Cowboys Take Down DBU

The No. 1 RPI team in the country was not going to go down easily.

Oklahoma State beat DBU 10-7 in extra innings on Tuesday night at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.

The Cowboys started hot, jumping out to a 6-1 lead after three innings but soon became complacent, something the team has done multiple times this year.

"It's something we need to work on," short stop Donnie Walton said. "I know we've been starting off hot early. Josh always talks about in the middle innings it looks like we start to die down, something we need to work on."

After jumping out to the five-run lead, DBU (29-9 overall) struck back.

The first three Patriot batters reached base, all of whom wound up scoring thanks to a wild pitch and a mental misstep by Walton.

"I heard a call, go two," Walton said. "Switched my mind real quick, I knew there was a good runner at the plate, you know, it just happens."

Including the three in the fourth, the Patriots scored six unanswered runs, taking a 7-6 lead into the ninth.

"When we got that lead, they kind of came storming back," OSU coach Josh Holliday said. "We got a little bit caught on our heels, we didn't counter punch like we would like to in the middle innings."

Luckily for the Cowboys (27-13, 10-5 Big 12), they are one resilient team.

To start the bottom of the ninth off, the Cowboys received some extra help from the Patriots via two errors when the short stop bobbled an easy grounder and with a catcher interference.

Then after center fielder Ryan Sluder hit a sacrifice bunt to move the runners into scoring position, the Patriots intentionally walked right fielder Jon Littell to load the bases with one out.

The move looked smart for about five seconds after catcher Bryan Case hit a quick grounder to the third baseman, which ended up being another bobbled ball, allowing pinch runner Jacob Chappell to score the tying run.

"They got some help from us earlier," Holliday said of the three errors DBU committed. "It balances out. This is a game of back and forth and yeah, we might have benefited from that but like I said, in the end, they got a few too. It seems to even out in the end."

The Cowboys were unable to capitalize in the bottom of the ninth, so the game went to extras.

The top of inning No. 10 was quick, as OSU closer Koda Glover sent three of the four Patriot batters back to the dugout.

OSU second baseman Tim Arakawa led off the bottom half of the 10 as he hit a single right pass the DBU second baseman. After third baseman Jacob Chappell got on base and pinch hitter Mason O'Brien struck out, Sluder was up to bat.

On the first pitch of Sluders' at-bat, he hit a walk-off home run to left-center field.

"I'm just trying to get a good pitch to hit," Sluder said. "Stay short to it and put the barrel on it."

It's a walkoff! @OSUBaseball #okstate pic.twitter.com/KAgian8tjB

— Jordan Smith (@Doafhat) April 22, 2015

The Cowboys will head to Lubbock Friday for a weekend series with Texas Tech (9-6, 26-15), who currently sits 3rd in the Big 12 standings behind OSU and Oklahoma.