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Oklahoma State’s Season Ends After Second Straight Loss to Arizona

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In the end, pitching and defense were not enough for Oklahoma State at the College World Series. The Pokes lost for the second straight day to Arizona, this time 5-1, and were bounced from Omaha just one win shy of the championship match.

Thomas Hatch got lit up a little bit early, and OSU’s bats just never came alive in either of the final two Arizona games — they mustered just 11 hits total in 18 innings over the last two days. The pitching staff also faltered a bit (at least compared to the numbers it had been posting). In the first 63 innings of this postseason, it allowed six runs. In the last 17, it allowed 14. That’s not going to get it done for a team that’s built on arms and defense.

Oklahoma State is now 40-38 in the CWS in its history. This was the first time in six tries the Cowboys went 2-0 in Omaha and did not reached the championship game (1959, 1961, 1981, 1987 and 1990).

In the end, there should be no consternation about what these two losses do or do not mean. This was a dream ride that will be remembered for decades for everyone who was intimately involved with making it happen. In 20 years when all of these dudes have families and they come back in town for alumni day, there will be little talk of how it ended. Only about what has unfolded over the last month.

The standard for OSU baseball has been reset, and every Josh Holliday team going forward will be measured by what this one accomplished. Omaha should be a second home for the Cowboys. Its tradition says so. Its coach says so. And this team said so.

Is the final outcome disappointing? Yes it is. But don’t let that overshadow the fact that for the first time since 1999 an OSU baseball squad had a real shot a hoisting a national championship trophy. Programs are built on the backs of such runs, and Josh Holliday is a program-builder.

“It’s important to get the College World Series back in our DNA because now the stories circulate in the locker room,” said Holliday. “It helps. We got here by focusing on the kids… We’ll continue growing them so the other things take care of themselves.”

I realize that Mike Gundy rules Stillwater, and the future of football is incredibly exciting. But man, I can’t help but be all in on what Holliday is doing just north of Boone Pickens Stadium. Hopefully this run will inspire a new stadium and keep pushing OSU baseball into the future to the point that Omaha road trips are the rule not the exception.

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