Season Ends For Cowboy Baseball After 11-1 Loss to Stetson in Regional Final

With their backs against the wall on Sunday afternoon, the Oklahoma State baseball team handed South Florida a 6-1 defeat to keep their season on life support. But given another crack to keep fighting in the DeLand Regional on Sunday evening in a rematch with nationally-seeded Stetson, the Cowboys came up well short, 11-1, ending their season.

It’s a disappointing way for the season to end for Oklahoma State given the all-around stellar play it showed earlier in the day against USF in a 6-1 win, but the finale result is none-too-surprising given Stetson’s track record and the fact that it handily defeated the Cowboys, 10-3, a day earlier.

OSU finishes its season with a 31-26-1 overall record and with yet another regional final appearance under the belt for Josh Holliday — the fourth in sixth seasons since he took the helm of the program.

Cowboys' season comes to an end in NCAA DeLand Regional Finals. 2018 marked #okstate's 6th-straight NCAA appearance & was the 4th time in those 6 seasons under @joshhollidayosu the Pokes have made a Regional final. #GoPokes pic.twitter.com/wtRfFSmeyU

— Cowboy Baseball (@OSUBaseball) June 4, 2018

Oklahoma State needed to beat Stetson twice on its home field to advance to the Supers, but the Hatters used a 10-run third inning to ensure they need only play one more game against the Pokes which ended decisively.

Starting pitcher Brady Basso took the loss for the Cowboys to fall to 2-5 after surrendering six runs on six hits and a brief two-inning showing. Basso didn’t get much help elsewhere, either, as OSU was held to just three hits and scored its lone run on an RBI single by Jon Littell in the ninth.

As Nathan Ruiz of The Oklahoman pointed out, the disappointing end was exacerbated by a brutal final stretch. Oklahoma State went 4-12 in its final 16 games after an 11-10-1 start, and its inconsistency on the diamond is ultimately what has them heading home for the season.

#OKState’s season ends with an 11-1 loss to Stetson in the DeLand Regional final.

After an 11-10-1 start to year, the Cowboys rebounded with a 16-4 run. But they go 4-12 in their final 16 games.

— Nathan Ruiz (@NathanSRuiz) June 4, 2018