Cowboy Baseball Comes Up Short In Series Opener

Thursday, February 19

Phoenix, AZ

7:00 PM (CST)

Oklahoma State University

1-3

Grand Canyon

2-2

Oklahoma State

Grand Canyon

February 19, 2026 | Cowboy Baseball

Box Score

PHOENIX – Oklahoma State dropped its series opener against Grand Canyon by a 12-8 count Thursday night at GCU Ballpark.

With the loss, the Cowboys fell to 1-3 on the season, while GCU is now 2-2.

OSU collected 12 hits in the contest, with Aidan Meola and Kollin Ritchie both homering. Campbell Smithwick went 3-for-5 at the plate, while Meola and Brock Thompson each had two hits.

Bryce LeBlanc took the loss on the mound in relief of starter Parker Jennings. LeBlanc allowed three runs on a pair of hits in two innings of work.

The Cowboys used five pitchers in the contest as GCU tallied 12 hits, including three home runs.

OSU fell behind in the opening inning as a pair of walks led to a three-run homer by Cannon Peery.

But in the third, the Pokes used a long ball of their own to erase the deficit as Meola delivered his first home run of the season over the wall in left field. The three-run bomb tied the score at 3-3.

The Lopes regained the lead in the fourth. After a two-out walk, a double brought home the go-ahead run before Vince Bianchina smacked a two-run homer to make the score 6-3.

OSU got a run back in the fifth. Alex Conover was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, and Thompson followed with his second double of the game into the left-center field gap to bring home a run.

But GCU extended its lead with another rally in the bottom of the inning, getting three runs on three hits to take a 9-4 advantage, before getting two more runs in the sixth.

OSU pushed across a pair of runs in the seventh, one on a RBI infield single off the bat of Smithwick, and capped their scoring on Ritchie's solo homer in the ninth. The round tripper was Ritchie's team-leading third of the season.

The two teams return to action Friday at 7 p.m. (CDT).