Cowboy Baseball Opens Road Trip With Win

Tuesday, March 20

Conway, AR

6:00 PM

Oklahoma State University

10-8-1

Central Arkansas

12-9

Oklahoma State

Central Arkansas

Noah Sifrit

March 20, 2018 | Cowboy Baseball

Box Score

Box Score (PDF)

CONWAY, Ark. – Oklahoma State picked up a midweek road win Tuesday night with a 3-1 victory over Central Arkansas at Bear Stadium.

With the win, the Cowboys improved to 10-8-1 as they head into Big 12 Conference play. OSU opens league action Friday at Texas with the series opener set for a 7 p.m. first pitch in Austin.

Despite issuing 10 walks, OSU pitchers Reza Aleaziz, Noah Sifrit and Peyton Battenfield limited UCA to just four hits, all of them singles, and combined for 10 strikeouts. The Bears left 15 runners on base as their five-game winning streak was snapped; they fell to 12-9 on the season.

Sifrit would earn his first collegiate win as the freshman southpaw tossed three scoreless innings in relief of Aleaziz and struck out five while allowing just one hit. Battenfield kept the home team off the scoreboard over the final two innings to earn his first-career save.

Jon Littell was 2-for-3 with a home run to lead the Cowboys' offensively, while Colin Simpson and Dylan Gardner also collected RBIs.

"The huge bright spot for tonight was (Aleaziz), (Sifrit) and (Battenfield). At midweek, coming out when we knew that many of our arms from the weekend were not available, they went out and pitched a gutty game," said OSU head coach Josh Holliday. "Maybe they didn't command the ball as well we'd like, but one thing they never did is they never gave in. They hung with it and showed some poise and showed some toughness… I was just really proud of those three kids – it's an awesome sign.

"For our team, the emotion of winning is important. When you're on a road trip and tackling great challenges, that's a good stepping stone to further your growth."

The Cowboys took the game's initial lead in the third. Matt Kroon led off the inning with a double, and up next, Simpson ripped a double of his own into the right-center field gap to put OSU up 1-0.

OSU extended its lead in the fifth. Following a two-out infield single by Littell, a fly ball off the bat of Gardner dropped into shallow left-center field for a single, and Littell raced around the bases to score as the Pokes took a 2-0 advantage.

The Bears answered with their only run of the game in the bottom of the fifth. After an infield single and two walks loaded the bases with no outs against Aleaziz, Sifrit came out of the bullpen. He would uncork a wild pitch to plate a run but then escaped further damage with back-to-back strikeouts and an inning-ending groundout.

OSU extended its lead to 3-1 in the eighth when Littell crushed his third home run of the season, a solo shot off the scoreboard in left field.

Down by two, UCA was poised to erase its deficit in the bottom of the eighth as Sifrit walked the first two batters before Battenfield came on and plunked Eddie Sanchez with the first pitch he threw to load the bases with no outs.

But Battenfield settled down and got a pop up to third base and a strikeout before Tyler Smith flew out to the base of the wall in right field to end the threat.

In the ninth, the Bears would bring the tying run to the plate after a leadoff walk, but Battenfield retired the next three UCA batters to seal the win.