Cowboy Baseball Routs Raiders To Clinch Series

Saturday, February 23

Stillwater, OK

2:05 PM

Oklahoma State University

5-1

Wright State

1-3

Wright State

Oklahoma State

Carson McCusker & Christian Funk

February 23, 2019 | Cowboy Baseball

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STILLWATER – Oklahoma State extended its winning streak to four Saturday afternoon, powering past Wright State, 17-5, at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.

Taking advantage of winds gusting upwards of 30 miles per hour, the 18^th-ranked Cowboys blasted five home runs in the win as they improved to 5-1 and clinched their second consecutive series victory.

OSU scored multiple runs in each of the first six innings and racked up 20 hits in the contest, tying for the second most in a game under head coach Josh Holliday. The Pokes' top mark under Holliday came in 2017 when they had 22 hits against Arizona State.

"It was a good win for our team — a challenging environment with the wind being that active and I thought we handled it really well," Holliday said. "Played error free on the defensive side, had great relief pitching and then on offense we had six-straight innings where we score and that was big to build a lead. Days like today, you don't want it to be close because all it takes is a pop fly and a two-run home run for the other team to come right back at you.

"It was important to score every inning the way we did and build up a little bit of a lead."

Carson McCusker and Christian Funk led the way offensively for the Cowboys. McCusker went 4-for-4 and was a triple shy of hitting for the cycle as he tallied four RBIs and five runs scored. Christian Funk was also perfect at the dish, going 3-for-3 with two homers and five RBIs.

Other key contributors for the Cowboys included Alix Garcia, who went 3-for-5 with a home run and four RBIs, and Hueston Morrill, who collected four hits and two RBIs on the afternoon. Andrew Navigato also homered for the Pokes, going deep to left-center field in the bottom of the third inning.

Peyton Battenfield earned the win on the mound to improve to 2-0 on the season as he came on in relief of starter Logan Gragg with one out in the third and allowed just one run over 3 2/3 innings while striking out four. Brett Standlee worked the final three innings and struck out five to earn his first-career save.

The Raiders were able to take a 3-0 lead over Gragg and the Pokes with a two-out rally in the top of the first inning. But OSU responded with five runs in the bottom half of the inning to take the lead and never trailed again.

McCusker got things going as he followed back-to-back walks to Trevor Boone and Colin Simpson with a three-run homer to center to tie the game at 3-3.

After a walk to Funk, Garcia made his first hit in an OSU uniform a memorable one as he smacked a two-run blast over the wall in right-center field to put the Pokes up 5-3.

OSU plated two runs in the second, third and fourth frames, with Navigato delivering the first home run of his career in the third and Funk smashing his first of the game in the fourth to put the home team up 11-4.

The Cowboys put up another huge rally in the fifth, scoring four runs on four hits as Funk, Garcia and Morrill each collected RBIs.

Funk capped the scoring in the sixth with his second two-run shot of the day to provide the final 17-5 score.

The two teams conclude the series Sunday at 1:05 p.m.