Cowboy Baseball Drops Series Rubber Game At Iowa

Sunday, May 6

Iowa City, IA

11:35 PM

Oklahoma State University

28-17-1

Iowa

28-16

Oklahoma State

Iowa

Daniel DeSimone

May 06, 2018 | Cowboy Baseball

Box Score

Box Score (PDF)

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Oklahoma State had its streak of five-straight weekend series wins snapped Sunday as Iowa handed the 12^th-ranked Cowboys an 11-3 loss at Duane Banks Field.

With the setback in its final non-conference game of the regular season, OSU fell to 28-17-1, while the Hawkeyes improved to 28-16.

The Cowboys finished with six hits in the contest. Carson McCusker's home run in the third inning accounted for OSU's first run, while Daniel DeSimone and Matt Kroon recorded RBIs in the ninth to close out the scoring.

For the second-straight game, Iowa tagged OSU pitchers for 14 hits, and the Cowboys also issued six walks. Starter Jonathan Heasley took the loss to fall to 3-4 as the sophomore right-hander worked five innings and allowed four runs on seven hits while striking out five.

"We weren't good enough in any phases of the game today – we weren't good enough on the mound, we weren't good enough on defense and we weren't good enough on offense," said OSU head coach Josh Holliday. "When you don't play all three phases or at least two of the three well, you're fooling yourself to think you'll win, especially against a team like Iowa.

"Where we should have been more in a position to combat them today was on offense where they were pitching some guys that quite honestly were down the list. They were down some arms, and we didn't take advantage of a freshman left-hander getting his first weekend start for them.

"(Iowa) played better than we did. We've got to get back to fundamentals of the game. We had a few things get away from us over the course of the weekend that we haven't seen much of. We'll spend some time training and sharpening back up and dive right back into the next challenge."

Iowa took an early lead in its first at bat on Sunday, plating four runs on four hits against Heasley and also taking advantage of an OSU error, one of three by the Pokes in the game.

The Cowboys would get on the scoreboard in the third when McCusker led off the inning with his sixth home run of the season, a no-doubt blast off the scoreboard in left-center field that cut the OSU deficit to 4-1.

Still trailing by three after six innings, OSU was poised to cut into the Iowa lead in the seventh when Trevor Boone and Michael Neustifter led off the frame with back-to-back singles to put Cowboys on the corners with no outs. But the Cowboys failed to score as McCusker popped out before pinch hitter Cade Cabbiness struck out and Ryan Cash fouled out to end the threat.

The Hawkeyes took control in the bottom of the inning as they struck for six runs against a trio of OSU relievers. Mitchell Boe opened the frame by ripping a Peyton Battenfield pitch to center field for a single, and the ball got past Boone and carried to the wall as Boe raced home safely to put the home team up 5-1.

Up next, a single, double and walk loaded the bases with no outs. Battenfield struck out the next batter, but an RBI single by Matt Hoeg extended the Hawkeyes' lead to 6-1. The scoring continued when Reza Aleaziz came on and plunked Kyle Crowl with the first pitch he threw to push the lead to six before a walk brought home Iowa's fourth run of the inning.

Things continued to get ugly for OSU as C.J. Varela took the mound and walked two-straight batters to make it 10-1 before an inning-ending double play stopped the bleeding.

OSU returns to Big 12 Conference action Friday at Baylor. First pitch for the series opener is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. in Waco, Texas.