Cowboys’ rally falls short against West Virginia
As quickly as Garrett Benge gave Oklahoma State life, West Virginia squashed it.
With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Benge sent a home run over the rightfield fence, driving in two runs and bringing the Cowboys within one. The next play, Colin Simpson popped out to third base.
It was the culmination of a desperate rally, OSU just shy of a complete comeback, falling 9-8 to West Virginia on Sunday at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium to drop the Big 12 series 2-1.
The Mountaineers went up big after Chase Ilig hit a grand slam in the third to turn a tie game into a four-run lead. Things seemed bleak for the Cowboys. Coaches convened on the pitcher’s mound and decided to send in Joe Lienhard to relieve starter Blake Battenfield.
The No. 23-ranked Cowboys (16-11, 1-5 Big 12) didn’t go down without a fight, however. Down 9-3, OSU strung together five runs over the final two innings. Colin Simpson sent his second home run of the day to right field in the eighth, driving in two scores.
With Dustin Williams hitting his first of the season in the second inning, the Cowboys finished with four home runs, a trend Simpson said the team is aware of.
“We tend to live and die by the long ball around here,” Simpson said.
“It’s just a bunch of good swings. We’re hitting the pitches they miss, and it’s all around good offense.”
Kade Strowd was the starting pitcher for the Mountaineers (15-10, 4-2) after Conner Dotson suffered a right arm injury during warm ups. Strowd allowed only two hits in 4 ⅓ innings to earn the win. His composure and the Cowboys’ own mistakes — they committed two costly errors — put OSU in too big of a hole to escape.
The Cowboys have lost of their past six games and could be in danger of dropping out of the polls for the first time in 77 weeks. Despite that, OSU coach Josh Holliday isn’t worried. He said he was proud of the last two innings and feels his team is getting close to where it needs to be.
“We turned the tide for ourselves,” Holliday said. “Sometimes that’s the most important win. Even though the scoreboard didn’t get us where we needed to be, we got ourselves moving in the right direction.”