Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Back To Midweek Action
April 26, 2010 | Cowboy Baseball
April 26, 2010
Oklahoma State (23-16)
vs. Texas-Arlington (20-21)
Tue., 6:30 p.m.
Allie P. Reynolds Stadium
&
Wichita State (25-15)
Wed., 7 p.m.
Eck Stadium
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State is 23-16 overall and looks to snap a three-game losing streak with a pair of midweek games beginning Tuesday against Texas-Arlington at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium. Following Tuesday's game, the Cowboys will travel to Kansas to battle Wichita State Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Eck Stadium.
The Cowboys are 16-5 all time against Texas-Arlington, including a 6-2 win in Stillwater last season. OSU owns a 51-29 all-time mark against Wichita State. The Shockers defeated the Cowboys, 9-6, in a rain-shortened, eight-inning game on April 6 in Stillwater.
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 third in the Big 12 with a .313 team batting average, with six of the Cowboy regulars in the starting lineup hitting .300 or better, and the pitching staff sports a collective 5.33 ERA.
About The Opponents
Texas-Arlington is 20-21 on the season, including a 7-11 record in road games. Led by junior Michael Choice (.406, 13 HR, 41 RBI), the Mavericks are hitting .289 as a team and a have a 5.48 team ERA.
Wichita State enters Tuesday's game against Kansas with a 25-15 record, and the Shockers are 17-4 on their home turf this season. WSU sports a .289 team batting average and a 4.66 team ERA.
Up Next For The Cowboys
Following the midweek contests, OSU will return to Big 12 Conference action when the Cowboys host Kansas in a three-game 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 758-165 (.821) 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 18-6 at home in 2010.
Hot Hitters
Oklahoma State ranks third in the Big 12 in hitting with a .313 batting average. The Cowboys are second in the league in runs (301) and doubles (102) and third in RBIs (276).
Freshman Dane Phillips ranks second on the Cowboys with a .361 batting average and has hit safely in 29 of OSU's 39 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 .314 and leads OSU with eight home runs and 41 RBIs. He ranks in the top 10 in the Big 12 in homers, RBIs, doubles (13) and total bases (90).
Junior first baseman Dean Green is 12-for-34 (.353) in his last 10 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 20 points to .304 during the 10-game span.
Cowboys In The Clutch
OSU is hitting .387 with runners in scoring position this season. The Cowboys also sport a .300 average with two outs and have racked up 101 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 68 stolen bases, a number which long ago surpassed its total from '09 (45) and is the most for the Cowboys since 2002 (90).
Davis Duren and Dusty Harvard both rank among the top six 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 22-11 in his OSU career, with his 22 wins tied for 10th on the Cowboys' all-time list.
The southpaw ranks sixth on OSU's career innings pitched list with 289.0 and is eighth on OSU's career strikeouts list with 248. Lyons has 39 career starts, which ranks 10th on the Cowboys' career list.
Lyons is also on the verge of cracking the top 10 on OSU's career list for appearances as his 61 are four 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 76 strikeouts and has had at least eight Ks in seven of his nine appearances this season. With 76 Ks in 50.1 innings, Keeling is averaging 13.59 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 fourth 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 103.0 career innings, Keeling has racked up 151 strikeouts. He had a career-high 12 Ks last season at Arizona.
The Thief
Junior second baseman Davis Duren leads the Big 12 with 28 stolen bases, a total which ranks among the national leaders and is the most by a Cowboy since Roberto Lopez had 33 in 1994.
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 leads the Cowboys with a .368 batting average and ranks second with 40 RBIs.
Duren's has had career-long hitting streaks of 16 and 14 games 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.
