OSU Baseball: Cowboys Win Series vs. Sooners, Secure Share of Big 12 Title

NORMAN — Nolan Schubart admired his handywork as a ball he crushed landed among people sitting atop a grassy hill well beyond the right-field fence at L Dale Mitchell Park.

Schubart’s seventh-inning home run was the dagger in the Cowboys’ 11-1 win against Bedlam rival Oklahoma, a win that gave the Cowboys a series win and a share of the Big 12 regular season championship. It’s just OSU’s second regular season Big 12 title (since the league formed in 1997). The Pokes share this one with Texas and West Virginia, who also finished Big 12 play at 15-9. Texas will be the 1 seed in Arlington after a round-robin tiebreaker that sees the Cowboys as the 2 seed and the Mountaineers as the 3 seed.

OSU last won the league in 2014. The Cowboys have finished second three times since then. OSU has also won the Big 12 Tournament twice since then.

“I’ve been in competitive sports a long time, and winning a championship is hard,” OSU coach Josh Holliday said. “When you’re in position to get one and maybe do, it’s a very joyous feeling. I’m not afraid to smile and tell you it feels really good, and I don’t usually feel much in terms of the responsibility to deliver in a big way. So when the team can go out and deliver in a big way, you’re proud of them. You feel good about it.”

After scoring no runs and recording just four hits in Friday’s game, the Cowboys finished the first inning Saturday with two runs and four hits. The four hits came on OSU’s first four at-bats. Chase Adkison and Schubart each had an RBI.

This series-clinching game was the Schubart show. He doubled to right in the third inning before his seventh inning two-run home run. He finished the day 3-for-4 with two runs scored and five RBIs. He finishes his true freshman regular season hitting .348 with 66 RBIs and 15 home runs after making a move to OSU late. From Durand, Michigan, Schubart was a long-time Michigan commit before a coaching change reopened his recruitment.

“I was just trusting my swing and trusting my approach in the box and swinging at pitches that I was going to be able to do some damage to,” Schubart said. “When I got the pitches, I was able to put good swings on it thankfully, and the guys in front of me were able to get on. They were able to put me in those situations.”

Ben Abram was another excellent story from the day. Abram spent four seasons at OU before transferring to OSU this offseason. He got the start in the Big 12-deciding game and threw five innings where he allowed one run off four hits while walking no one and striking out four.

In 2022 with the Sooners, Abram threw 22 innings in 22 appearances. He threw 28 innings as a sophomore and 10 as a freshman. In one regular season with the Cowboys, Abram threw 63 innings and is a conference champion.

“There was a lot of emotions,” Abram said. “It’s never easy to come back and throw against your old team, especially when I was here for so long. But at the end of the day, it was about winning the ballgame, winning the Big 12 championship and winning Bedlam.”

This isn’t the end of Bedlam this year. Oklahoma State and Oklahoma will meet in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament on Wednesday at Globe Life Field in Arlington, with OSU as the 2 seed and OU as the 7 seed. OSU is 3-1 against OU this season, outscoring the Sooners a combined 44-16. Josh Holliday is 32-12 against the Sooners.

Josh Holliday’s Postgame News Conference