Oklahoma State Sweeps Kansas In Baseball, Heads to Big 12 Tourney

If we learned one thing this weekend it’s that Kansas should stick to basketball. The Jayhawks are obviously no football powerhouse and after three losses in Stillwater, their baseball team has to be feeling the same way.

The Cowboys outscored the Jayhawks 21-6 in three games ending their season as the only team that didn’t qualify for the Big 12 tournament. OSU finished the conference season with a 16-8 record (35-18 overall), which is good enough to give it the No. 2 seed in the Big 12 tournament.

After Friday’s contest was washed out, OSU ace Thomas Hatch would let KU score one in the first. However, the Cowboys respond with two runs of their own in the bottom of the frame with RBIs from Conor Costello and Dustin Williams. Corey Hassel added a home run that just sneaked inside the left field foul pole to give OSU a 4-1 lead in the fifth.

Hatch would dazzle for the next six innings, not allowing a run and racking up eight strikeouts. Coach Holliday allowed Hatch to come out for the eighth inning even though he had 100+ pitches and the Cowboys had a comfortable 4-1 lead. Hatch would let the next four KU hitters reach base and two runs would score, trimming the OSU lead to 4-3.

However, Tyler Buffett would get the next five outs for his ninth save of the year to close out the victory in game one of the doubleheader.

The Jayhawks showed a lot of fight in the opener, but all of that was gone in game two. The Cowboys offense would pound KU ace Ben Krauth for six runs in the first three frames.

The big-fly was the Cowboys weapon of choice in this contest with Donnie Walton tagging one in the first to put OSU on top 2-0 early. With OSU leading 4-0, Dustin Williams would punish a two-run shot over the right field wall for his conference-leading 13th home run of the year.

Although he didn’t have his best control (four walks), Jensen Elliott would only surrender two hits over six innings for his eighth win of the season. This ties him with fellow-freshmen Dalton Horton (TCU) and Davis Martin (TTU) for the conference lead.

Walton finished the day going 4-for-5 with four RBIs and Williams drove in three runs in the Cowboys’ convincing 9-2 victory.

All five seniors who were honored pregame contributed to OSU’s 9-1 victory in the series finale on Saturday. Hassel would launch his second home run of the weekend in the second inning and Walton would add an RBI single as well. David Petrino also had an RBI as pinch-hitter late in the game. However, nobody would contribute more than Costello who went 3-for-3 in his final game at Allie P. Reynolds.

Senior Alex Hackerott would record five outs without giving up a hit, one seven pitchers to throw for the Cowboys. Rob Walton’s staff would give up just one hit and one run on the day. LHP Garrett Williams was the most impressive of the bunch striking out seven in his three innings of work.

RHP Trey Cobb was limited to only one inning of work in the season finale and is expected to throw in game one of the Big 12 tournament vs. Texas on Wednesday in Oklahoma City, per John Helsley.

After losing three of four intrastate contests, OSU regained some momentum before the beginning of the postseason. However, with an RPI currently sitting at 29 the Cowboys are viewed as somewhat of a long shot to host a regional at this point.

Even if OSU wins the conference tournament I still think it would be selected as the No. 2 in a regional. With the weakness of the Big 12 this season the Cowboys just don’t have the quality wins necessary to be a host.