Cowboy Baseball Comes Up Short In Extra Innings
STILLWATER – Oklahoma State rallied to force extra innings against Oral Roberts Tuesday night at O’Brate Stadium, but the No. 2 Cowboys eventually fell to the Golden Eagles, 15-9, in 12 innings.
With the loss, the Pokes fell to 26-11, while ORU posted its fifth consecutive win to improve to 22-12.
Four Cowboys collected two hits in the contest, while Caeden Trenkle, Jake Thompson, Griffin Doersching and Marcus Brown all tallied two RBIs.
Bayden Root took the loss on the mound to fall to 3-1 as the visitors rallied for six runs against him in the 12th inning.
The Cowboys used eight pitchers in the game, with that group combining for an OSU single-game record 22 strikeouts.
ORU jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. A fielding error followed by a strikeout put a runner on first with one out, and Caleb Denny hit his sixth home run of the year to right field.
Thompson provided an answer for OSU in the bottom half of the inning as he blasted a solo homer onto the catwalk in left-center field with two outs. It was his sixth home run of the season and reduced the Cowboys’ deficit to one.
The Golden Eagles added to their lead with three runs in the third, all coming before an out was recorded in the inning. After a leadoff single, a double down the left-field line drove in the first run, and Dustin Demeter then hit a two-run home run into his team’s bullpen in right field to make it 5-1.
ORU extended its lead in the fourth as back-to-back singles followed by a wild pitch brought home a run, putting the Cowboys down by five.
Oral Roberts scored for the third inning in a row in the fifth. Four-straight singles with a throwing error in between brought home three runs in the inning to make the score 9-1.
The Cowboys put together their best inning of the night in the sixth with a big two-out rally. After a walk with one out, Nolan McLean singled and David Mendham drew a walk to load the bases with two outs. Doersching then singled to left field, driving in two, and Marcus Brown followed that with a triple to left, bringing home two more and cutting the deficit to 9-5.
OSU continued to build a comeback in the seventh. After a leadoff walk, Trenkle tripled into the right-center field gap to drive in the run. Two batters later, Thompson drove in another run with a groundout to make it a two-run game.
The Cowboys completed their improbable comeback in the eighth. Chase Adkison and Brett Brown both singled with two outs in their first at-bats of the night. Trenkle then drove in a run with a single to cut it to one, and Hueston Morrill followed that with a single of his own to plate the game-tying run, sending it to the ninth tied at 9-9.
In the ninth, OSU got a leadoff single from Mendham and a sacrifice bunt moved him into scoring position. But consecutive strikeouts ended the threat.
ORU exploded for a big inning in the 12th. The Golden Eagles would plate six runs, with the runs coming via a wild pitch, bunt single, two-RBI double, sacrifice fly and finally, another wild pitch.
The Cowboys return to Big 12 action Friday when they host TCU at 6 p.m. OSU is atop the conference standings with a 9-3 league mark.