Cowboys Complete Season Sweep Of Ninth-Ranked Dallas Baptist

Oklahoma State completed a season sweep of Dallas Baptist on Tuesday night as the 13th-ranked Cowboys topped the No. 9 Patriots, 11-2, at Horner Ballpark.

With the win, the Cowboys snapped DBU's 10-game winning streak and improved to 32-16 on the season. OSU also defeated the Patriots on April 21 in Stillwater, which marked the last DBU loss prior to Tuesday's setback. Both OSU wins against the Patriots came when DBU occupied the No. 1 spot in the official NCAA RPI.

Five different Cowboys collected two RBIs in the win, and the visitors took advantage of a DBU pitching staff that issued five walks and recorded five hit by pitches. Remey Reed was one of four OSU pitchers on the night and improved to 3-0 on the mound with three scoreless innings of relief.

“Our players rose to the occasion tonight with a chance to play a very good Dallas Baptist team,” said OSU head coach Josh Holliday. “To go on the road and play such a complete ballgame – pitching, defense and timely hitting – was really a great thing to see. I'm very pleased with the kids; we needed that to get going again. We needed to play good baseball and against a team that presents a number of challenges like Dallas Baptist does.”

OSU took a lead it would never surrender in the third inning with one of its patented two-out rallies. After Gage Green was hit by a pitch, Donnie Walton delivered a double to the left-center field gap to plate the game's first run, and Tim Arakawa followed with an RBI single to give the Cowboys a 2-0 lead.

Dallas Baptist (39-10) scored its lone run against OSU starter Conor Costello in the bottom of the third when David Martinelli led off the frame with a home run to left field to cut the Patriots' deficit to 2-1.

Costello, making his first pitching appearance since April 7, worked four innings and allowed only one run on two hits. In his final inning on the mound, he worked out of a big jam after loading the bases with two walks and a hit batsman as he induced a fielder's choice to end the fourth and keep OSU's lead intact.

OSU took control of the game in the middle innings. Costello helped jump start a three-run fifth inning with an RBI single, and two batters later, a two-out, two-RBI single by Ryan Sluder gave the Pokes a 5-1 lead.

In the sixth, Holliday's club added to that advantage. Bryan Case and Jacob Chappell were both hit by pitches before a sacrifice bunt by Green, and up next, Walton brought home OSU's sixth run with a sacrifice fly. Chappell then raced home on a wild pitch to make it 7-1.

The Cowboys put the game away with their biggest rally in the eighth, striking for four runs. They managed just one hit in the frame – a two-RBI single by Corey Hassel – but took advantage of an error, a hit batter and two walks, including RBI passes to Arakawa and Costello.

“The guys at the bottom of the order did a great job of starting innings and the guys in the middle of the order did a great job of finishing innings,” Holliday said. “We did a great job of situational hitting and getting runs home … Most of our at-bats tonight were really good. When you get that kind of contribution from all nine hitters where every single guy goes to home plate and has a good at-bat, you have a chance to score in each inning, which we were pretty good at.”

OSU concludes the regular season with a three-game series at Michigan beginning Thursday.