Oklahoma State University Athletics
Oklahoma State University
Baylor
Cowboys Drop Game, Series To Baylor
March 22, 2014 | Cowboy Baseball
March 22, 2014
WACO, Texas – For the second-straight day, Oklahoma State suffered a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Baylor as the Bears extended their home winning streak against the Cowboys Saturday at Baylor Ballpark.
The loss was the 10th in a row in Waco for the 20th-ranked Cowboys, who fell to 15-8 overall and 0-2 in Big 12 Conference play.
Austin Stone silenced the OSU bats as the Baylor right-hander allowed just three hits and struck out seven in his first complete game of the season. The lone run he allowed was unearned as he improved to 3-1 on the year.
“I give Austin Stone credit – he came out and pitched a very good game for Baylor today,” said OSU head coach Josh Holliday. “Obviously any time a guy goes a complete game against you, you've got to respect the job that he did. He threw the ball well, he mixed his pitches, he was very efficient.
“When you don't do a whole lot more than what we did on offense, the rest of it becomes somewhat secondary. We didn't get off to a great start… They jumped out there early, and we never mounted a real good response to that early deficit. We'll continue to work collectively as a unit to clean up those mistakes that have plagued us.”
Baylor (13-9, 4-1) took command of the scoreboard in its first at bat and knocked OSU starter Mark Robinette from the game after just 2/3 of an inning.
After a leadoff single and a hit-by-pitch, Robinette got Adam Toth to fly out. Up next, Matt Menard sent a grounder to shortstop, but Donnie Walton bobbled the ball and couldn't make a play, loading the bases with one out.
The next batter, Aaron Dodson, sent a grounder up the middle that Robinette was able to knock down with his bare hand then throw home for the second out of the inning.
However, Robinette would hit the next batter, Duncan Wendel, with a 3-2 pitch to bring home a run before surrendering a two-RBI single to West Tunnell that gave the Bears a 3-0 lead and ended Robinette's day on the mound.
Over the final 7 1/3 innings, the duo of Vince Wheeland and Blake Battenfield held the Bears to just one run on three hits while striking out five, but the OSU offense simply could not get anything going.
The Cowboys' lone run came in the fifth. Saulyer Saxon led off the inning and struck out but reached first safely on a wild pitch. After stealing second, Saxon took off attempting to steal third. Stone stepped off and looked poised to throw him out, but his throw to third sailed high for an error and allowed Saxon to score to make it 3-1.
BU answered Saxon's run with one of their own in the bottom of the fifth to provide the final 4-1 margin.
Gage Green, Dustin Williams and Conor Costello were the lone Cowboys to record hits in the contest, each of them picking up singles.
The two teams return to action for Sunday's series finale at 1:05 p.m.
