Oklahoma State University Athletics
Oklahoma State University
Texas
Oklahoma State Falls To Texas 2-1
April 27, 2002 | Cowboy Baseball
April 27, 2002
AUSTIN, Texas - Offense has taken a backseat to great pitching in the first two games of Oklahoma State's series with Texas this weekend at Disch-Falk Field.
And while the OSU pitchers have been tough, the Longhorn staff has been just a little bit better.
That was the case again on Saturday as Texas escaped with a 2-1 win to capture the series heading into Sunday's final game.
"There is a lot of criticism around World Series time about the sad shape that college baseball is in because of the high scores and the metal bats and so on," UT head coach Augie Garrido said. "But if the pitching is good enough, that metal bat can't overcome that kind of pitching and that's what you've seen in this series."
On Saturday, it was Justin Simmons who remained perfect in a battle of undefeated starting pitchers, outdueling OSU's Chris Reilly.
The left-handed Simmons improved to 12-0 on the season with a strong seven-inning outing, and the Longhorns' bullpen held OSU off in the final two innings for the win.
Dustin Majewski, who was 3-for-3 on the day, provided the only runs UT would need with a two-run home run to rigthfield off Reilly in the second inning as the Longhorns improved their Big 12-leading record to 14-6 and 36-11 overall.
"We've been fortunate," Garrido said. "We've played hard and they've played hard, and we've come out the winner. But there is not a huge margin of difference between these two teams, and it was another highly competitive Division I baseball game between two excellent teams."
OSU head coach Tom Holliday, whose club dropped its fourth-straight decision to fall to 8-8 in conference play and 29-14 overall, praised UT's pitching staff after his club's second-consecutive one-run loss.
"That's an oddity - 2-1 in college baseball, there's just not a whole lot of them like that," Holliday said. "I tip my hat to Simmons. He has a magic act - you're not 12-0 for no reason.
"A win is a win this time of year - you take them all and sometimes you have to break down and give the opponent credit. You don't have to look inside your own house and look for reasons why you're not hitting. I'll give my credit to the two kids we've faced (Simmons and Friday's winner, Brad Halsey), and we just have to go out and get better. Those two kids will only make us better down the road."
The Cowboys lone run came in the fourth inning when Nebasett Brown doubled to right-centerfield to score Daylon Monette.
OSU had other promising scoring chances in the seventh and eighth innings, but like they had on Friday, the Cowboys failed to get any runs across.
In the seventh, OSU shortstop Rob Watson lined a Simmons' pitch to leftfield for a single, but Watson tried to stretch the play into a double. Watson appeared to slide safely into second, ahead of leftfielder Eric Sultemeier's throw, but in doing so overslid the bag and was tagged out for the second out of the inning.
"That was a gem, it was a Major League play," Garrido said. "It was a second-effort play, he (Sultemeier) just didn't give up and it paid off. He cut the ball off, and if he doesn't come up throwing, it's easily a double."
"When you're in a tight game and down in the order, that's a gamble opportunity," Holliday said of the play. "But the throw had to be on the nose. Our kid beats it and slides off the bag and is tagged out. He was out on the overslide, but errors of aggression in a ballgame like that are not the problem."
In the eighth, OSU's Jeff Salazar led off with bunt single against UT reliever Brantley Jordan, but Monette failed to execute a sacrifice bunt and Salazar was thrown out at second.
Monette got in scoring position by stealing second and advancing to third on a Josh Fields groundout, but pinch hitter Kenny Hansley struck out against UT's Eugene Espineli to strand the tying run at third.
Espineli was one of four Longhorns out of the bullpen who pitched outstanding in relief, and Huston Street recorded the game's final out on a groundout by OSU pinch-hitter Jake Bollig to pick up his second save of the series.
"We had a one-run lead, and we held it with our single greatest strength on this team - pitching," Garrido said. "We matched it up right and left, and that's what there was to this win."
Reilly was the tough-luck loser to fall to 6-1 on the season. The junior righty pitched 6 2/3 innings, scattering seven hits and striking out four.
OSU looks to return to the win column in the final game of the series Sunday at 1 p.m.
