OSU Baseball: Cowboys Pull Off Dramatic Comeback to Earn Series-Opening Win Against Arizona State

The Cardiac Cowboys have returned for the 2026 baseball season.

Oklahoma State came back to beat Arizona State 9-6 on Friday night in Tempe thanks to a ninth-inning rally.

The Cowboys went into the frame down 6-3 before ripping off six runs within their final two outs

It started with a Colin Brueggemann one-out double. Brady Francisco came on as a pinch runner and was able to advance to third on a wild pitch. Francisco scored when Avery Ortiz grounded into a fielder’s choice. The throw was errant, and Ortiz finished the play on second.

Remo Indomenico came on as Ortiz’s pinch runner and moved to third on an infield single from Alex Conover.

Idomenico scored on a Brock Thompson sac fly to left to cut Arizona State’s lead to 6-5.

That brought up white hot Kollin Ritchie, who the Sun Devils promptly intentionally walked, but that brought up almost an equally hot Aidan Meola.

Meola drilled the second pitch he saw off the wall in left, scoring Conover to tie the game.

Then Campbell Smithwick turned the tie into a lead with a three-run shot to straightaway center. It was his eighth homer of the year.

POKES ON TOP!!!

Soup delivers in the desert#GoPokes | @campbellrsoup pic.twitter.com/DLRnnaFp4o

— OSU Cowboy Baseball (@OSUBaseball) May 9, 2026

Mario Pesca came on to close things out in the bottom of the frame. Then things got a little dicey.

Pesca got back-to-back popups for the first two outs before Dean Toigo singled. Austen Roellig then chopped a ball into no-man’s land between Pesca, second baseman Garrett Shull and shortstop Brock Thompson. Thompson got to it first but fired wide of first-base substitute Evan Saunders. Toigo advanced to third, and Roellig was safe at first.

That brought the tying run to the plate in Dominic Smaldino, who was a home run shy of the cycle. But Pesca got the out he needed, striking Smaldino out to give the Cowboys their seventh straight Big 12 win.

The Cowboys are up to 32-17 on the season and 15-10 in the league. It’s been quite the turnaround as OSU has navigated all sorts of injuries to go from the NCAA Tournament bubble to surely being in the field at this point.

OSU’s series with the Sun Devils continues at 8 p.m. (Central) Saturday. It’ll be televised on ESPN2.