Cowboy Baseball Wins Third-Straight Big 12 Series

Sunday, April 15

Morgantown, WV

11:00 CST

Oklahoma State University

20-13-1, 9-3

West Virginia

16-17, 2-7

Oklahoma State

West Virginia

Peyton Battenfield

April 15, 2018 | Cowboy Baseball

Box Score

Box Score (PDF)

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A comeback victory lifted Oklahoma State to its third consecutive conference series win as the Cowboys claimed a 6-4 triumph over West Virginia in Sunday's rubber game at Monongalia County Ballpark.

With the win, the Cowboys surpassed their Big 12 win total from a year ago and are now 9-3 in conference play and 20-13-1 overall. WVU fell to 16-17 and 2-7 in the league.

Peyton Battefield kept the Mountaineers off the scoreboard over the final four innings to earn his first win of the year as the right-hander scattered four hits and recorded five strikeouts in relief of starter Jonathan Heasley.

Offensively, Colin Simpson and Christian Funk both homered and drove in two runs, while Andrew Rosa was 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles.

OSU fell behind in the second inning. With a pair of runners in scoring position, Jimmy Galusky drove in a run with an infield single and a fielding error by shortstop Matt Kroon allowed another run to score on the play as WVU took a 2-0 advantage.

The Mountaineers extended their lead to 3-0 in the third when Darius Hill led off the inning with a triple and came home to score on an RBI groundout by Marques Inman.

The Pokes would get on the scoreboard in the fourth as Simpson led off the frame with an opposite-field home run off the foul pole in left field to cut the OSU deficit to 3-1. The blast was Simpson's Big 12-leading 11^th of the season and tied his career high of a year ago.

Trailing 4-1 after five innings, OSU erased its deficit and tied the game in the sixth. Following a one-out walk to Kroon, Simpson ripped an RBI double into the right field corner for the Cowboys' second run and two batters later, Funk deposited his fourth homer of the season over the left field wall, a two-run shot that tied the score at 4-4.

OSU took its first lead in the seventh. After a walk to Trevor Boone, Rosa doubled to put a pair of runners in scoring position. The Cowboys would take advantage as consecutive passed balls by WVU catcher Chase Illig plated both runners and put the Pokes up by a 6-4 count.

That was all the Cowboys would need. Battenfield stranded a pair of runners on base in the eighth; in the ninth the Mountaineers got a two-out single to bring the tying run to the plate before Battenfield struck out WVU's top hitter, Kyle Gray, to end the game.

OSU returns to action Tuesday when they open a four-game homestand with a contest against Oral Roberts. First pitch against the Golden Eagles is set for 6:30 p.m. at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.