Cowboy Baseball Comeback Falls Short In Big 12 Tourney Opener

Wednesday, May 23

Oklahoma City, OK

4:00 PM

Oklahoma State University

29-23-1

West Virginia

28-25

West Virginia

Oklahoma State

Michael Neustifter

Cowboy Baseball Comeback Falls Short In Big 12 Tourney Opener

May 23, 2018 | Cowboy Baseball

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OKLAHOMA CITY – Second-seeded Oklahoma State opened the Big 12 Baseball Championship with an 8-5 loss to No. 7-seed West Virginia Wednesday at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.

The loss was the fifth in a row for the 20^th-ranked Cowboys, who fell to 29-23-1 on the season. OSU will face the loser of the Texas Tech-TCU contest in a tourney elimination game Thursday at 12:30 p.m.

OSU tied a season high by committing five errors in the game, and Peyton Battenfield took the loss as he lasted just one inning in his first-career start to fall to 2-3 on the season.

The Cowboys brought the winning run to the plate in the ninth, but Michael Neustifter grounded into a fielder's choice with the bases loaded to end the game.

Andrew Rosa, Jon Littell and Christian Funk each had two hits for the Pokes, who collected 10 hits off six different WVU pitchers in the game.

West Virginia (28-25) knocked Battenfield out of the game early as the sophomore right-hander faced seven batters and gave up five hits. He left the game in the second after a two-RBI single by Ivan Gonzalez gave the Mountaineers a 2-0 lead.

Brady Basso would come on in relief, but WVU would extend its lead to 3-0 before the Cowboys got out of the inning.

The Mountaineers doubled their lead in the fourth, this time rallying for three runs on four hits. After opening the inning with three-straight singles, Darius Hill collected the fourth hit in a row with an RBI infield single, and a throwing error by Matt Kroon on the play brought home two more runs to make the score 6-0.

OSU got on the scoreboard in the fifth. Max Hewitt led off the inning and reached second on a throwing error before advancing to third on a fly out by Rosa. Hewitt then came home to score on a sacrifice fly by Kroon as the Cowboys cut their deficit to 6-1.

After falling behind 7-1, OSU put up a crooked number in the bottom of the sixth. Littell got things started with a leadoff double, and up next Funk brought him home with a single. Following a double by Trevor Boone, the Cowboys cut their deficit to 7-3 when Neustifter collected an RBI with a sacrifice fly.

OSU cut into the lead again in the seventh, taking advantage of a pair of throwing errors by WVU infielders to plate a pair of runs that made the score 7-5.

After falling behind by three, the Cowboys brought the tying run to the plate in the eighth in the form of Kroon. But Neustifter was thrown out at third trying to advance on a wild pitch to end the threat.

Still trailing 8-5 going into its final at bat, OSU loaded the bases with two outs following a single and a pair of walks before failing to score.