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OSU Baseball: Cowboys Eliminated from Athens Regional after 3-2 Loss to Duke

The Cowboys’ season ends on a challenge.

Published

11 months ago

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[Devin Wilber/PFB]

BOX SCORE

After heroically fighting their way out of the corner all weekend, the Cowboys’ season ends on an overturned challenge.

Oklahoma State fell to Duke 3-2 in Game 6 of the Athens Regional. The Cowboys’ season ends at 30-25.

But before the heartbreaking ending, let’s appreciate one heck of a weekend for the Pokes and just how well some of their youngsters played.

If things had gone differently in Athens, the University of Georgia may have been required to rename this event The Kollin Ritchie Regional.

In the top of the fourth, the sophomore crushed his fifth home run of the regional, a two-run bomb that put the Pokes on the board. Then, in the bottom of the fourth, he made maybe the defensive play of the tournament.

Ritchie finished the Athens Regional 6-for-11 with nine RBIs and five home runs.

Freshman Noah Wech picked a good time to pitch the game of his young career, but it was a tougher go for the rest of OSU’s staff.

Wech pitched six scoreless innings and struck out five, both career-highs. At one point, he started 0-1 on 12 straight batters. He allowed just five hits and no walks, delivering the Pokes to the seventh inning up 2-0.

Brennan Phillips came into the seventh and allowed a lead-off single and then a walk to bring the leading run to the plate for Duke. Rob Walton acted fast, calling out Stormy Rhodes to try to get the Pokes out of the jam.

Rhodes hung in there, and his defense backed him up, stranding two Devils with this 4-6-3 double-play.

Ryan Ure came in to pitch the eighth and quickly gave up the first run for Duke, a solo homer by AJ Gracia and allowed a single and a walk, ending his day. Walton brought in Mario Pesca, who gave up nine runs in three innings to Duke in the Cowboys’ regional opener on Friday.

After striking out one, Pesca got burned. Duke’s Sam Harris cracked a two-run grounder up the middle to give the Devils the 3-2 lead.

After all that fighting back, the team that put the Cowboys in the hole, put them away. But it was a tough way to go out.

In the ninth, Garrett Shull was facing the last strike of OSU’s season. He headed for first on passed ball strikeout and was called safe at first by the on-field umpire. But, upon review, Shull touched the green safety bag, not the white bag, and was called for a safety bag violation and was therefore out.  The Pokes season was over.

The Cowboys’ season ends in heartbreaking fashion but there are some positive takeaways. The team showed tons of fight, bouncing back from a ton of injuries and a slow start. Even more heartening is the play the Pokes got from a load of underclassmen.

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