Dane Phillips (4/16/2012) - Athlete Awards - Oklahoma City University Athletics

Athlete Awards

Athletes of the Week

Dane Phillips

Award

Athletes of the Week
Week Of

4/16/2012
Sport

Baseball
Bio

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Oklahoma City University’s Dane Phillips likes to step out of the batter’s box just before each at-bat. According to Phillips, he does it to calm himself down.
“Sometimes I can get a little hyped or I’m feeling a little nervous that day or I just need to focus in a little bit more,” Phillips said. “That’s my time, and I use it to lock in and focus and help my team the best that I can in that at-bat.”
The junior from Nacogdoches, Texas, leads the second-ranked Stars with a .441 batting average, 54 RBIs and 34 extra-base hits and is this week’s Super Star of the week.
“It’s been a pretty good year for me so far, but I’m happier with how the team’s played,” Phillips said. “We’ve played pretty well on offense and defense and our record reflects that. I am really proud of where we’re at right now.”
Phillips picked up his second Sooner Athletic Conference player of the week honor with a 7-for-8 performance in two games against Oklahoma Christian on April 12-13. Phillips collected five RBIs, three doubles and a home run against the Eagles.
“As a baseball player you always have one of those games where you look back and say, “I didn’t do anything wrong,” and that was one of those days for me,” Phillips said. “The best part about that day, if I remember correctly, we only gave up two runs and we scored 13, so as a team we had a great day.”
Phillips also earned SAC player of the week for Feb. 20-26.
“That is a great honor,” Phillips said. “Getting it once is great, and I can’t explain how that makes me feel knowing that I played that well two weeks out of the year. The thing that is really great in this program is there have been five or six awards of SAC players of the week on the team this year. It’s not just me it’s the rest of the team too.”
Phillips says he came to OCU for one reason.
“I transferred here because I wanted to be a part of a team that has a chance to win a national championship,” Phillips said. “I heard so many great things about the coaching staff, the program and the school and really just the prestige of the program is what got me here more than anything.”
According to OCU coach Denney Crabaugh, Phillips has a change to become the highest drafted OCU hitter ever in Major League Baseball’s first-year player draft. The highest drafted hitters in OCU history are outfielder Rod Rush, drafted in the third round by the San Francisco Giants in 1984 and first baseman Curtis Gay, drafted in the fifth round by the Cleveland Indians in 1999.
Phillips plans to pursue a professional baseball career but enjoys his major at OCU.
“It’s kind of a mixed bag,” Phillips said. “I have a civil engineering degree plan but I’m also getting some business classes out the way and kind of minoring in business. It’s a good fit but I want to play baseball.”

More on Dane:
Person I would like to interview: Joe Mauer
Favorite cartoon character: Deputy Dog
Sporting event I would like to see someday: Super Bowl
Reality show I hate: Real Housewives
Define greatness: Being the best you can be

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