STILLWATER – Oklahoma State continued its hot start to the season Saturday at O'Brate Stadium with a 3-0 victory over Grand Canyon to clinch a series win. With the win, the 11th-ranked Cowboys continued their best start to a season in over two decades as they improved to 9-0. OSU has won 14 consecutive games dating back to the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season.
Justin Wrobleski was magnificent on the mound to earn his first-career win for the Pokes. The southpaw racked up 13 strikeouts, the most by a Cowboy this season, as he tossed seven shutout innings and allowed only one hit.
Helping OSU secure its third shutout of the season was Brett Standlee, who worked the final two frames to earn his second save of the season.
Offensively, Caeden Trenkle led the way with a pair of RBIs, while Brock Mathis homered to provide all the runs the Cowboys would need.
OSU took a 1-0 lead in the third. After a leadoff double by Cade Cabbiness, a sacrifice bunt by Matt Golda moved Cabbiness to third. Trenkle then singled to bring home the first run.
Meanwhile, Wrobleski was dealing as he held GCU hitless over the first 4 1/3 innings until a bloop single to right-center field by Nick Hansen. But Wrobleski struck out the next two Lopes to end the fifth and squash any hopes of a rally.
GCU (3-6) made things interesting over the final two frames. In the eighth, Zach Cable came on in relief of Wrobleski and walked the only two batters he faced. That brought Standlee out of the bullpen, and following a sac bunt and an intentional walk, GCU had loaded the bases with one out.
Standlee would get out of the jam by striking out Juan Colato before getting a groundout by Jacob Wilson, which was aided by a nice defensive play by first baseman Alix Garcia as he picked a one-hop throw out of the dirt.
Riding that momentum, Mathis led off the bottom of the inning with a bomb over the batter's eye in center field to put OSU up 2-0. Up next, Cabbiness tripled off the wall in center, and a double into the gap off the bat of Trenkle pushed the lead to three.
In the ninth, a one-out double and a single put a pair of Lopes in scoring position, but Standlee induced a ground ball for a game-ending double play to secure the win.
Sunday's series finale is scheduled for a noon start.
