Oklahoma State Eliminates Baylor to Advance in Big 12 Baseball Tournament

Oklahoma State has managed to replicate its entire regular season over the course of two games in the Big 12 Tournament. The Cowboys offense struggled to get anything going against Texas pitcher Pete Hansen in the first game of the tournament, being shutout on just three hits. The exact opposite was true in an elimination game against the Baylor Bears on Thursday morning.

The Cowboys beat the Bears 11-1 in seven innings, invoking the run rule after Jake Thompson knocked in two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to give OSU a 10 run lead.

Justin Campbell did to Baylor what Hansen did to OSU in the Cowboys’ first round matchup with the Longhorns on Wednesday. Baylor scored just one run on three hits and Campbell struck out 10 batters in seven innings. The Golden Spikes finalist didn’t allow the one run Baylor scored and didn’t allow a walk or an extra-base-hit.

Marcus Brown knocked in David Mendham in the bottom of the second inning to give OSU a 1-0 lead. Baylor scored its lone run of the morning in the following frame before Griffin Doersching blasted a 447 foot home run to left field to score Roc Riggio and Zach Ehrhard and give OSU a 4-1 lead. The Cowboys scored two runs in the fourth and sixth innings before scoring three runs in the seventh inning and using only one out to do so before the game ended due to the run rule.

Riggio finished 4-5 at the plate with a home run and an RBI. Ehrhard was 3-5 with an RBI to give the top of the lineup a .700 batting average on the afternoon. Jake Thompson, Mendham and Chase Adkison all finished with two hits on the afternoon. Most importantly, Oklahoma State didn’t have to use the bullpen at all, but Campbell’s Big 12 Tournament is likely finished after throwing 94 pitches.

Oklahoma State will face the loser of Thursday afternoon’s matchup between No. 1 TCU and No. 5 Texas in an elimination game on Friday afternoon at 3:15. OSU has already used Campbell and Mederos in Arlington this week. Bryce Osmond and Trevor Martin have both recently started games and are options to start on Friday.