OSU Baseball Takes Down No. 23 Texas

The Oklahoma State baseball team won is fourth-straight contest Friday night in a 3-1 victory over the No. 23 ranked Texas Longhorns.

The Cowboys needed extra innings to top Texas, but Robbie Rea and Mark Ginther both recorded RBI hitsin the 11th, and Blake Barnes kept UT off the scoreboard in the bottom of the inning for the win.

It was a long 11th inning for both teams.

With the win, OSU returned to .500 in Big 12 Conference play at 5-5 and is now 18-14 overall, while the Longhorns fell to 18-13 and 7-3 in the league.

The decisive inning provided plenty of dramatics for both teams.

OSU's Jarrett Higgins started it off with a single and advanced to second on a ground out hit-and-run play. Rea took the plate and worked a full count against UT closer Corey Knebel before delivering a double into the left-center field gap to bring home the go-ahead run. Then Ginther followed by ripping a single up the middle to make the score 3-1. Later in the inning, the Cowboys would have two on with two outs before UT finally got out of further trouble.

In the bottom of the 11th, Taylor Stell led off for the Longhorns and was hit by a pitch. Erich Weiss followed with a walk to bring the winning run to the plate. Barnes got Jonathan Walsh to fly out, but then promptly hit Kevin Lusson with a pitch to load the bases with one out.

With the winning run on base, Barnes recorded a huge strikeout of Jacob Felts, then got Jordan Etier to ground out to end the game and seal a Cowboy win.

Barnes improved to 3-3 with the win in relief of starter Andrew Heaney, who was outstanding once again.

Heaney went nine innings for the fourth time this season allowing just one run on six hits and nine strikeouts. The lone run Heaney gave up came in the third on a two-out RBI double by Mark Payton.

Texas maintained the one-run lead until the seventh. After having a runner thrown out at home plate trying to score earlier in the inning, the Cowboys would finally manage a run when Trey Whaley scored on a wild pitch to tie the game at 1-1.

OSU senior Gabe Weidenaar led the way for the Cowboys tying a career high with four hits in five at bats. Rea finished the contest 2-for-5.

Due to rain in the forecast, the two teams will close out the series Saturday with a doubleheader scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.