Cowboys beat Baylor 7-1, win series

Caution: Cowboy Crossing.

Oklahoma State routed Baylor 7-1 Monday afternoon in the second game of the day after finishing a postponed game from the night before, walking nine times.

The Cowboys (26-13 overall, 10-5 Big 12) started off hot early after only scoring one run the game before with a home run catcher Gage Green knocked to right-center field.

"It gave us a lot of confidence," center fielder Corey Hassel said. "We're always confident in what we do but it was a good jump start to the game, something we definitely needed. You never turn your head when someone like that is at the plate, he's such a great competitor, and it was a huge swing of the bat."

Green has been playing left field since catcher Bryan Case returned from a broken wrist. Holliday said he wanted to give Case some much-needed rest and bring Green back behind the plate.

"It's awesome," Holliday said. "I wanted to catch him, he hadn't caught in a while. Bryan needed a break, he's caught a lot of innings and I knew one thing for sure, we needed to put Gage back in the infield to bring the energy that he brings. He brought it at home plate, he hit a home run, put you on the right side.

"I think our team gave Tyler a chance to go out, kind of get his feet underneath him, put ourselves in position to score nearly every single inning. Just lacked that one big blow, otherwise, instead of one here, one there, two here, one there, I think there's a chance for some bigger innings. But they pitched their way out of it, escaped it, but we were pretty good about getting on base."

The Cowboys didn't score again until the second inning but would score at least one run in the next four innings thanks to some big hits, or big walks, as the Bears (15-24, 5-10) were unable to stop any of the Cowboy bats.

The score could've been much bigger, but the Cowboys left 17 men on base throughout the game.

This would've been a problem had pitcher Tyler Nurdin not had his best stuff.

Nurdin pitched eight and one-third innings, his longest of the year, while taking a shutout into the ninth before being pulled for Trey Cobb

"Absolutely, he threw really well and that's what he's been working at man," Hassel said. "He's got it in him and when he bears down, he can pitch like that every single time. He works so hard and I think that he's such a good teammate, you're going to see a lot of stuff come back to him just in good karma and how hard he works.

"He's such a good competitor, it's going to happen for him."

My Notes:

• I was only supposed to recap yesterdays game. But with it being postponed, we were unable to really get any quotes on it. Here's what happened. The Cowboys couldn't score or really hit in the first six innings. In the last three, (played Monday) neither team could really do anything. Game ended 2-1.
• OSU is now tied at the top of the Big 12 with OU. Should make for an interesting series next week.
• DBU, Oklahoma states' next opponent, is the No. 1 team in RPI.
• Tyler Nurdin found his niche. He's been constantly taken out this year after three or four innings. A seven strike out, eight and a third inning game is exactly what he needed. This OSU pitching lineup is as dangerous as it'll ever be.
• Tim Arakawa had almost half of the OSU walks. He had three.
• Probably my favorite quote from the day: Corey Hassel on not being able to hit around the Baylor defense in the first game and getting the bats going the way the team did in the second

"If you hit it over the fence it's hard for them to make plays on it, I guess."