cowboys and FGCU.
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 .346 team batting average, with seven of the Cowboy regulars in the starting lineup hitting .300 or better, and the pitching staff sports a collective 4.80 ERA.
About Florida Gulf Coast
Florida Gulf Coast is 14-8 on the season, with three of their losses coming against ranked teams. The Eagles have won the Atlantic Sun Conference regular season championship each of the last two seasons.
FGCU is hitting .354 as a team, with Zach Maxfield's .408 average leading the way. The pitching staff has a combined 5.08 ERA.
Up Next For The Cowboys
OSU, which will play 10 of its next 11 games at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium, returns to Big 12 Conference action this weekend when the Cowboys host Nebraska in their league home opener. The series opens Friday at 6:30 p.m.
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.
Hot Hitters
Oklahoma State leads the Big 12 in hitting with a .346 batting average and is also tops in the league with a .531 slugging percentage. The Cowboys rank second in on-base percentage (.419) and doubles (65) and third in runs (184) and hits (252).
Freshman Dane Phillips ranks second in the Big 12 with a .427 batting average and is currently on a 14-game hitting streak. Phillips has hit safely in 18 of OSU's 20 games.
JUCO transfer Luis Uribe was named to the Dairy Queen Classic All-Tournament Team last month and is tied for 14th in the Big 12 with a .375 batting average.
Mark Ginther, a sophomore third baseman, is hitting .360, is tied for the team lead with four homers and and ranks second with 25 RBIs. He leads the Cowboys and is sixth in the Big 12 with an .663 slugging percentage.
In six games last week, junior catcher Kevin David raised his season batting average 79 points after going 12-for-27 (.444) with two home runs and nine RBIs. He is tied for the team lead in homers and is third with 22 RBIs
Cowboys In The Clutch
OSU is hitting .406 with runners in scoring position this season. The Cowboys also sport a .322 average with two outs and have collected 57 two-out RBIs.
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 43 stolen bases, a number which is just two shy of the Cowboys' total from 2009.
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 ninth on OSU's career innings pitched list with 260.1 and is 10th on OSU's career strikeouts list with 218. Lyons' next start on the mound will be the 36th of his career, which will move him into the 10th spot 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 56 are nine 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 41 strikeouts and has had at least nine Ks in four of his five appearances this season. With 41 Ks in 27 innings, Keeling is averaging 13.67 strikeouts per nine innings in 2010.
Keeling's strikeout total ranks seventh 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 79.2 career innings, Keeling has racked up 116 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 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.
From his leadoff spot in the lineup, Duren also leads the Cowboys with 27 RBIs and is third in batting average (.367).
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.
