Oklahoma State Baseball Stays Alive At Big 12 Tourney
ARLINGTON, Texas – Oklahoma State advanced at the Big 12 Championship Thursday with an 11-1 run-rule win over Baylor in seven innings in an elimination game at Globe Life Field.
With the win, the No. 7 Cowboys improved to 37-19 and will face either TCU or Texas in another elimination game Friday at 3:15 p.m.
Justin Campbell picked up the win on the mound to improve to 9-2 as he tossed a complete game and struck out 10. The righty allowed just one unearned run on three hits.
Reaching double digits in strikeouts for the sixth time this season, Campbell raised his season strikeout total to 133, which ranks as the seventh most in a season in program history.
The Cowboys also set a program record in the game as the pitching staff has posted 592 strikeouts, the most in a season by any OSU pitching staff. The total surpassed last season's record of 588.
There was plenty of offense for the Pokes against Baylor as they tallied 16 hits in the win. Roc Riggio led the way with a 4-for-5 day that included a home run, while Zach Ehrhard was 3-for-5. Jake Thompson had two hits, extending his hitting streak to 12 games.
OSU took the game's initial lead in the second. David Mendham led off the inning with a double off the wall in left field, and after an error, Marcus Brown delivered an RBI single to put the Pokes up 1-0.
The Bears quickly erased their deficit. With one out in the third, an infield single and a throwing error put a BU runner on third, and a groundout brought him home to tie the score.
This time, the Cowboys answered. With two runners on, Griffin Doersching smashed a three-run home run into the second deck in left field to put OSU up 4-1. The blast was the DH's 12th of the season.
OSU extended its lead in the fourth, getting a pair of runs on three hits as Ehrhard picked up an RBI single and Thompson brought home a run with a sacrifice fly to give the Cowboys a 6-1 advantage.
Riggio led off the bottom of the sixth with a homer to right field, his seventh of the season, on the first pitch he saw, and later in the inning, Nolan McLean plated a run with a double to make the score 8-1.
A three-run eighth sealed the deal for the Pokes. Chase Adkison singled with one out and later scored on a wild pitch, and Thompson brought the winning runs home with a two-RBI single to left field.