Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Take On No. 2 Texas
April 22, 2010 | Cowboy Baseball
April 22, 2010
Oklahoma State (23-13, 5-7)
at #2 Texas (31-7, 13-2)
. . .
April 23-25 • Austin, Texas
UFCU Disch-Falk Field (6,649)
Fri. - 6:05 p.m./Sat. - 2 p.m./Sun. - 1 p.m.
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State is 23-13 overall and has won four-straight games, its second-longest winning streak of the season and longest since mid-March. The Cowboys are seventh in the Big 12 Conference standings with a 5-7 mark and return to league action this weekend at No. 2 Texas.
The Cowboys are 25-46 all time against Texas. OSU dropped 2-of-3 games to UT last season in Stillwater, but in 2008, the Cowboys became the first-ever Big 12 team to sweep a series against the Longhorns in Austin.
OSU head coach Frank Anderson is in his seventh season at the helm of the Cowboys and has led the club to 256 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 is second in the Big 12 with a .324 team batting average, with eight of the Cowboy regulars in the starting lineup hitting .300 or better, and the pitching staff sports a collective 4.97 ERA.
About Texas
Texas is 31-17 overall and sits atop the Big 12 standings with a 13-2 league mark. The Longhorns are hitting .285 as a team, while their pitching staff leads the nation with a 2.38 ERA.
Up Next For The Cowboys
Following the weekend series in Austin, the Cowboys return home for a Tuesday contest against Texas-Arlington followed by a Wednesday trip to Wichita State. OSU will then host Kansas at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium next weekend.
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).
Hot Hitters
Oklahoma State ranks second in the Big 12 in hitting with a .324 batting average. The Cowboys lead the league in hits (410) and slugging percentage (.503) and are second in runs (297), hits (410) and doubles (97).
Freshman Dane Phillips ranks eighth in the Big 12 with a .381 batting average and has hit safely in 28 of OSU's 36 games, including turning in a 15-game hitting streak. He is third on the Cowboys with 15 multi-hit games.
JUCO transfer Luis Uribe was named to the Dairy Queen Classic All-Tournament Team last month and is third on the Cowboys with a .349 batting average.
Mark Ginther, a sophomore third baseman, is hitting .331 and leads OSU with eight home runs and 40 RBIs. He ranks in the top 10 in the Big 12 in homers, RBIs, doubles (13), total bases (89) and slugging percentage (.610).
Junior first baseman Dean Green is 11-for-25 (.440) in his last seven games, which includes a game-winning home run in the top of the ninth inning in the series finale at Missouri. He has raised his batting average 37 points to .321 during the seven-game span.
Cowboys In The Clutch
OSU is hitting .396 with runners in scoring position this season. The Cowboys also sport a .311 average with two outs and have racked up 99 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.
Catch Them If You Can
OSU ranks second in the Big 12 this season with 66 stolen bases, a number which long ago 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 prominent throughout the Cowboys' pitching record book.
A native of Lubbock, Texas, Lyons is 22-8 in his OSU career, with his 22 wins tied for 10th on the Cowboys' all-time list.
Lyons ranks sixth on OSU's career innings pitched list with 281.0 and is ninth on OSU's career strikeouts list with 241. Lyons' has 38 career starts, which ranks 10th on the Cowboys' career list.
The southpaw is also on the verge of cracking the top 10 on OSU's career list for appearances as his 60 are five 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 70 strikeouts and has had at least eight Ks in seven of his eight appearances this season. With 70 Ks in 46.1 innings, Keeling is averaging 13.6 strikeouts per nine innings, which ranks third 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 99.0 career innings, Keeling has racked up 145 strikeouts. He had a career-high 12 Ks last season at Arizona.
The Thief
Junior second baseman Davis Duren leads the Big 12 with 26 stolen bases, a total which ranks in the top 10 nationally. 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 ranks second on the Cowboys with 39 RBIs and a .364 batting average.
Duren's current 16-game hitting streak is the longest of his career. He also had a 14-game streak earlier 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.
Vote For Lyons, Too
Cowboy fans can also vote for pitcher Tyler Lyons for the 2010 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award for baseball.
Lyons is one of 10 finalists for the award, which is given annually to a Division I senior student-athlete who has notable achievements in four areas of excellence -- community, classroom, character and competition.
Fan balloting is available on the award's official Web site, www.seniorCLASSaward.com, as well as through text messaging. Fans can text B7 to 74567 to vote for Tyler. Voting will end May 31, and the online and text votes will be combined with votes from coaches and media to determine the recipient of the award.
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