Cowboys Get Back To Winning Ways Against Baylor

About 3,923 fans took a chance on Saturday afternoon despite the weather forecast to see Oklahoma State get back on track at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.

The Cowboys beat the Baylor Bears 10-4 after losing three of their last four games and being knocked out of first place in the Big 12.

OSU (25-12 overall, 9-4 Big 12) started slow, being blanked in the first three innings and getting in an early 2-0 hole going into its half of the fourth.

"I struggled through the first few innings, and Coach [Rob] Walton kind of got into me a little bit and told me I wasn't really driving the ball the way I needed to," OSU pitcher Jon Perrin said. "He said if you're gonna get beat, get beat throwing hard. Once I started doing that, the ball kind of got down in the zone, and I started making a little bit better pitches."

The Bears (14-23, 4-9) wouldn't be able to keep up with Perrin once he got on track and then poor play became contagious it seemed.

In the fourth inning the Bears committed two errors, allowing the Cowboys to tie the game while igniting a fire in the bats.

"When opportunities are presented, you've got to take advantage of them," OSU coach Josh Holliday said. "We got a couple of opportunities there, and our kids did a great job of cashing in on them. Once we did that, we picked up a little momentum and then were able to create some of our own breaks from that point forward."

After the fourth, the Cowboys scored at least two runs in each of the next four innings, something the team has missed out on the past few weeks.

Cowboy Second baseman Tim Arakawa reached base each of the three times he batted and was a part of three of the 10 Cowboy runs. Something he, or the team, hadn't seemed capable of since beating the University of Oklahoma 24-2.

"It was awesome," Arakawa said. "You know we played a great game, everybody came out with good energy. We pitched it well, we hit it well, played good defense and came up on the right side of the scoreboard."

The Cowboy win paired with the Sooners losing to West Virginia means the Cowboys are back in first place in the Big 12.

It also gave the program win No. 2,500, making the Cowboys one of only 18 programs to reach the mark.

"It tells you the program has been strong for a number of years," Holliday said. "All the people that have come here before that put their blood, sweat and tears in it and all of us now, we all care and want to continue to make this program stand strong, not only in history, but in the future.

"It's a great accomplishment for anyone that's ever been a part of it."