Cowboy Baseball Extends Big 12 Streak

Friday, April 13

Morgantown, WV

5:30 PM CST

Oklahoma State University

19-12-1, 0

West Virginia

15-16, 0

Oklahoma State

West Virginia

Brady Basso

April 13, 2018 | Cowboy Baseball

Box Score

Box Score (PDF)
Holliday postgame

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A pair of three-run home runs helped lift Oklahoma State to its seventh consecutive conference win Friday night as the Cowboys topped West Virginia, 7-4, at Monongalia County Ballpark.

With the win, the Cowboys improved to 8-2 in Big 12 play and 19-12-1 overall. The seven-straight conference wins marks their longest streak since they won seven in a row in 2014, which is also OSU's longest league winning streak under head coach Josh Holliday.

Michael Neustifter and Colin Simpson both delivered three-run homers, and Jon Littell added an RBI as all seven of the Cowboys' runs in the contest came with two outs.

Brady Basso earned the win on the mound as the sophomore southpaw worked 4 1/3 scoreless innings to improve to 2-3, both wins coming in Big 12 action, while C.J. Varela retired both batters he faced to record his first save of the season.

OSU jumped out to an early lead in its first at bat. Matt Kroon recorded the Cowboys' first hit of the night on an infield single before stealing second and advancing to third on a groundout. Littell, the Big 12's leading hitter in conference games, then brought Kroon home with a two-out RBI single to put the Pokes up 1-0.

The Cowboys' lead did not last long, however, as WVU struck for a pair of runs in the bottom of the first against Joe Lienhard, getting an RBI triple from Darius Hill to tie the score and then taking a 2-1 lead when Hill came home to score on a groundout.

OSU regained its lead via the long ball in the third when Neustifter blasted his first home run of the season, a three-run bomb over the wall in left-center field to put the Pokes on top, 4-2.

In the fourth, another three-run blast extended the visitor's lead. This time it was Simpson with his Big 12-best 10^th round tripper of the season as he sent a towering shot to right field to put the Cowboys up 7-2.

WVU (15-16, 1-6) answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame, getting a leadoff homer from Kyle Gray before an sacrifice fly later in the inning cut the Cowboys' lead to 7-4 after four innings of play.

Basso would come on to open the fifth and keep the Mountaineers at bay throughout his time on the mound. The lefty worked out of a big jam in the eighth after WVU loaded the bases with two outs as he struck out pinch hitter Alek Manoah to end the threat and keep the Cowboys' lead intact.

In the ninth, Basso retired the leadoff batter before a double and a single put WVU runners on the corners with one out. But Varela took the mound and slammed the door on the home team as he got Ivan Gonzalez to pop out before striking out Andrew Zitel to end the game.

The two teams return to action Saturday at 3 p.m. CST.