Cowboys Fall At Oral Roberts

Tuesday, May 17

Tulsa, OK

6:30:00 PM

Oklahoma State University

32-18

Oral Roberts

33-16

Oklahoma State

Oral Roberts

Dustin Williams

May 17, 2016 | Cowboy Baseball

Box Score

TULSA, Okla. – Oklahoma State's struggles at J.L. Johnson Stadium continued Tuesday night as the 12^th-ranked Cowboys suffered a 3-1 loss to Oral Roberts.

With the loss, the Cowboys fell to 32-18 on the season, with 12 of those defeats coming by two or less runs. Two of OSU's losses this season have come to ORU (33-16), and the Pokes have not won at J.L. Johnson Stadium since 1995, losing six-straight games on the Golden Eagles' home field.

OSU managed just three hits in the contest, one of those a solo home run by Dustin Williams, as the Cowboys were held to one run for the third time in their last four games. Coach Josh Holliday's ballclub left nine runners stranded on the basepaths in the game.

"We didn't play well enough to win – our collective efforts as a club were not good enough," Holliday said. "We had to put a good pitching plan together to staff this game, and I thought that worked well. I was pleased with the way we threw the ball; there were some real positives there. Offensively there were just too many uncompetitive moments. We had some opportunities, and we weren't in the moment when we had chances.

"Simply not good enough. We're gonna get home, get a nice practice in and turn the page, right the ship and get ready to compete again Thursday. There's really no other way around it. Disappointed? Absolutely. I'm not into getting on buses, driving around and losing games. I'm not into that, our team is not into that and our program doesn't stand for that. But the reality is, we just showed up and got beat. I take 100 percent responsibility for that, and I'm gonna get my kids refocused and ready and we're going to come out Thursday and play a good ballgame."

ORU jumped on the Cowboys early against Tyler Buffett, who made his 30^th appearance of the season but just his second start.

The Golden Eagles took advantage of three singles, a walk and an error to take a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first before Buffett struck out the side to limit the damage.

Buffett would only work the first inning but took the loss to fall to 6-2 on the season.

OSU trailed 3-0 after five innings before finally getting its first hit and only run of the contest, that coming on Williams' two-out homer. The blast over the right field wall was the Cowboy first baseman's Big 12 Conference-leading 13^th of the season and his third in the last three games.

In the seventh, the Cowboys mounted a two-out rally after J.R. Davis was hit by a pitch, the fourth time he reached base in the game, before Corey Hassel singled. But Donnie Walton struck out to end the threat.

The following inning saw OSU bring the tying run to the plate three times after Garrett Benge led off the eighth with a single, but Conor Costello, Williams and Ryan Sluder all flew out to strand him at first.

While its offense struggled, OSU used seven different pitchers in the game, and those armsombined for 15 strikeouts while issuing only three walks and seven hits, all singles.

OSU concludes the regular season with a three-game series against Kansas beginning Thursday at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.