Cox has been in OBU's dugout for 20 years.

March 10, 2006

By RAY FINK, OBU Sports Information

SHAWNEE, Okla. - Oklahoma Baptist University's baseball team continued its scoreless inning streak, opened the Sooner Athletic Conference season with a victory and handed long-time baseball coach Bobby Cox his 800th career win Thursday in the span 2:45.

"That's a lot of games, ain't it," Cox deadpanned after the game. "I don't know if we could have played that one any better."

The Bison manufactured four runs to back the two-hit, 10-strikeout pitching of Chad Rhoades (4-1), who went the distance and lowered his season earned run average to 0.50. Pitching in front of a dozen professional scouts, Rhoades worked out of a first inning jam and didn't allow a hit over the last six innings.

In his 20-plus years at the helm, Cox said he hasn't witnessed a better season than the one Rhoades is putting together. "He's been amazing. He had a lot of scouts out here today and it was cold and windy and he just went out there and got it done. If there's a better pitcher out there I haven't seen him."

The shutout is the third in a row for the Bison, who blanked Peru State 24-0 on Wednesday and Kansas Wesleyan 11-0 on Saturday. The scoreless inning streak now stands at 23 consecutive innings. It eclipses the 22 scoreless innings with which OBU started the season.

The team earned run average drops to 2.19.

SNU started with a threat in the first when Nestor Marin walked and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. Brian Madden singled Marin to third, but Rhoades induced a double-play grounder by Nolan Neugebauer to end the threat.

OBU broke a scoreless tie in the third. Kip Keith's bunt single landed him on second as SNU pitcher Grant Ledbetter (4-2) overthrew first base. Alex Schenck moved Keith to third with a grounder to first base and Keith scored on a sacrifice fly by Justin Ard.

The Bison tacked on two more runs in the sixth. Ard singled up the middle and took second on Adam Dalby's sacrifice bunt. Ard moved to third on a base hit by Danny Ruberte. Ard scored on a sacrifice fly by Frankie Ibarra and Ruberte moved into scoring position when the throw went up the line toward third base.

Rett Terrell then produced the RBI single for a 3-0 lead.
OBU added their final run in the eighth, scoring off of reliever Eric Burson. John Mowrey singled through the right side and scored on Ibarra's double to right.

"We did the small ball pretty well today," said Cox. "Both of these pitchers today are hard to score on and when you factor in the wind blowing in, it just makes things that much harder. We did a good job moving runners over and getting the big hits at the right time."

He collected his first win in 1984, the 100th in 1988, the 200th in 1990, the 300th in 1993, the 400th in 1996, the 500th in 1998, the 600th in 2001 and the 700th in 2003.

Cox is the only coach to take a Bison baseball team to the NAIA World Series. He has accomplished the feat twice, in 1989 and in 1996.

His teams have never had a losing season. He has coached 15 All-Americans and a dozen major league draftees.

Cox, who was inducted into OBU's Hall of Fame in 1996, was named Sooner Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 1986 and 1996; District 9 Coach of the Year in 1986, 1989 and 1991; Area 3 Coach of the Year in 1989 and Great Plain Region Coach of the Year (by the region and by the American Baseball Coaches Association) in 1996.

As a player, Cox was an All-District performer for the Bison in 1979, leading his team with a .389 batting average while driving in a team-high 33 RBI in 34 games.

Cox and his wife, Lyn, have two sons, Bobby and Chris.