Cowboy Baseball Drops Finale, Series To West Virginia

Sunday, April 7

Stillwater, OK

12:00 PM

Oklahoma State University

19-11, 0

West Virginia

19-12, 0

West Virginia

Oklahoma State

Brett Standlee

April 07, 2019 | Cowboy Baseball

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Holliday, Simpson postgame

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State dropped its first conference series of the season Sunday as the 23^rd-ranked Cowboys suffered a 4-2 loss to West Virginia in the rubber game at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.

The Mountaineers (19-12, 4-5) plated three runs over the final two innings to get the win, while OSU was shut out over the last eight frames as the Cowboys fell to 19-11 overall and 6-3 in Big 12 play.

Peyton Battenfield took the loss to fall to 3-3 on the season as the right-hander allowed two runs on two hits over 1 1/3 innings of relief.

Offensively, the Cowboys managed just four hits in the contest, with Colin Simpson's two-run home run in the opening inning providing the OSU runs. The homer was Simpson's fifth of the season, two of those in the WVU series, and was the ninth for the senior in his career against the Mountaineers.

WVU struck first in the game on an RBI double down the right-field line by Darius Hill with one out in the first.

Following Simpson's homer in the bottom of the inning that put OSU up 2-1, the game settled into a pitcher's duel between WVU's Kade Strowd and the Cowboys' Brett Standlee.

Strowd earned the win after tossing 7 1/3 innings and striking out 10 to improve to 4-2, while Standlee was also outstanding, allowing just one run on four hits and striking out five over six innings.

The Mountaineers came up with a crucial defensive play in the second inning when WVU left fielder T.J. Lake made a leaping catch at the wall to rob what would have been a two-run home run for Andrew Navigato and the Cowboys.

The late rally by West Virginia negated the strong start by Standlee as the OSU bullpen struggled to throw strikes, allowing three walks in the eighth inning.

After retiring all three batters he faced in the seventh, Battenfield issued a walk and two hits in the eighth that led to a WVU run and tied the game at 2-2.

Logan Gragg then took over with runners at second and third and just one out and, after inducing a pop up for the second out of the inning, he allowed a walk to load the bases before another free pass brought home the go-ahead run.

Ben Leeper entered with the bases still loaded, getting a big strikeout to avoid any further damage. Leeper eventually surrendered an insurance run on an RBI single by Hill in the ninth as WVU went up 4-2.

In the bottom of the ninth, a one-out walk to Cade Cabbiness brought the tying run to the plate, but both Noah Sifrit and Hueston Morrill struck out looking to end the game.

The Cowboys will be back in action when they travel to Wichita State for a Wednesday matchup at 6 p.m. before returning to Big 12 action Friday at Kansas.