Doersching Leads Oklahoma State Home Run Barrage as Pokes Run Rule Riverhawks

(Pokes Report publisher Robert Allen did the game on “Behind the Mic” and he contributed to this story.)

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State's winning streak reached seven Sunday as the No. 3 Cowboys swept their series with Southeast Missouri State with a 15-3 triumph in seven innings at O'Brate Stadium. The Pokes improved to 34-13 with the win, while SEMO fell to 30-16.

The day started with Kathy Holliday stepping out to the mound to throw out the first pitch. Holliday, the mother of Oklahoma State head coach Josh Holliday and volunteer assistant and former MLB All-Star Matt Holliday pitched the ball to Matt, who delivered a strike to brother Josh, who was catching. 

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Kathy Holliday on the first pitch with an assist.

“I’m going to get on her tonight about not throwing that pitch,” said husband of Kathy, father of Josh and Matt, and former Oklahoma State head coach Tom Holliday. “She should have made the pitch. I’ll give her this it was smart to have Matt throw it.”

OSU collected 13 hits in the contest, including four home runs. Griffin Doersching went deep twice and had four RBIs, while both Marcus Brown and Roc Riggio homered and drove in three runs.
 
Trevor Martin made his third start of the season and picked up the win to improve to 3-2. The right-hander worked four shutout innings and allowed only one hit while striking out a season-high six.
 
Ryan Bogusz kept the visitors off the scoreboard over the final three innings to notch the first save of his career.

“That was key, our pitchers did a ggod job all weekend in the series to steady the game when we needed it,” head coach Josh Holliday. “Our guys did a good job overall coming off final exams and being ready to play in this series.”
 
The Cowboys once again took an early lead with a big first inning. A walk and two singles loaded the bases with no outs, and David Mendham and Nolan McLean drew back-to-back walks to bring in the first two runs of the ballgame. A Brown single followed by a fielder's choice brought in two more, and it was a 4-0 lead.
 
OSU manufactured another run in the second. Ian Daugherty led off the inning with a double and advanced to third on a flyout. Zach Ehrhard then hit a sacrifice fly to center field, bringing Daugherty in to score and extending the lead to five.
 
The Pokes continued its scoring ways in the third, this time with a big fly. To lead off the inning, Doersching hammered an 0-1 pitch 450 feet into the seats in left-center field. It was his seventh home run of the season and made it a 6-0 ballgame.

 
SEMO found the scoreboard in the fifth. Back-to-back walks to open the inning followed by a double and a single plated three runs in the inning, cutting the Cowboys' lead in half at 6-3.

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Nolan McLean celebrates his hit.

But OSU answered in a big way with a seven-run outburst in the bottom of the frame. The Cowboys scored the seven runs on five hits while bringing 10 batters to the plate. The highlights included an RBI triple from McLean, a three-run home run from Riggio and Doersching's second blast of the day, also a three-run shot, to open the lead up to 13-3.

“I thought the second one went longer,” Doersching said of his two home runs that the tracker measured each at 450-feet. “The first one felt good. The second one felt a little stronger.”

The first one hit the top of the visitor’s locker room building in left-center field and bounced back on the concourse. The second one hit higher and further coming down on the roof of the hitting and training facility in leftfield beyond the bullpen and just to the right of the video board above the bullpen. Both went a long way.

OSU put two final runs on the board in the sixth with another long ball. McLean was hit by a pitch to begin the inning before Brown lifted a pitch over the opposite field wall for a two-run home run.
 
The Cowboys return to action Tuesday with a road contest at Dallas Baptist. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.