No. 3 Oklahoma State 10-Runs WVU Baseball 13-3 To Take Series

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – One of the worst loses of Monongalia County Ballpark history came this afternoon, as the No. 3 Oklahoma State Cowboys (25-10, 8-3) defeated No. 24 West Virginia in eight innings.

Heading into this afternoon, the series was tied courtesy of great play from both sides. Out of the gate today, though, the Mountaineers (22-11, 6-2) were in trouble. Sunday starter Zach Bravo ushered in the series rubber match, but the fifth year righty quickly allowed the state of the game to fly out of hand. He dealt Cowboy lead-off hitter Jaxson Crull a walk and the right fielder advanced to third on what would become a costly second base fielding error by WVU’s Mikey Kluska. The routine ground ball rolled under Kluska’s glove and into center field, placing runners on the corners two batters into the game. Crull came home off a sac fly from left fielder Jake Thompson, tallying the game’s first run. A one-run deficit that early in the game was disappointing, but not egregiously so for Mountaineer fans.

Then, the Pokes’ clean-up hitter David Mendham stepped up to the plate. He shot an opposite field bomb out of left field, trailing Caeden Trenkle and Mendham home. Two additional solo home runs would also plate Cowboys in the first inning. Brett Brown and Griffin Doersching added back-to-back solo shots to notch five runs on three hits in the first inning of play. Bravo exited after a single inning, three hits, five runs, one strikeout, and 29 pitches thrown.

On the opposite mound, Oklahoma State sophomore right-handed starter Bryce Osmond had a banner day. He shut the Mountaineer bats straight down in the first, second, third, and sixth; in the seventh, a strikeout of pinch hitter Evan Smith secured a career high 11 Ks.

As Osmond continued to deal, his offense was doing the same to the Mountaineers. Thompson placed down a 2RBI double in the fourth inning and both Crull and Trenkle scored to extend the Oklahoma State lead to 7-0. Then, in the fifth inning, against the Mountaineers’ second reliever, righty Chase Smith, the Cowboys added an eighth run small ball-style. Smith walked Brown and Doersching reached on a fielding error. The duo staged a double steal, and Brown added on a trip home when the Mountaineers yielded a second error on the same play. Up a convincing 8-0, the Cowboys weren’t done.

Last night’s home run king, Mountaineer Nathan Blasick hit the weekend’s second down the right field line, in the fifth, to plate the first Mountaineer run, but it paled in comparison.

In the sixth, the Pokes added another run off a Mendham double, a wild pitch advancement, and a Nolan McLean RBI groundout. The team also capitalized on a chaotic, wild pitch-filled outing for West Virginia righty reliever Daniel Ouderkirk, the sixth Mountaineer on the mound. In the eighth, West Virginia’s previous reliever, lefty Beau Lowery, had four-pitch walked Thompson to lead off the inning before getting replaced, and Ouderkirk watched the bases get loaded and emptied with Cowboys. A sac fly from Doersching scored Thompson for the Pokes’ 10th run, and Mendham scored from third on a wild pitch aimed at Chase Adkison seconds later. Ouderkirk exited the game as well, making way for right-handed closer Tyler Strechay. To add insult to injury, a Stretchay wild pitch scored Brown from third, and a follow-up single from Cayden Brumbaugh scored Adkison in the same at-bat to plate the Pokes’ 13th run of the game.

Conversely, the Mountaineers were almost entirely reliant on Blasick to score runs. After his fifth inning homer, he knocked in McGwire Holbrook on an RBI single in the seventh for the second run and two of three WVU hits to his name. Osmond ended his day on the mound shortly after with 6.2 innings, four of which flew by scoreless; three hits; three runs; a career 11 Ks, and 110 pitches. Although he was swapped for Oklahoma State reliever Roman Phansalkar and the righty allowed Blasick to score on a wild pitch, the run was credited to Osmond. Blasick was involved in each of West Virginia’s three runs in some way, and no additional Mountaineers would end up helping out.

The 13-3 final was called official in the eighth inning when West Virginia failed to close the 10-run deficit. An ugly game for the now-22-12 (6-3) Mountaineers earned Bravo his first loss of the season (3-1) with its conclusion. Osmond’s 6.2 innings got him a third win (3-1). West Virginia earned its trio of runs on as many hits, but three costly errors changed the pace of the game. Oklahoma State goes back to Stillwater after 13 runs on 11 hits, no errors, and nine men stranded.

Despite an embarrassing WVU showing, the program remains only a game and a half back from first place in the Big 12. They’ll get a mid-week conference reprieve with Tuesday’s 6 p.m. start against Pitt at PNC Park before heading to Lubbock Apr. 22-24 to face the Texas Tech Red Raiders.