Cowboys Take Game and Series Win Against Longhorns

After playing for almost seven hours the night before the Oklahoma State pitching staff was able to get right back on the field without missing a beat.

The Cowboys pitching staff kept the team in the game and allowed no runs after the third inning in a 3-1 win over the Longhorns.

Catcher Bryan Case, who missed 13 games to a broken thumb after diving into second base headfirst against Alcorn State, returned to play Friday night but was only able to get one hit, in the 16 inning, ultimately amounting to nothing.

Saturday seemed it would go the same way for Case after his first at-bat ended in a strike out.

This thought ended immediately on his next at-bat in the fourth inning when Case destroyed a pitch for a two-run home run, breaking a 1-1 tie.

"My first at-bat I was late on getting my timing down on his (Texas pitcher Chad Hollingsworth's) fastball," Case said. "So midway through that at-bat I realized I was too far spread out so I was able to make an adjustment and time the fastball."

Although pitcher Remey Reed started the game, he only lasted three innings and gave up the lone Longhorn (17-14 overall, 5-3 Big 12) run.

The guys who relieved Reed, Tyler Buffett and Tyler Nurdin were the ones who stole the show even though both pitched Friday night.

Buffett and Nurdin were able to throw a combined 4 1/3 innings, making sure the home run Case hit wasn't going to be put to waste.

"Last night I came in and wasn't nearly as aggressive as I should've been," Buffett said. "So today coming out of the ‘pen I was telling myself to just trust yourself, go in, pound the zone and trust yourself you're going to get outs."

Buffett got those outs, retiring 11 of the 13 batters he faced and picking up five strike outs on the way.

"I knew I was going to be in at some point, and I just had to go out and attack the zone and be aggressive against these guys," Buffett said. "I knew they were pretty good early in the count and were going to be aggressive so if I made some good pitches early and got the ball down, I'd have some success."

The Cowboys (21-9, 6-2) were able to secure not only a program record 10-straight conference series win but also the No. 1 spot in the conference standings.

Even with Buffett making it look easy, OSU coach Josh Holliday acknowledged the tough opponent and how tough the game was for the Cowboys but still isn't pleased with just winning series.

"Just trying to talk about that consistent mentality that every game if you play it the same, you start to get on a roll because you just focus on, kind of just preparation of the process," Holliday said. "And next thing you know the externals don't get in the way of just playing it right. So we want to keep playing it right and getting better, we need to keep getting better.

"Winning is great. Getting better and winning is even better."

The Cowboys will try to take their first Big 12 series sweep Sunday at 1 p.m.