Cowboy Baseball Suffers First NCAA Regional Loss To Force If-Necessary Game

Sunday, June 2

Oklahoma City, OK

5:06 PM

Oklahoma State University

38-19

Connecticut

39-24

Oklahoma State

UConn

Brett Standlee

Cowboy Baseball Suffers First NCAA Regional Loss To Force If-Necessary Game

June 02, 2019 | Cowboy Baseball

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OSU Postgame
UConn Postgame

OKLAHOMA CITY – Top-seeded Oklahoma State dropped a 5-2 contest to No. 2-seed UConn in the NCAA Oklahoma City Regional finals Sunday at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark to force an if-necessary game on Monday.

The loss snapped the ninth-ranked Cowboys' four-game winning streak as they fell to 38-19 on the season. In a must-win game for UConn, the Huskies kept their season alive and improved to 39-24 overall. The two teams will face each other again in an elimination game Monday at 6 p.m. with an NCAA Super Regional berth on the line.

OSU managed just six hits in the contest and left 10 runners stranded on the bases. Hueston Morrill was 1-for-3 with a double and a run scored, while Colin Simpson tallied the lone RBI for the Pokes to lead the offense. Cade Cabbiness also singled and scored a run.

Brett Standlee made his 11^th start of the season for the Cowboys and went 6 2/3 innings, allowing four earned runs on seven hits while striking out three and walking one. The loss dropped the right-hander to 3-2 on the season.

UConn pushed across an unearned run in the first inning and added two more in the second frame to take an early 3-0 lead. All three of the runs came via sacrifice fly as Michael Woodworth, David Langer and Chris Winkel tallied RBIs.

Standlee settled in nicely after that as the redshirt freshman was able to pitch out of a jam in the fourth, inducing a fly out to center field with Huskies on the corners to get out of the frame unscathed. A two-out, two-run home run by UConn shortstop Anthony Prato in the seventh blemished an otherwise productive start for Standlee.

OSU plated both of its runs in the third. Cabbiness led off the inning for OSU a line-drive single up the middle, and Morrill followed with a double down the left-field line. A wild pitch allowed Cabbiness to score the first run of the game for the Cowboys, and Simpson singled to left-center to drive in Morrill and shrink the Huskies' lead to 3-2.

In the seventh, OSU positioned itself to score again when Andrew Navigato singled through the right side with one out and stole second base to advance into scoring position. C.J. Dandeneau then fell behind in the count 3-0 to Big 12 home run leader Trevor Boone but was able to work all the way back to strike out the Cowboy slugger.

The Huskies then made a move to closer Jacob Wallace to face Carson McCusker, and the junior came through with a strikeout to strand Navigato in scoring position.

In the bottom half of the seventh, Standlee collected two quick outs before allowing a single to right field, extending the inning and bringing up Prato, who took advantage of a 2-0 count and delivered the home run to left to extend the UConn lead to 5-2.

Logan Gragg entered for his first appearance of the Regional and recorded the final out of the seventh before pitching a scoreless eighth, but the Cowboys were unable to get a runner on base over the final two frames as Wallace struck out all seven batters he faced to earn his 16^th save.