Oklahoma State Baseball Evens Series With Baylor
WACO, Texas – Oklahoma State returned to the win column Friday night as the No. 8 Cowboys bested Baylor, 11-5, at Baylor Ballpark.
The win snapped the Pokes' five-game losing skid as they improved to 35-18 overall and 14-9 in Big 12 play and sets up a Sunday rubber game with the Bears (26-25, 7-16) Sunday at 3 p.m.
OSU had another big night at the plate, collecting 15 hits, including four home runs. Jake Thompson's 3-for-4, three-RBI night led the way, while Zach Ehrhard also had three hits in four trips and drove in a pair of runs.
Justin Campbell picked up the win on the mound, improving to 8-2 on the season as he struck out five and allowed five runs on nine hits in five innings of work.
The sophomore reached a milestone as he moved into the top 10 on OSU's career strikeout list. Campbell now has 247 strikeouts in his two-plus seasons, which ranks ninth all time in program history.
OSU also got a big boost on the mound from Kale Davis, who came out of the bullpen and retired all nine batters he faced over the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.
The Cowboys jumped on BU early as Ehrhard led off the game with home run to left field on the fourth pitch of the contest. It was Ehrhard's second bomb of the year and marked the first time an OSU player had led off a game with a homer since 2011.
But the Bears would answer in the bottom of the first as their leadoff hitter, Jack Pineda, homered to right-center field to tie the score at 1-1.
Campbell came up clutch in the third inning to keep BU off the scoreboard as the Bears loaded the bases with no outs before the Cowboy righty struck out the next three batters to escape unscathed.
The game remained tied until the fifth when the Cowboys rallied for four runs. Marcus Brown led off the inning with a single and, following a walk, he advanced to third on a fly out. Up next, Ehrhard drove in his second run of the game with a sacrifice fly to right field as OSU regained the lead.
OSU added its third run when Roc Riggio slapped a two-out, two-strike pitch to left field for an RBI single that made the score 3-1, and Thompson followed that with his team-leading 13th homer of the season to extend the Cowboys' advantage to four.
Leading 5-1, the Cowboys saw their advantage erased in the bottom of the fifth as three consecutive hits to open the inning brought home two runs. A single with one out then trimmed the OSU lead to 5-4 before an RBI groundout knotted the score once more.
The Pokes would go back on top in their next at bat. Nolan McLean led off the sixth with a double, and two batters later, Caeden Trenkle doubled off the wall in left-center field to make the score 6-5.
Thompson continued swinging a hat bat in the seventh, ripping an RBI double down the right-field line for his third RBI of the game and a 7-5 lead for the Cowboys.
OSU added insurance runs via the long ball over the final two frames as Brown delivered a solo homer in the eighth before David Mendham smashed a 3-0 offering over the wall in right to bring home three runs in the ninth.