STILLWATER – Oklahoma State baseball’s hot streak continued on Sunday as the Cowboys completed a seven-run comeback to beat TCU 11-10, giving them a series sweep of the Horned Frogs.
With the win, the Cowboys improved to 31-17 overall on the season and 14-10 in Big 12 play.
“Listen, that’s one of the best wins I’ve ever had the privilege competing inside of,” Josh Holliday said. “It was great because it took so much stamina, competitive stamina and that’s something you have to develop over time. It was tested Friday night until the very last pitch, which [Kollin Ritchie] stayed with it, that was awesome. A very lengthy and competitive game last night, also lot of stamina involved in that one. And we knew going into today that Brennan [Phillips] was our length pitcher; we needed length from him and that’s the way the weekend was designed. Mario [Pesca] pairing up with Stormy [Rhodes,] two length guys, done, and with Ethan [Lund] and Hudson [Barrett] going game one, lengthy, we knew that we had Noah [Wech] for a close-only, and that Brennan would go deep into the game and we’d match up. We had to start matching up in the second inning and to do it all the way through, that was a really unique opportunity for some kids to grow.”
Pitcher Zane Burns picked up the win in relief as he went three shutout innings with three strikeouts and no hits. Noah Wech came into the game in the eighth and earned the save, with two strikeouts and one unearned run for his sixth save of the year.
Starting pitcher Brennan Phillips had a rough outing as he went just 1.2 innings giving up seven earned runs on seven hits, three of which were home runs, with two strikeouts and one walk.
Offensively, the duo of Kollin Ritchie and Aidan Meola continued their hot streak as they combined for six hits and seven RBIs, Ritchie going 3-for-4 with his 26th home run of the season. Meola homered twice with four RBIs.
Alex Conover started the day with a homer for the Pokes, before the Horned Frogs poured seven runs across in the top of the second and third innings to make it 8-1. Meola hit his first home of the day, a two-run shot in the bottom of the third to make it 8-3.
After TCU had a run walked in in the top of the fourth to make it 9-3, the Cowboys scored seven unanswered runs from the fourth to the sixth inning to take an 11-9 lead. The Horned Frogs put one run across in the top of the ninth, but the rally fell short as Wech got Brady Dallimore to fly out to right field for the last out of the game.
