OSU Baseball: Recapping the Series loss to Baylor

It’s a good thing when negative results are unexpected. This weekend produced unusual results as Baylor, who had a 9-9 conference record before Friday, took two of three games against the Cowboys to make the race for first place in the Big 12 a bit more interesting. Oklahoma State, now No. 24 in the D1Baseball.com Top 25 Poll, was riding a lot of momentum after sweeping Oklahoma a few weeks ago, but they have lost five of their past seven games entering the final series of the season. What happened down in Waco, and how did Josh Holliday’s squad lose an opportunity to seal the top seed in the Big 12 Baseball Championship? We’ll try to answer some of those questions in this game-by-game recap.

Friday – Baylor 13, Oklahoma State 5

The Cowboys ran into Baylor at the wrong time. Baylor had won 12 consecutive games heading into the series, and that winning streak was extended to 13 Friday thanks to a trio of four-run innings. The first of those outbursts came in the first. OSU countered with a pair of runs when Andrew Rosa and Ryan Cash reached notched an RBI, but 4-2 was as close as the Cowboys would get. Joe Lienhard (5-2) earned the start on the mound and lost his first Big 12 game this season, conceding eight runs on 11 hits in four innings. Ben Leeper also allowed four runs in almost half as many innings.

Saturday – Oklahoma State 11, Baylor 6

Although he allowed five runs in as many innings, Carson Teel (7-2) earned the win Saturday after his offense tacked 11 runs on the scoreboard, all of which came from home runs. The Cowboys hit seven bombs Saturday, which is the most OSU has hit in a game since 2006. Trevor Boone accounted for three of them, tying an OSU record. Colin Simpson added a pair of home runs, giving him a team-high five RBIs. Baylor scored a run in four of the five innings Teel was on the mound, but the Cowboys always had a sizable lead, scoring 10 runs in the first four innings.

Sunday – Baylor 7, Oklahoma State 3

The Cowboys’ five-series winning streak in conference play ended Sunday after Baylor shut out the OSU offense for most of the game. OSU didn’t score during the first seven innings, but Baylor scored multiple runs every third inning, building a 7-0 lead before the Cowboys took the plate in the eighth. Jonathan Heasley received a loss after allowing two earned runs in 5 2/3 innings. Jensen Elliott’s return was somewhat of a silver lining, however. A Freshman All-American in 2016, Elliott worked a perfect eighth inning in his first appearance since undergoing Tommy John surgery in April 2017.

What’s Next

We’ll have something more in-depth on this later in the week, but the Cowboys host a crucial three-game series with Texas Tech to close the regular season. The first game is set for 6:30 on Thursday.