Oklahoma State University Athletics
Five-Run Inning Dooms Cowboys At Big 12 Baseball Championship
May 27, 2006 | Cowboy Baseball
Oklahoma State remained winless at the Big 12 Baseball Championship as the 12th-ranked Cowboys dropped an 11-6 contest to Kansas on Friday night at the AT&T Bricktown Ballpark.
With the loss, second-seeded OSU (39-17) was eliminated from championship game contention. The Cowboys conclude tournament play Saturday at 5 p.m. against Bedlam-rival and 13th-ranked
“The big thing was that one team got out there and played with edge and urgency and one team didn't,” OSU head coach Frank Anderson said after the loss to KU. “We haven't had edge or urgency in these last two games.
“This game rewards the best effort. We need to start back at square one and compete.”
KU (40-23), who is the tourney's No. 6 seed and will play Missouri on Saturday for the right to go to Sunday's championship game, jumped ahead 3-0 after three innings of play.
The Jayhawks got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second on Erik Morrison's solo home run to left field off OSU starter Matt Gardner. They tacked on two more runs in the third on an RBI single by John Allman and a run-scoring sacrifice fly by Morrison.
OSU found itself facing a 5-0 deficit after the fourth. Matt Baty homered for KU's fourth run, and Gus Milner's two-out RBI double added another run.
The Cowboys finally got the rally they were looking for in the sixth as they batted around to tie the score.
Matt Clarkson got things started with a single through the right side, and Corey Brown followed with a walk. That brought up Shelby Ford, who delivered a three-run home run into the bullpen in left-center field.
Later in the inning, Rebel Ridling doubled, and with two outs, pinch hitter Deik Scram collected an infield single to make the score 5-4. Scram took second on a throwing error and scored the tying run when Keanon Simon singled up the middle.
As quickly as the Cowboys seized momentum, KU took it back with five runs in the bottom of the inning.
With reliever Jeff Breedlove in the game, the Jayhawks erupted for five hits. Jared Schweitzer plated the first run with an RBI single, and another RBI base hit, this one by Allman, made the score 7-5. Morrison then drove in his third run of the game with a sacrifice fly, driving Breedlove from the game.
The Jayhawks' final two runs in the pivotal frame came on a single by Buck Afenir, which helped KU reliever Paul Smyth pick up the win and improve to 5-1.
OSU scored just once more, that coming on Ty Wright's RBI single in the top of the eighth.
Breedlove, a freshman right hander, suffered the first loss of his OSU career to fall to 2-1 as he allowed four runs on five hits in two innings of work.
Brown, Clarkson and Ridling led the Cowboys with two hits apiece, with Brown extending his season-long hitting streak to 13 games.
