Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Travel West For DQ Classic
March 02, 2011 | Cowboy Baseball
March 2, 2011
Oklahoma State (6-2)
at the
Dairy Queen Classic
. . .
March 4-6 • Tucson, Ariz.
Kino Sports Complex
Fri. vs. Washington State (4-1), 5 p.m.
Sat. vs. South Alabama (5-3), 5 p.m.
Sun. vs. Minnesota (3-3), 1:30 p.m.
Oklahoma State
After opening the 2011 season with eight-straight home games, Oklahoma State will travel west to Tucson, Ariz., to compete in the Dairy Queen Classic. Hosted by the University of Minnesota, the tourney was originally scheduled to be played at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, but it was moved after the Metrodome cancelled all of its events in March due to ongoing roof repairs. The Cowboys are 6-2 on the season and will open the tourney Friday against Washington State then face South Alabama on Saturday before closing out play Sunday vs. Minnesota.
The Cowboys are rank fourth in the Big 12 Conference with a .293 team batting average, while their 2.50 team ERA ranks second in the league.
OSU head coach Frank Anderson is in his eighth season at the helm of the Cowboys and has led the club to 268 wins and five NCAA Tournament appearances in his career. During a four-year span from 2006-09, OSU was the only Big 12 Conference team to advance to an NCAA Regional championship round each season.
The Dairy Queen Classic Field
Washington State is 4-1 on the season. OSU has won four of its five matchups against the Cougars, including a 6-5 triumph in their last meeting in 2001.
South Alabama brings a 5-3 record into the tourney. The Cowboys have split two meetings with the Jaguars, the last one coming in the 2006 season opener in Mobile and resulting in 17-13 OSU win in 10 innings.
An NCAA Regional team in 2010, Minnesota comes to Tucson with a 3-3 mark this season. OSU is 7-4 all time against the Golden Gophers and knocked them off by a 16-9 count in last season's Dairy Queen Classic at the Metrodome.
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 29th season with Cowboy baseball (16th 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).
Additionally, all OSU home games are available to watch online via paid subscription at okstate.tv.
Home Sweet Home
Allie P. Reynolds Stadium has been home to Oklahoma State baseball since 1981, and in those 31 seasons the Cowboys have been nearly unbeatable on their home field.
OSU is 769-170 (.819) all-time at Reynolds Stadium and has lost more than two consecutive games on their home turf only twice (six in a row in May 2007; three straight in 2010).
The Cowboys were 23-10 at home in 2010.
300 Club
OSU head coach Frank Anderson is on the verge of becoming the third coach in Cowboy history to reach 300 wins. Gary Ward (953 wins) and Toby Greene (318) are the only two previous OSU coaches to reach that mark.
Anderson is in his eighth season at OSU and owns a career record of 268-160, which includes a 96-90 mark in Big 12 play. He ranks fourth on OSU's all-time coaching wins list, 13 wins shy of third-place Tom Holliday's 281.
New Faces
OSU's 33-man 2011 roster includes 18 newcomers -- 12 junior college transfers, five high school players and one Division I transfer.
Five of the Cowboy newcomers were selected in last June's Major League Baseball Draft, highlighted by freshman right-handed pitcher Jason Hursh, who was a sixth-round pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Also among OSU's freshman class is Nate Sorenson, a scholarship quarterback for the Cowboy football team who was a 40th-round pick of Pittsburgh following his prep career.
The group of JUCO newcomers includes MLB draftees Chris Marlowe and Blake Barnes, who will challenge for OSU's closer role, and infielder Zach Johnson, who also turned down pro ball and could play several positions for the Cowboys.
Flashing The Leather
Over the last several seasons, OSU's defense has turned in some of the top fielding performances in program history.
The Cowboys have recorded a fielding percentage over .970 just six times in its history, and five of those have come in the last six seasons.
OSU made history in 2010 when the Cowboys set a school record with a .978 fielding percentage, a mark which also ranked fifth nationally.
Last year's performance marked the third-straight year that OSU had tied or set the school record for fielding percentage after the Cowboys had a .974 fielding percentage in 2008 and a .976 fielding percentage in 2009.
OSU's '08 and '09 fielding percentages led the Big 12.
Through eight games in 2011, the Cowboys have made just five errors -- tied for the fewest in the Big 12 -- and sport a league-best .984 fielding percentage.
Smooth Transitions
Several newcomers have had immediate impacts for the Cowboys in 2011.
JUCO transfers Gabe Weidenaar, Hunter Bailey and Zach Johnson have each earned starting spots and rank among OSU's top performers thus far.
A native of Montana, Weidenaar is second ont the Cowboys and is among the Big 12 leaders with a .400 batting average. In the season opening series vs. Bryant, the switch hitter was 7-for-10 at the plate. He has hit safely in every game for OSU this season and also picked up a save on the mound in the series finale against Cal Poly.
Not to be outdone is Zach Johnson, who has started seven games at first base for the Cowboys. He has hit safely in all seven outings and ranks third on the club in RBIs (7) and batting average (.360).
Bailey has been the Cowboys' starting shortstop in seven games and is coming off a three-game stretch vs. Cal Poly in which he went 4-for-10 with a pair of doubles and two RBIs.
Another newcomer, freshman Jason Hursh, has earned a spot in the weekend pitching rotation as the Cowboys' Sunday starter.
A right-hander and former sixth-round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Hursh is 1-0 with a 1.69 ERA in his first two collegiate starts.
Putting Up Zeroes
OSU's weekend starting pitching rotation of Brad Propst, Andrew Heaney and Jason Hursh did not allow a run in 19.0 innings of work against Bryant.
The trio also combined for 13 strikeouts, and the Bulldogs' combined batting average against them was .191.
Propst and Heaney were key parts of shutout wins in the first two games of the series. In fact, Bryant did not score over the first 25.1 innings of the series and managed just one run total.
Heaney continued his scoreless stretch against Cal Poly as he blanked the Mustangs for eight innings. He allowed just four hits in that game, and opponents are now hitting just .118 against him thus far in 2011.
OSU sports a 2.50 team ERA, which ranks second in the Big 12, and opponents are hitting just .243 against Cowboy hurlers.
Short Hops
• The Cowboys are hitting .319 (29-for-91) with runners in scoring position.
• OSU sophomore Dane Phillips is tied for fourth in the Big 12 with a .750 slugging percentage. The Cowboys rank fourth in the league with a .481 team slugging percentage.
• Through the first eight games, seven different position players have made their OSU debuts while nine different pitchers have toed the pitching rubber for the first time as Cowboys.
