Cowboy Baseball Clinches Series With 10th Consecutive Win
STILLWATER – Oklahoma State's win streak reached 10, and the No. 4 Cowboys clinched their first conference series of the season with a 4-3 victory over Kansas Saturday night in front of an O'Brate Stadium record crowd of 6,550.
With the win, the Cowboys improved to 17-6 overall and 2-0 in Big 12 play. Kansas is now 8-12 and 0-2 in the league.
Victor Mederos picked up the win on the mound to improve to 2-1 as the right-hander struck out a career-high nine in six innings of work. He allowed three runs on five hits and a pair of walks.
Closer Trevor Martin made things interesting in the ninth but sealed the deal to secure his seventh save of the season.
Offensively, the Cowboys had just five hits, with Zach Ehrhard going 2-for-4 at the plate and David Mendham, Nolan McLean and John Bay also collecting hits.
Kansas took an early lead for the second day in a row. After a double on the first pitch of the game, a one-out single by Maui Ahuna brought home the first run of the night. Mederos got a timely line drive that turned into a double play to end the inning, leaving the score at 1-0.
The Jayhawks added another run in the third. A leadoff walk followed by a sacrifice bunt set up a runner on second with one out, and Ahuna singled to left field, bringing in the runner from second for his second RBI of the day.
Trailing 2-0, OSU cut its deficit in half in the bottom of the fourth. Ehrhard led off the inning with a single before stealing second. Two batters later, he would advance to third on a wild pitch with two outs and McLean at the plate. McLean then singled up the middle to put the Pokes on the board.
The Cowboys struck for a big inning in the sixth to take the lead. After a one-out single by Ehrhard and a Thompson walk, Mendham hit a 1-2 pitch off the base off the wall in left field to bring in the tying run. Both Thompson and Mendham would then score on wild pitches during the next at-bat as OSU took a 4-2 advantage.
Kansas got a run back in the seventh. Following a leadoff double and wild pitch to put a runner on third with no outs, Tom Lichty grounded out to second, scoring a run and narrowing the OSU lead to 4-3.
But Roman Phansalkar, who relieved Mederos following the double to open the inning, retired the next two batters to escape further damage and then worked a scoreless eighth.
In the ninth, Martin came out of the bullpen and allowed three-straight singles to load the bases with no outs. But the righty got a pop up for the first out before striking out the next two batters to secure the victory.
Sunday's series finale is scheduled for a 1 p.m. first pitch.