OSU Baseball: Cowboys Fall To 2-2 After Dropping Extra Inning Thriller

Oklahoma State closed out play at the Clay Gould Classic Sunday with a 5-4 loss to Stephen F. Austin in 10 innings.

The seventh-ranked Cowboys conclude the opening weekend of the season with a 2-2 record in the tourney and return to action Friday when they travel to Chapel Hill, N.C., to take on North Carolina in a battle of nationally ranked opponents.

In Sunday’s loss to the Lumberjacks, OSU jumped out to an early lead. Corey Hassel led off the game with an opposite-field double down the right-field line, and Jon Littell followed with a single. After a walk to Donnie Walton loaded the bases, Conor Costello drew a walk of his own to bring home a run.

But that was all the Cowboys could muster as SFA southpaw Patrick Ledet struck out Dustin Williams before getting Andrew Rosa to ground into a double play to put an end to the rally.

The first inning was a sign of things to come as the Cowboys collected nine hits in the game but stranded 10 runners on base.

SFA (2-1) tied the game in the bottom of the first despite not recording a hit. Leadoff hitter Tyler Kendrick was hit by a pitch and later came around to score on the second wild pitch of the inning by Ben Leeper.

The game remained knotted at 1-1 over the next eight innings as both teams struggled to score.

Things got interesting in the bottom of the ninth. Alex Hackerott came out of the OSU bullpen to open the inning but promptly issued a walk, then committed a throwing error to put runners on the corners. Following an intentional walk, the Jackrabbits had the bases loaded with no outs.

Enter Remey Reed, who worked his way out of the jam. The right-hander struck out Kendrick before getting Nicholas Ramos to line out to third for the second out. He then punched out Kyle Thornell to send the game into extra innings.

In the 10^th, the Cowboys rallied. Littell reached on an error to open the inning, and Walton followed by drawing a walk. After Costello failed to get a bunt down, he made up for it by ripping a two-RBI double to center field to give OSU a 2-1 lead.

The Pokes weren’t done as Williams stepped to the plate and brought home two more runs with a single to make it 4-1.

Unfortunately, that was all OSU would get. Garrett Benge followed Williams with a single to put Cowboys on first and second with no outs but a fly out and a double play helped SFA escape further damage.

The bottom of the 10^th proved to be OSU’s undoing. The Lumberjacks opened the inning with back-to-back hits off Reed, and Garrett McMullen then brought both runners home with a triple to cut the score to 4-3.

After a hit by pitch and a walk, SFA had loaded the bases. Reed struck out Stephen Stuart but then Kendrick ended the game with a two-RBI walkoff single up the middle.

Hassel and Collin Theroux led the OSU offense, with each going 2-for-4 with a walk, while Costello and Williams finished with two RBIs apiece.

Reed suffered the loss to fall to 1-1 on the season.