Evaluating OSU Baseball After Another Series Loss to Texas Tech

The Oklahoma State Cowboys were swept by Texas Tech last weekend in a home conference series. Tech came in to the series with a national ranking just like the Cowboys did, but the Red Raiders were the only team in the top 25 released today.

The Cowboys were embarrassed in this series, getting outscored 28-8 in three games that were covered by regional cable. The Cowboys team batting average dropped to .247, which keeps them comfortably in last place in that category among Big 12 teams.

Also, this second consecutive series loss drops the Cowboys Big 12 record to 4-5 and pushes them back to middle of the pack. Luckily for OSU, they only sit two games behind TCU in the conference with a three-game series looming later this month. If the regionals were to start today the Cowboys would be safely in the field, but another series loss could put that status in jeopardy.

The team ERA in now in the threes for the first time all season (3.00) after a really poor Sunday outing where freshman RHP Jensen Elliott allowed eight earned runs and was lifted in the third inning. Elliott was coming off three straight 100+ pitch outings (133 last weekend) and his pitches looked significantly flatter than usual.

Even Blake Battenfield got tagged for five runs in relief of Elliott. Both pitchers entered the weekend with sub-2.00 ERAs, but now are up in the three’s. Tyler Buffett is the only pitcher left with a sub-2.00 left on the team at 1.63.

Friday night was big test for RHP Thomas Hatch who was pitching in his first marquee conference series this season. Hatch worked seven innings in the ball game and allowed four total runs to earn his first loss of the season. This is the second weekend in a row that the Cowboys have lost a pivotal Friday night contest and put themselves at a disadvantage right away.

The Cowboys are using a pitcher who is coming off Tommy John, a converted reliever and a true freshman to carry their sputtering offense. A rotation built like that is not meant to handle that much pressure and we could be starting to see the flip side of that.

OSU can still rebound this weekend as they travel to Waco, Texas for a series against Baylor. Baylor is a .500 team that should be very beatable, but I thought the same thing when the team traveled to West Virginia.