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Kansas
Cowboys Lose Series Deciding Game At Kansas
April 07, 2013 | Cowboy Baseball
April 7, 2013
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Oklahoma State lost its first Big 12 Conference series of the season Sunday as the 19th-ranked Cowboys suffered a 3-2 setback against Kansas at Hoglund Ballpark.
OSU tied a season high with four errors and saw KU score all three of its runs in the first two innings as the Cowboys fell to 22-8 overall and 4-4 in conference play.
“We came out and made some mistakes early, and credit to Kansas for deciding they were going to put the ball on the ground and test us,” said OSU head Josh Holliday. “It's disappointing for sure. Kansas didn't do much after the first couple of innings. I thought they just held on even though we kept coming at them. But they held on long enough.
“We had a chance after putting the series at 1-1 to come out and make a statement. But we'll move past it, build on it and try to get back to working on the fundamental plays that in this particular game showed up as areas of concern.”
OSU took an early lead in its first at bat. Aaron Cornell walked to open the game, and following Robbie Rea's sacrifice bunt, a double by Tanner Krietemeier gave the Cowboys a 1-0 advantage.
The lead did not last long, however, as the Jayhawks (18-12, 5-4) answered in the bottom of the first and took a lead they never surrendered.
Justin Protacio got things started for KU with a leadoff single off Tyler Nurdin, and the Jayhawks then utilized a small ball approach to fuel their rally.
Kevin Kuntz followed Protacio with a bunt and reached on an error by Nurdin, and a bunt single by Michael Suiter was made worse when a throwing error by Rea allowed Protacio to score the tying run.
KU's third-straight bunt was executed by Alex DeLeon and put Jayhawks on second and third with one out. Dakota Smith then gave the home team a 2-1 lead with an RBI groundout before Nurdin retired the next batter to get out of the inning.
The Jayhawks tallied what proved to be the decidng run in the second. A bunt single by Connor McKay opened the inning, and Ka'iana Eldredge followed with a single to put runners on the corners. Tucker Tharp then plated KU's third run with yet another sacrifice bunt to make the score 3-1.
“We've got to do some work on some of those defensive bunt plays, but we'll get better,” Holliday said.
Following KU's three early runs, Nurdin regrouped and kept the Jayhawks off the scoreboard. Despite falling to 0-1, the sophomore southpaw worked a career-high seven innings and allowed just two hits after the second frame.
“Tyler settled in and started to really look like the guy we've envisioned him being,” Holliday said. “I'm pleased with how he threw as the game went on.”
The Cowboys' offense, however, could not get to KU starter Wes Benjamin, who improved to 3-3 with a six inning effort.
OSU's final run came in the sixth on an RBI single by Randy McCurry, but the Cowboys were done in by KU's ability to get out of trouble as the Jayhawks turned three double plays in the contest.
“Offensively, we came out efficient and early we were in a nice rhythm and attack plan that we talked about doing,” Holliday said. “We were able to burn a lot of pitches out of (Benjamin), but we weren't able to string together enough quality at bats without having a double play ball jump in the way.”
The Cowboys return to action Tuesday when they battle Oral Roberts at ONEOK Field in Tulsa. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.
