Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Fall At Wichita State
April 28, 2010 | Cowboy Baseball
April 28, 2010
WICHITA, Kansas - Oklahoma State got off to a quick start Wednesday night at Eck Stadium, but Wichita State came back strong and knocked off the Cowboys, 13-7, in front of 4,244 fans.
The Cowboys scored three runs on four hits in the opening inning but did not score again until the ninth frame as they fell to 24-17 on the season.
OSU came out swinging hot bats, opening the game with four consecutive hits. Davis Duren led off the game with a single and advanced to second on an error. Up next, Tom Belza collected a bunt single, and Kevin David followed with a two-RBI double into the left-center field gap.
Following an infield single by Mark Ginther, the Cowboys took a 3-0 lead on a sacrifice fly to deep center field off the bat of Dean Green on a play that could have resulted in more had WSU center fielder Kevin Hall not made a leaping catch at the wall.
The Shockers (27-15) erased their deficit in the second inning against OSU starter Thomas Keeling. After a leadoff walk and a single, Hall delivered an RBI double to make it 3-1.
With runners on second and third and no outs, the Cowboys then suffered a bit of bad luck. After fielding a grounder at third, Ginther fired home. But the throw hit the bat of Tyler Grimes and bounced past catcher Kevin David, allowing Nate Goro to score from third. Two batters later, WSU tied the score at 3-3 on a sacrifice fly by Will Baez.
WSU took the lead in the third with a wind-aided home run off the bat of Ryan Jones, a two-run, opposite-field blast over the wall in left field that put the Shockers up 5-3.
The home team tacked on an unearned run in the fourth. After Keeling struck out the first two batters of the frame, OSU right fielder Josh Botts dropped a foul ball that allowed Cody Lassley to continue his at bat. Lassley promptly tripled and then scored on an RBI single by Preston Springer.
OSU threatened in the fifth, putting runners on second and third with two outs. David then sent a deep fly ball to center field, but Hall once again made a catch at the wall and the Cowboys failed to score.
Unlike the Cowboys, WSU was able to come up big in the fifth as the Shockers rallied for six runs, all coming with two outs.
Down to their final out in the inning, the Shockers loaded the bases, and Baez singled to bring home a pair of runs and extend the lead to 8-3.
And the Shockers weren't done. Matt Klein came out of the OSU bullpen and walked the first hitter he faced to once again load the bases, and Springer made the Cowboys pay with a grand slam to center field as WSU took a commanding 12-3 advantage.
Keeling suffered the loss as the junior allowed six runs on seven hits in just 3.2 innings of work. The junior struck out six and walked three and fell to 3-6 on the season.
Belza finished with three of OSU's 10 hits in the contest, while Duren, David and Harvard each had two hits. David drove in three runs for the Cowboys.
OSU returns to Big 12 Conference action Friday when the Cowboys open a weekend series against Kansas at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.
