Cowboys Open Series with Home Runs, Clutch Pitching, and Win in Austin

AUSTIN, Texas – Oklahoma State opened its series against No. 6 Texas with an 8-6 win Friday night at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. With the win, the No. 7 Cowboys improved to 29-13 overall and 11-5 in Big 12 Conference play and snapped UT's five-game winning streak to drop the Longhorns to 31-14 and 9-7 in the league. OSU also moved back to the top of the conference standings with the victory.
 
Zach Ehrhard drove in the winning runs in the ninth and finished the game 3-for-5, while David Mendham smacked two home runs to lead the OSU offense.
 
Nolan McLean worked a perfect ninth inning for his third save of the season in a game in which he also homered, and Trevor Martin picked up the win to move to 2-2 on the season.

 OSU took the game's initial lead in the second when Mendham led off the inning with an opposite field home run to left field. The blast was Mendham's fifth homer of the season.
 
The Longhorns tied the score with a long ball of their own in the fourth as Ivan Melendez delivered his 22nd round tripper of the year over the center field wall to make the score 1-1.
 
But the Pokes answered in the fifth. John Bay led off the inning with a double off the wall in center and took third on a sacrifice bunt by Chase Adkison. Up next, Riggio smacked an RBI single through the right side as OSU retook the lead.

 
The Cowboys weren't done as two batters later, Jake Thompson smashed a two-run homer to right field, with his ninth of the season extending the lead to 4-1.
 
But UT would also answer with a three-run rally of its own in the bottom of the inning as the Horns tallied six hits against starter Justin Campbell to erase OSU's advantage and knot things up at 4-4.
 
Campbell worked five innings in the contest, allowing four runs on eight hits and striking out five. His final strikeout was his 100th of the season, the 19th time in OSU history a pitcher has reached that mark. He also became just the fourth Cowboy hurler to reach the century mark twice in a career, joining Cowboy Baseball Hall of Famers Tom Borland (1954-55), Jason Bell (1994-95) and Matt Smith (1999-00).
 
Once again, momentum shifted quickly as OSU used a power surge to go back on top. Mendham led off the sixth with his second homer of the game, and McLean followed with his team-leading 10th bomb to make the score 6-4.
 
Texas plated runs in each of the next two innings to erase its deficit, getting an unearned run in the seventh before a leadoff homer in the eighth made it 6-6.

 
This time the answer would be provided by Ehrhard. With Cowboys on first and second and two out, the freshman ripped a double into the left-center field gap, scoring both runners and putting OSU up 8-6.

 
The two teams return to action Saturday at 2:30 p.m.