Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Eliminated from College World Series
June 21, 1999 | Cowboy Baseball
June 13, 1999
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Kenny Baugh wasn't lucky. Just good. Baugh pitched 7 2-3 strong innings and Charles Williams went 3-for-5 as Rice beat Oklahoma State 7-2 Sunday night, making the Cowboys the first team eliminated from the College World Series.
"When you've got a defense behind you, you just go after the hitters," Baugh said. "They've been picking me up all year."
Rice, seeded eighth, advanced to meet fifth-seeded Alabama (52-15) in an elimination game Tuesday.
Baugh (12-2), a right-hander, made big escapes in the first and second innings to carry the Owls (59-14). Oklahoma State (46-21) loaded the bases with no outs in both innings but came away with no runs.
"I was gratified and hoping my arteries would hold out," Rice coach Wayne Graham said.
In the first, Baugh struck out Josh Holliday and Lamont Matthews, who came to Omaha leading the nation with 105 RBIs but went 0-for-7 with five strikeouts at the CWS. Baugh then got Jay McCullough on a force play.
In the second, Carlos Gautreaux grounded to third, where Rice's Matt Fox stepped on the bag for the first out and threw home to get Toby Rhodes. Kevin Lucas then flied out to left.
Baugh was asked if he felt lucky. He sidestepped the question, praising his teammates in a soft voice. But Rice catcher Zane Curry wouldn't let Baugh miss the credit.
"I don't think we did anything," Curry said. "He had a couple of strikeouts and a weak groundout. I don't think he was lucky at all. I think he did a great job."
Baugh allowed nine hits, had five strikeouts, walked four and hit one batter in 130 pitches.
Williams had a triple and Curry and Brett Smith each had doubles, and the Owls collected seven singles against Oklahoma State left-hander Matt Smith (9-6).
"I'm glad we came through the way we did," Curry said. "Matt Smith did a good job of not giving us anything we could hit. We just did a good job of bearing down and hitting the pitches we could handle."
Jason Gray hit an arching home run into the right field stands in the bottom of the eighth to stretch Rice's lead to 7-2. But the Owls already had put the game out of reach with three runs in the seventh.
The fourth-seeded Cowboys missed plenty of chances and they knew it.
"Sometimes you just don't get hits. The opportunities were definitely there," shortstop Billy Gasparino said. "I don't think we pressed too much. We just didn't get the job done."
The Cowboys stranded 12 runners, seven in scoring position.
Smith got 10 strikeouts but he nullified that effort by allowing 10 hits.
"I guess I just didn't have everything working and now I have all summer to think about it," Smith said.
It seemed for a time the Cowboys couldn't do anything for a run. In the third, Gasparino hit a towering shot to left but Williams caught it with his back against the wall.
Oklahoma State coach Tom Holliday said the Cowboys had trouble hitting against Baugh with shadows creeping across the field in the early innings.
"He gave us a lot of pitches to hit because he gave us counts to hit in, but the twilight covered him up pretty well," Holliday said.
Rice led 1-0 in the second after Berg singled and, two outs later, Curry doubled.
The Cowboys finally scored in the fourth, tying it when Chris Becerra doubled and came home when Gautreaux hit a hard grounder that shortstop Damon Thames couldn't handle.
Thames made up for it when the next batter, Lucas, hit one into the hole. Thames caught up with the ball as he ran to his right, fielded it, spun and threw it back to second baseman Brett Smith to force Gautreaux.
By TIM KORTE
AP Sports Writer
