Oklahoma State Homers and Pitches Themselves to Series Opening Win at TCU

FORT WORTH, Texas – Oklahoma State mashed five home runs en route to a 7-6 win over TCU in Thursday night's series opener at Lupton Stadium. With the win, the 11th-ranked Cowboys improved to 23-8 and maintained their lead in the Big 12 standings with a 7-3 mark. TCU fell to 18-12 and 5-5 in the league.

David Mendham and Roc Riggio each delivered their team-leading ninth homers of the season, while Marcus Brown, Zach Ehrhard and Tyler Wulfert also went deep.

Evan O'Toole picked up the win on the mound with three innings in relief of starter Carson Benge as O'Toole allowed just one run on three hits to move to 3-0.

Isaac Stebens continued his dominance on the mound to record his second save as the righty did not allow a run over the two innings and struck out five.

OSU jumped out to an early lead with back-to-back homers from Mendham and Wulfert with two outs in the first inning. The blast was Mendham's ninth, while Wulfert's was his fifth of the year.

The lead was short lived, however, as TCU rallied to tie the score on three hits and an error in the bottom of the inning.

The Pokes' power surge put them back on top quickly. In the second, Brown smashed his fifth homer of the year, a two-run shot, and two batters later, Ehrhard crushed his first round-tripper of the season to make the score 5-2.

TCU trimmed its deficit to two in the third, but once again, OSU answered with a two-run bomb, this one off the bat of Riggio, to extend the Cowboys' lead to 7-3 in the fourth.

In the sixth, the Frogs pulled to within three as they loaded the bases against O'Toole with a single and two walks before a third walk brought home a run. But the Cowboy right-hander escaped further damage by inducing an inning-ending groundout to strand three runners and keep the score at 7-4.

The eighth saw TCU scratch another run across. After the leadoff hitter reached on an error and was followed by a single, an infield single and an error made the score 7-5 and put Frogs on the corners with no outs.

Stebens struck out the next two batters, but a single by Brayden Taylor brought the home team to within one before Stebens ended the inning with another strikeout to preserve the 7-6 advantage.

In the ninth, Stebens retired the side in order, getting a strikeout, a fly out on a ball that carried to the wall in left-center field and another strikeout to end the game.

The two teams return to action Friday at 8 p.m.