OSU Drops Regular Season Finale

Oklahoma State's ninth-inning rally fell short Saturday as the 16th-ranked Cowboys suffered a 5-4 loss to West Virginia in the regular season finale at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.

OSU finishes the regular season 39-14 overall, and with a 13-10 Big 12 Conference mark, the Cowboys will be either the No. 2 or No. 3 seed at next week's Big 12 Baseball Championship in Oklahoma City. The tournament bracket will be released Sunday night, and coach Josh Holliday's ballclub will open play Wednesday at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.

After winning the first two games of the series against WVU (31-25, 13-11), the Cowboys fell short of their first Big 12 series sweep of the season.

The Mountaineers took an early 1-0 lead against OSU starter Mark Robinette in the top of the first as Bobby Boyd led off the game with a single and came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Jacob Rice.

OSU answered in the bottom of the first, getting an RBI single off the bat of Randy McCurry to tie the score at 1-1. McCurry finished the day as one of three Cowboys with two hits, and he also led the club with two RBIs.

West Virginia went back on top in the third on another RBI by Rice, this one on a groundout, but two innings later, the Cowboys tied it up once again when Tanner Krietemeier drew a walk with the bases loaded to make it 2-2.

However, WVU grabbed a lead it would never surrender in the sixth, going up 3-2 in the frame on an RBI by Billy Fleming. The Mountaineers then added runs in the eighth and ninth to take a three-run advantage after 8 ½.

The insurance run off OSU closer Brendan McCurry in the ninth proved to be crucial as the Cowboys rallied in their final at bat.

With OSU down to its final out and trailing 5-2, Krietemeier drove a pitch from Ryan Tezak over the wall in left-center field, and McCurry followed with a blast to left field to pull the Cowboys to within one.

But WVU closer Pascal Paul came out of the bullpen and got Robbie Rea to ground out to seal the win for the Mountaineers.

Robinette suffered his first loss in a Cowboy uniform as the junior right-hander allowed three runs on six hits in 5.1 innings to fall to 5-1.