Cowboys conquer Big 12
Once-reeling Cowboys beat Texas for first Big 12 title since 2004
Winning streak powers OSU to NCAA Tournament.
Inside the makeshift room used for news conferences in the basement of Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, Josh Holliday leaned way back in his folding chair Sunday, tugged off his cap and rubbed his head.
Turning to freshman second baseman Ryan Cash, he chuckled.
“We just won the Big 12 Tournament,” Holliday said, almost disbelievingly. No joke, either. The Cowboys stormed to the championship playing a consistent brand of baseball they hadn’t displayed all season, seizing the trophy and something greater: the conference’s automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
That’s right, OSU, “kicked to the curb” as Holli day put it, sprung to life during an improbable
10-day stretch, capped Sunday with a 6-5 win over Texas in the tournament title game.
And now a Cowboys team that arrived in Bricktown one game over .500 and strapped with the No. 8 seed is heading to the postseason, destination to be revealed Monday when the NCAA reveals its 64-team bracket during the live selection show at 11 a.m. on ESPN2.
“That was pretty incredible,” said reliever Carson Teel, who closed out the win getting the final six outs. “I don’t know how it happened, but I’m glad it did.”
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
OSU, wracked by injuries, scuffled through most of the regular season, losing to the likes of Central Arkansas and St. Louis and Lamar. The Cowboys hadn’t won as many as three straight games since mid-March. And they needed a doubleheader sweep of Oklahoma last weekend just to gain entry into the Big 12 Tournament.
And in the history of the event, a No. 8 seed had never hoisted the trophy.
But there were the Cowboys Sunday, winners of six straight, tossing their gloves and hats and dog-piling on the mound at The Brick, where 8,923 mostly OSU fans provided a crowd reminiscent of the program’s old glory days at All-Sports Stadium.
“It was a great environment,” said Texas coach David Pierce, “like a Super Regional Game 3, on the road.”
It was a captivating game, too.
Texas took a quick 2-0 lead in the first and answered OSU’s first run in the third with one of its own to lead 3-1.
But the Cowboys broke through in the fourth, striking for three runs with Cash and Garrett McCain setting the tone as they did all day, going a combined 7-for-9 with three doubles and five runs batted in.
Bryce Fischer led off the fourth with a double to left. And after Jon Littell bunted Fischer to third, Dustin Williams and Cameron Dobbs walked to load the bases.
Cash, already with two singles, lashed another up the middle, scoring Fischer and Williams. McCain, named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, followed with an RBI single to left and the Cowboys had their first lead, 4-3.
Cash and McCain delivered back-to-back doubles for another run in the sixth, and Fischer ripped a solo home run out to right in the seventh, giving OSU a 6-3 lead.
From there, the Cowboys held on, halting a Texas rally at two runs in the seventh, leaving two Longhorns stranded in the eighth, then another in the ninth as the tying run stood at second base.
OSU needed eight pitchers to navigate the nine innings. For Teel, a Stillwater High product who attended Cowboys games growing up, being on the mound at the end as the program claimed just its second Big 12 Tournament title and first since 2004 was special.
“I went to games all the time,” Teel said. “I went in the rain, in the snow, the night before it snowed, when I wanted to go, when I didn’t want to go, but it was great. I went to all the games. I love the Cowboys.”
Holliday, choked up with emotion several times after the game, credited his players with answering a call to fight on after a May 16 loss at Oral Roberts left them with a record of 24-25.
“An unbelievable performance by these kids,” Holliday said. “I told the kids in the huddle, 12 or 13 days ago, after losing to Oral Roberts, we were in a tough spot. We talked about how fascinating it would be to get on the other side of that, and then look back and figure out how we did it.
“I can’t tell you how thankful I am that they did that. We learned a big lesson on how to turn something around that isn’t going your way. That was a big lesson learned. These kids took the initiative to continue to fight instead of rolling over and dying. These guys did OSU baseball a good service.”