OKLAHOMA CITY ? Ritch Price remembers his first trip to the Big 12 Conference baseball tournament in 2003, when his Jayhawks couldn’t match up on the mound and couldn’t win a game.

Times have changed for Kansas.

The Jayhawks, 1-0 in tournament pool play heading into today’s 8 p.m. matchup with Oklahoma State, are closing in on the program’s first 40-win season in 12 years.

There’s optimism – legitimate optimism – that the season will extend to an NCAA regional, also for the first time since 1994. It’s all a reflection of the drive Price provided when he took over.

“I’m really proud of my four years at KU, and I feel really thankful to be the coach there,” Price said after the Jayhawks claimed their first Big 12 tournament victory by beating Oklahoma, 7-2, Wednesday.

“If you come to our place and see the improvement in the facilities, it’s off the charts. We’re drawing now. People actually know there’s a baseball season after basketball.”

The on-the-field product is better, too.

And it revolves around pitching.

Kodiak Quick broke the school record for single-season victories with his win over the Sooners. Paul Smyth bridged the game from the seventh to ninth innings for closer Don Czyz, the school season- and career-saves leader.

“I came here four years ago, the first time we’d ever made it, and we were pitching 81 to 84 (miles per hour),” Price said. “That’s what we were pitching at.

“We ran three guys out there today who were touching 90 miles per hour. We can finally pitch in this league.”

The emphasis on pitching has come at a cost, with Price skewing the scholarship ratio to upgrade the staff.

Of KU’s 11.7 scholarship total, 8.2 is devoted to pitching.

“It’s not the perfect model by any means, but it’s something that we feel like we need to do until we get where we want to be,” Price said. “The fact is that to win in a conference like this you have to have pitching. If you don’t have it you’re not going to be able to compete.”

The Jayhawks will need still more effective pitching to keep winning in Oklahoma City.

But Quick showed the way, taking the ball in a stadium strong on Sooners fans, in arguably KU’s biggest game of the season, revealing no signs of pressure or intimidation.

“I felt really good out there,” Quick said. “It’s a great place to play. And it was a packed stadium.”

Left-hander Sean Land or right-hander Ricky Fairchild will get the call against the 12th-ranked Cowboys. Each took losses when the Jayhawks faced Oklahoma State in April in Stillwater.

But both have been good of late.

Land is 1-0 with a 1.62 earned-run average in his last four games. Fairchild allowed just five hits to earn the win over Texas A&M on Sunday.