Cowboys Even Series with No. 2 Vanderbilt, Mederos, Phansalker, and Doersching Standout
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Oklahoma State collected its first win of the season with a 4-3 victory over top-ranked Vanderbilt to even the season-opening series Saturday at Hawkins Field. The win sets up a rubber game between the No. 7 Cowboys and Vandy Sunday at 1 p.m.
Roman Phansalkar picked up the win in relief, working four innings and allowing just one run while striking out three, and Trevor Martin worked the ninth and recorded all three outs via strikeout for his first save. OSU starter Victor Mederos was excellent in his Cowboy debut, posting six strikeouts in four innings and giving up just one run.
Offensively, Griffin Doersching was 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles for the Pokes, while Nolan McLean, Roc Riggio and Caeden Trenkle delivered RBIs.
"It was a great response by the team and a big win for the Cowboys," said OSU head coach Josh Holliday. "I'm proud of the way they woke up today and came out and really from the top of the first, it was a different tone… The fact that we came out on offense and were aggressive and engaged gave our pitching and defense a chance to really attack."
The Cowboys jumped out to an early lead in their first at bat, loading the bases with no outs on an error, single and walk before McLean drilled a sacrifice fly to deep center field.
OSU doubled its lead on an attempted double steal as Jake Thompson was thrown out at second, but Marcus Brown came home on the play to make the score 2-0.
The Pokes pushed the lead to three in the second. Following a leadoff double by Doersching, Riggio picked up the first RBI of his career with a single.
Mederos came up big to preserve the lead in the third. Vandy loaded the bases with no outs on two singles and a walk, but the Cowboy righty struck out the next two batters and then got a groundout to get out of the jam.
OSU made it 4-0 in the fourth. Doersching once again led off the frame with a double, and two batters later, it was a double off the bat of Trenkle bringing home a run.
Vandy tallied a run off Mederos in the fourth and cut the Cowboys' lead in half at 4-2 on a two-out single in the seventh.
Still leading 4-2 in the ninth, OSU called on Martin out of the bullpen to secure the win.
The big right-hander got it done, but not before the home team made things interesting. After issuing a leadoff walk, Martin struck out Jack Bulger before a hit by pitch and a double steal put two runners in scoring position with one out.
Martin then punched out Dominic Keegan, but a wild pitch plated a run and made the score 4-3 and put the tying run 90 feet away.
But after Parker Noland worked a full count, Martin struck him out looking to end the game.