Published: May 16, 2008 11:37 am            

Bedlam gets underway tonight at Drillers

Oklahoma State is aiming for a national seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Oklahoma would settle for a bid to the Big 12 Tournament at this point.

Both clubs will have plenty on the line when they kick off the annual Bedlam Series at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Drillers Stadium in Tulsa. The contest will be televised on Fox Sports Southwest.

“It seems to be a series that you’ll remember for many, many years if not the rest of your life,” said OU coach Sunny Golloway. “We recognize that it’s a series that’s talked about across the country and recognized by several publications as possibly the best baseball rivalry out there.”

The Sooners (31-21-1, 8-15-1) are in eighth place in the league but could still be left out of next week’s conference tournament if they lose the series to OSU and Kansas State emerges victorious in its series against in-state foe Kansas.

Meanwhile, the 10th-ranked Cowboys (38-14, 16-8) rank third in the Big 12 standings and still have an outside shot at a conference title.

For O-State to clinch the regular-season crown, it would have to sweep OU, Texas would have to sweep No. 9 Texas A&M, and 15th-ranked Missouri would need to beat No. 5 Nebraska twice.

“I’m more worried about how we do things,” said OSU coach Frank Anderson. “If we play defense, pitch, play with some passion and grind it out like we have, you feel pretty good. If we don’t, we can get beat by anybody and we’ve shown that throughout the year. I think at times, we can play a very high level.”

OSU has swept the Sooners in each of the past two regular seasons, but OU has won two straight meetings in the Big 12 tourney including a 9-8 victory a year ago after trailing, 8-2, in the eighth inning.

The final two games of the series will be played at Oklahoma City’s Bricktown Ballpark on Saturday (7:35 p.m.) and Sunday (4 p.m.)

“To me, it’s one of the greatest three-game series that there is in college baseball,” Anderson said. “It’s something we look forward to every year.”

O-State holds a 143-137 all-time advantage in the Bedlam Series and the Sooners have not captured the Bedlam Bell since 2005.



Academic accolades

Four members of the Oklahoma State baseball team have earned 2008 Academic All-Big 12 honors, it was announced by the conference Thursday.

Junior Jordy Mercer (education) and sophomores Tyler Lyons (business) and Dusty Harvard (sports management) earned first-team accolades, while senior Josh Neal (management) was named to the second team.

First-team members consist of those who have maintained a 3.20 or better GPA, and the second team are those who have a 3.00 to 3.19 GPA.

        

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