Watt-Brown, O'Toole, and McLean Collect Another No-Hitter/Back-to-Back for the Pokes
(Robert Allen of Pokes Report contributed to this story written by Wade McWhorter of Oklahoma State Athletic Media Relations.)
STILLWATER – Oklahoma State made history on the mound in the opener of a Saturday doubleheader against LMU, throwing a combined no-hitter in a 1-0 win, before the Lions came back to win a 10-8 extra-inning contest in the night cap at O'Brate Stadium.
Both the 15th-ranked Cowboys and the Lions are now 3-3 on the season after the twinbill.
In the opener, Juaron Watts-Brown, Evan O'Toole and Nolan McLean combined on the no-hitter, marking the second-straight game OSU threw a combined no-no. Last Tuesday, five Cowboys combined to hold California Baptist hitless.
By no-hitting the Lions, OSU became the first team in Big 12 history to record two no-hitters in a season.
The no-hitter was the 13th in program history, with four of those the combined variety, and the sixth in program history in a game that went nine innings.
Watts-Brown picked up his first win as a Cowboy, working six innings and striking out eight while issuing two walks. O'Toole would spell Watts-Brown to begin the seventh, and the righty struck out one over two innings. Nolan McLean came on in the ninth to secure the no-hitter and pick up his third save of the season.
That trio got the only run of support it needed in the seventh as Nolan Schubart smacked his first-career home run over the left-center field wall. The ball traveled 387-feet and left the yard at 108-miles an hour.
Before the second game, Oklahoma State Baseball Hall of Famer Jimmy Barragan, a three-time All Big 12 first baseball and still ninth all-time on the Cowboys home run list with 54 threw out the first pitch. Barragan helped take Oklahoma State to three straight College World Series appearances.
In the nightcap, OSU plated a pair of runs in each of the first three innings. Schubart, Carson Benge and McLean all had RBI hits in the first two frames, and Marcus Brown delivered his first homer of the season in the third.
LMU trimmed its deficit to 6-5 with two runs in the fourth, and the Pokes clung to the one-run lead behind the pitching of Isaac Stebens until the seventh.
In the seventh, McLean delivered a clutch two-out, two-RBI double down the left-field line to extend the OSU lead to 8-5. McLean finished 2-for-5 with three RBIs in the contest.
The Cowboys could not hold the lead, however, as LMU rallied for three runs in the eighth, tying the game on a Jared Thomas two-run single.
McLean prevented the Lions from taking the lead later in the inning with a highlight-reel diving catch in the left-center field gap, likely saving two runs, and Gabe Davis then got out of the inning with a strikeout.
The game went to extras tied 8-8, but LMU's Connor Blough opened the 10th with a walk and Sam Biller followed with a two-run homer to right field that proved to be the difference.
OSU brought the tying run to the plate twice in the 10th following an error, but a pair of strikeouts ended the threat.
The two teams conclude the series Sunday with a rubber game scheduled for 1 p.m.