Oklahoma State Baseball Takes a Tough Loss 9-3 to Winthrop.

(Pokes Report columnist/writer Robert Allen contributed to this story.)

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State dropped its series finale against Winthrop by a 9-3 margin Wednesday at O'Brate Stadium to split the midweek series. This is a bad loss when it comes to RPI and analytics. Winthrop is in the Big South and they will not beat a lot of teams from major baseball conferences. Too many mistakes as Cowboys pitchers allowed three walks, three hit batsmen, and two wild pitches. There were two errors and allof those add up. Winthrop outhit Oklahoma State 11-4 and that was after outhitting the Pokes 9-to-6 on Tuesday afternoon.

The loss dropped the 14th-ranked Cowboys to 7-5, while the Eagles improved to 8-5.

Kollin Ritchie led the way offensively for OSU as he recorded his first hit and RBIs of the season by way of a two-run home run. Ian Daugherty also drove in a run, while Colin Brueggemann extended his hitting streak to 11 games.

Noah Wech made the first start of his collegiate career and took the loss as he went 3 2/3 innings and allowed four runs on five hits while striking out four.

Winthrop jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, then added two runs in both the fourth and fifth frames to go up 6-0.

OSU cut its deficit in half in the fifth, getting a sacrifice fly from Daugherty before the Ritchie homer made the score 6-3.

Matthew Brown had a strong performance out of the bullpen for the Pokes, tossing three shutout innings striking out three to keep the visitors at bay, but the Eagles rallied for three insurance runs in the ninth off Ethan Lund to secure the win.

OSU continues its homestand Friday night when the Cowboys open a three-game series against Illinois State. The opener is set for a 6 p.m. first pitch.