STILLWATER – Oklahoma State run-ruled Wichita State, 14-4, in seven innings Tuesday night at O’Brate Stadium to give 14th-year head coach Josh Holliday his 500th career win.
With the victory, the Cowboys improved to 25-16 on the season, while WSU fell to 24-18. Holliday has spent all 14 of his seasons as a head coach at his alma mater.
Deacon Pomeroy delivered a pinch-hit, three-run home run in the seventh to lift the Pokes to the run-rule win, and Brock Thompson enjoyed a 4-for-5 day at the plate that included a homer and two RBIs.
Sebastian Norman also went deep and drove in three runs, with Garrett Shull adding two RBIs.
Zane Burns picked up the win on the mound, improving to 2-0. One of four pitchers used by OSU in the game, Burns worked 2 2/3 innings and allowed just one run while striking out three.
Bryce LeBlanc toed the rubber for the start and pitched two shutout innings, striking out three.
The Cowboy offense got on the board in the second as Campbell Smithwick led off the inning by reaching on a throwing error that allowed him to advance to second base. After moving up on a fly out from Norman, he scored on Shull’s two-out, RBI single to left field.
Parker Jennings took over on the mound in the third, and the Shockers would even the score on a bloop single into center field before Jennings escaped further damage by inducing an inning-ending double play.
In the bottom of the third, the Pokes took control of the game with an eight-run rally. Thompson led off the inning with his ninth homer of the season, and OSU then loaded the bases on a hit-by-pitch and a pair of walks to set up an RBI single from Norman. From there, four-straight Cowboys worked bases-loaded walks, with Colin Brueggemann, Shull, Danny Wallace and Alex Conover collecting RBIs.
Thompson would go on to get his second hit of the inning, a single that scored Shull, before Kollin Ritchie capped of the inning with an RBI groundout to make it a 9-1 game.
The Shockers pushed across three runs in the fifth inning on four hits to make the score, 9-4, but Burns ended the frame with back-to-back strikeouts with the bases juiced to prevent further damage.
Burns pitched a scoreless sixth, and in the bottom of the inning, Norman unloaded on a monstrous, two-run home run to extend the lead to 11-4.
Pomeroy capped the historic night by crushing an 0-2 pitch over the left-center field wall to secure the run-rule victory with one out in the seventh inning.
The Cowboys return to Big 12 action this weekend as they take on Texas Tech in Lubbock starting Friday. All three games in the series are scheduled for a 1 p.m. first pitch.
