Oklahoma State Advances in Big 12 Tournament With 12-6 Win Over UCF

Oklahoma State’s hot streak continued on Thursday as they beat fourth seed UCF 12-6 in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament. 

With their win, and Kansas beating Baylor 8-7 in walk-off fashion, the Pokes and Jayhawks will play Friday night at 6:30 CT in the semifinals. As of Thursday night, the Big 12 has the semifinal match up on ESPN+.

The Cowboys improved to 37-19 on the season.

Pitcher Mario Pesca picked up the win in relief, improving to 6-4 overall on the season as he went three innings, giving up three hits with just one run and four strikeouts. Hudson Barrett got the start, going five innings and allowed five runs, just one of them earned, with four strikeouts and one walk.

It was Colin Brueggemann who led the day for the Pokes as he went 2-for-3 with four RBIs and a double. He now has 200 RBIs in his career in Stillwater, which ranked 10th all-time in program history. 

Alex Conover went 2-for-6 with a triple and one RBI, but scored three runs himself. 

As a team, the Cowboys struck out 12 times, while the Cowboy pitchers combined for eight strikeouts, but 11 forceouts and eight groundouts. 

It was an eighth inning effort by the Pokes which sealed the win. After the Knights tied the game up at five in the seventh, the Cowboys plated five runs across nine batters, with Brueggemann recording three RBIs with a single to right field with two outs.