Oklahoma State Baseball Drops Series With Arizona Following 5-4 Loss on Sunday

TUCSON, Ariz. – Oklahoma State came up short of a series win Sunday at Hi Corbett Field, dropping the rubber game to No. 20 Arizona, 5-4, on Maddox Mihalakis’ walk-off single with two outs in the ninth inning.

With the loss, the Cowboys fell to 16-17 overall and 5-8 in Big 12 play, while Arizona is now 25-10 and 10-5 in the league.

Brayden Smith had two hits and extended his hitting streak to 19 games, the longest by a Cowboy since 2021, while Jayson Jones also had a pair of hits.

Noah Wech took the loss to fall to 0-4. The freshman right-hander worked 1 1/3 innings and allowed an unearned run on two hits and a walk.

Hunter Watkins turned in a quality start, pitching 6 1/3 innings and allowed just two runs on six hits while striking out four.

The Cowboys jumped out to a lead in their first at bat. Back-to-back singles by Brock Thompson and Smith to open the game put runners on the corners, and Nolan Schubart picked up an RBI on a fielder’s choice to put OSU up 1-0.

The Pokes doubled their lead in the second. Jones led off the inning with a double and would later come home to score on a bunt single by Drew Culbertson to give OSU a 2-0 advantage.

OSU’s lead reached 3-0 in the fourth when Beau Sylvester picked up an RBI on a groundout before Arizona plated its first run with two outs in the bottom of the inning, getting a triple from Andrew Cain to make the score 3-1.

The Wildcats cut into the lead again in the seventh, plating their second run on a double to center field off the bat of Easton Breyfogle. But Matthew Brown came out of the bullpen with runners on first and second and one out and induced a weak pop up before getting an inning-ending strikeout to keep the score at 3-2.

UA rallied again in the eighth. After Brown retired the first batter, the Wildcats got a single and walk. Drew Blake then came on in relief and surrendered a single that tied the score at 3-3. After another pitching change the home team took the lead on a sacrifice fly.

This time, it would be the Cowboys answering. Down to their final out, Shull smashed a 3-1 pitch over the right-field wall to tie the score.

With things knotted at 4-4 in the bottom of the ninth and Wildcat runners on first and second, Wech got Adonys Guzman to ground into a double play. But Mihalakis would step to the plate and bring home the winning run with a single to center field. 

OSU returns to action Tuesday night when the Cowboys host Bedlam rival Oklahoma at O’Brate Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.