Oklahoma State University Athletics
Oklahoma State University
Gonzaga
Cowboys Open Palm Springs Invitational With 14-5 Win
March 06, 2009 | Cowboy Baseball
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Oklahoma State opened play at the Palm Springs Invitational with a 14-5 win over Gonzaga Thursday at Palm Springs Stadium.
OSU racked up 15 hits and had five different players with at least two RBIs as the 11th-ranked Cowboys won their third-straight game to improve to 7-1 on the season.
Tyler Lyons earned the win on the mound and has now won 12-straight decisions dating back to last season. The junior southpaw improved to 2-0 after allowing only one earned run in six innings of work against the Bulldogs. He gave up just four hits and racked up seven strikeouts.
Freshman Uriah Fisher picked up the second save of his career as he worked the final three innings in relief.
Eric Walker led the Cowboys' offensive attack with a three-RBI night, while Tom Belza was 4-for-7 and drove in a pair of runs. Doug Kroll also extended his hitting streak to eight games with a 2-for-3 night that included two RBIs.
OSU got on the scoreboard in the top of the third, which marked the first of five consecutive innings in which the Cowboys would score. After a one-out walk to Dusty Harvard, Belza delivered a triple to center field to put the Pokes up, 1-0.
The Cowboys would add to their lead in the fourth. Kroll led off the inning with a single and advanced to second on a ground out, and a single Tyrone Hambly brought home Kroll with OSU's second run.
Gonzaga (6-3) trimmed OSU's lead in half in the fourth. Jason Chatwood led off the frame with a single, and after stealing second, he scored on a single by Drew Heid to make the score 2-1. The Bulldogs threatened to rally for more, putting runners on second and third with one out, but Lyons struck out Mark Castellitto and got out of the inning by getting Anthony Synegal to groundout.
In the fifth, the Cowboys went back up by a pair of runs when Belza scored from third on an error by GU catcher Tyson Van Winkle, and in the next inning, OSU continued to add to its lead.
Already in control, OSU put the game away in the sixth as the Cowboys sent 11 batters to the plate and rallied for six runs. Five different Pokes collected RBIs in the inning.
Davis Duren, who had three hits in the contest, led off the sixth with a single and then swiped second base, his sixth stolen base of the season. After advancing to third on a throwing error, Duren scored on Harvard's RBI single to put the Cowboys up by a 4-1 count. OSU added its fifth and sixth runs on back-to-back RBI walks by Kroll and Dean Green, and an RBI groundout by Hambly made it 7-1.
The Cowboys weren't done as Walker provided OSU's final runs in the frame on a two-out, two-RBI single to right to give OSU a 9-1 advantage.
OSU returns to action Friday when the Cowboys battle No. 24 Oregon State at 4 p.m. (CST).
