Cowboy Baseball’s Season Comes to an End With 3-2 Loss to Duke in Athens Regional

ATHENS, Ga. – Oklahoma State's season came to an end in the NCAA Athens Regional finals Sunday night at Foley Field as the third-seeded Cowboys dropped a 3-2 contest to No. 2 seed Duke.

With the loss, the Cowboys concluded their season with a 30-25 mark, while Duke improved to 40-19. OSU had advanced to the Regional finals for the eighth time in 12 tournament appearances under head coach Josh Holliday by beating No. 7 national seed and host Georgia earlier in the day.

Against Duke, OSU took the game's first lead in the fourth. After Nolan Schubart drew a leadoff walk, Ritchie followed and smashed a pitch over the right field wall for his fifth home run of the Regional and 14th of the season.

That lead held up as Noah Wech dominated the Blue Devils' lineup. The freshman right-hander, making only his second start of the season, worked six shutout innings and allowed just five hits while striking out five and not issuing a walk.

The Cowboys maintained the two-run advantage until the eighth when Duke's A.J. Gracia homered to left-centerfield; the solo blast came off Ryan Ure and cut the Cowboys' advantage to one.

After Ure gave up a hit and a walk, Mario Pesca came out of the bullpen and struck out Tyler Albright for the second out of the inning. But up next, Sam Harris singled to right-center field and both Duke runners came home to put the Blue Devils up, 3-2.

In the ninth, Duke's Reid Easterly retired the Cowboys in order to secure the win.

OSU had three players named to the NCAA Athens Regional All-Tournament Team, with Ritchie, Schubart and Brayden Smith making the list. Ritchie hit .538 with five homers and 10 RBIs in the Cowboys' four games, while Schubart went 7-for-14 and homered twice.