Oklahoma State Drops Second-Straight to Sam Houston

HUNTSVILLE, Texas – Oklahoma State dropped its season opening series with a 2-1 loss to Sam Houston Saturday at Don Sanders Stadium.

With the loss, the 21st-ranked Cowboys fell to 0-2, while the Bearkats improved to 2-0.

Brian Holiday shined in his OSU debut as the right-hander tossed six shutout innings, striking out four and allowing just two hits and a walk.

Offensively, Carson Benge led the Pokes with a 2-for-3 day that included a double, while Tyler Wulfert drove in OSU’s lone run.

OSU took the game’s initial lead in its first at bat. Benge led off the game with a double down the left field line, and Zach Ehrhard followed with a single. Two batters later, Wulfert made the score 1-0 with a sacrifice fly to right field.

With Holiday putting up zeroes, the Cowboys held that lead until the seventh.

In that inning, Drew Blake came out of the bullpen and struck out the first batter he faced to open the frame. Following a single and a fielder’s choice, back-to-back walks loaded the bases and brought Robert Cranz to the mound. But the righty issued OSU’s third-straight walk to bring home the tying run before getting out of the inning.

After OSU failed to score in the ninth, the Bearkats’ Caleb Cotton drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the inning before stealing second and advancing to third on a groundout. 

With one out, the Cowboys intentionally walked the bases loaded to bring up Jake Tatom, who sent a chopper to first base against a drawn-in OSU infield. But the speedy Cotton was able to race home ahead of the throw by Colin Brueggemann to plate the winning run.

Sunday’s series finale is scheduled for 1 p.m.