Cowboys Drop Series To Baylor
Oklahoma State suffered its first Big 12 Conference series loss at home this season Sunday afternoon as Baylor knocked off the 19th-ranked Cowboys, 5-3, at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.
With the loss, the Cowboys, who had won their three previous conference series at home this season, dropped to fourth place in the Big 12 standings at 13-10. is 33-18 overall and finishes the regular season 25-7 on its home field.
OSU’s offense continued to struggle Sunday, and this time it was BU starter Brooks Pinckard who kept the Cowboys in check. The right-hander allowed three runs in 7.1 innings to improve to 5-2 on the season.
The Cowboys did mount an eighth-inning rally that nearly saw them erase a deficit they had faced since the fourth inning.
Trailing 4-1, opened the eighth with a double off the bat of Dane Phillips. After a groundout, Jared Womack stepped to the plate and crushed a Pinckard offering over the wall in right-center field. The two-run home run, Womack’s eighth of the season, pulled the Cowboys to within a run.
And they would threaten more in the inning. With two outs, BU reliever Trent Blank issued a walk to Mark Ginther, and Gabe Weidenaar followed with an infield single. But Max Garner came out of the Baylor bullpen and struck out Nico Rosthenhausler on a 3-2 pitch to end the rally and keep the Bears’ lead intact.
BU (26-23, 11-13) added an insurance run in the ninth inning when Steve DalPorto laid down a suicide squeeze bunt with the bases loaded that allowed Evatt to score from third base and put the Bears up by a 5-3 margin.
Garner retired the Cowboys in order in the bottom of the ninth to earn his sixth save of the season.
Randy McCurry suffered the loss for the Cowboys. The sophomore righty worked 4.2 innings and allowed two runs on seven hits while striking out three.
The Cowboys gave McCurry an early 1-0 cushion on Davis Duren’s groundout in the first inning, but BU tied the score on a solo home run by Max Muncy in the third and took the lead for good in the fourth on Jake Miller’s sacrifice fly that put them up 2-1.
finished with just seven hits in the contest, three of those by Hunter Bailey, who was 3-for-4 at the plate.
The Cowboys will play their final midweek game of the year Tuesday at Missouri State before closing out Big 12 and regular season play this weekend against Texas Tech in Lubbock.
Updated 05-16-2011
READER COMMENTS
