Oklahoma State Falls 8-5 in Big 12 Tournament Opener vs. West Virginia

Early pitching has plagued the Cowboys for the past few weeks, and that remained the case Wednesday as Oklahoma State’s second-seeded baseball team lost to West Virginia 8-5 in their first game of the Big 12 Baseball Championship.

Peyton Battenfield earned his first start as a Cowboy after he was solely used as a reliever during the past two regular seasons. His outing was memorable for the wrong reasons, as he allowed three earned runs on five hits in only one inning.

He gave up three hits in the first but escaped without any damage as OSU’s defense came through with an inning-ending double play. A pair of hits and walks gave the Mountaineers a 2-0 lead in the second, and Battenfield was removed before recording an out in the second frame.

WVU got three more in the fourth, and suddenly the team that led the Big 12 regular season for most of the year (OSU) found itself in a 6-0 hole.

The Cowboys trailed 7-1 entering the bottom of the sixth, but a late rally put the game within OSU’s reach. Christian Funk laced an RBI to center field and later scored on a sac fly. OSU made the WVU lead 7-3. Then in the seventh, the Cowboys took advantage of a couple of errors to shrink the lead to 7-5. That’s as close as the Pokes would get, though.

Game 3 came down to the very last pitch … ?@WVUBaseball held on to beat Oklahoma State 8-5 in a wild one.
Highlights ? pic.twitter.com/UbjiQKF7Qt

— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) May 24, 2018

The Mountaineers added an insurance run when OSU issued a bases-loaded walk in the eighth. OSU brought the tying run to the plate in both the 8th and 9th but couldn’t crack the code. As a result they’ll get the loser of Texas Tech-TCU at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday in OKC.

Lower seeds are undefeated so far at the Big 12 Tournament.