Cowboys cruise past Sooners, sweep series
Oklahoma State completed a three-game sweep with a 9-2 win against Oklahoma on Sunday.
Oklahoma State baseball coach Josh Holliday leaned back in a chair underneath ONEOK Field, nodding along to the answers outfielders Trevor Boone and Jon Littell provided the media.
When it became his turn to speak about the Cowboys’ 9-2 victory against Oklahoma on Sunday, Holliday again glanced toward his players. In his six seasons as OSU’s coach, Holliday is 20-6 in Bedlam, but he deferred credit after the Cowboys completed the series and season sweeps against their rival. In this season’s four Bedlam games, OSU outscored OU, 34-4, continually adding on throughout the series.
“It’s a compliment to (the players), the leadership,” Holliday said. “You can talk all you want as a coach about that crap, but they’re the ones that do it, and they did it.”
OSU (27-14-1 overall, 15-3 Big 12) pushed its lead atop the conference standings to three games with six Big 12 contests remaining. The Cowboys extended their overall, Big 12 and Bedlam winning streaks to seven.
OSU right-hander Jonathan Heasley allowed a run in the second as OU (28-18, 10-8) went ahead, but the Cowboys answered with a pair. Boone pounded an RBI double off the left-field wall, coming home on a double play.
The Cowboys scored another two in the third, one of which came when Littell delivered a sacrifice fly.
“That’s the experience you dream of for Bedlam,” Littell said. “That’s why we come to Oklahoma State, to ball out like that and play at a high level and beat our in-state rival.”
A Brandon Zaragoza single drove in the Sooners’ second run in the fifth, but Heasley managed to dodge more trouble in his five frames, striking out six.
The Sooners, who have lost seven of their past nine conference games, hit .143 with runners in scoring position in the series, compared to the Cowboys’ .419 average in similar situations.
“There’s winners and there’s learners,” OU coach Skip Johnson said, “and they gave us a gift by showing us that we need to get better.”
While the Sooners’ offensive struggles continued, the Cowboys added on. Boone led off the sixth with an opposite-field home run, and Littell, who drove in six runs in the series, provided a two-run shot in the seventh. Michael Neustifter also had an RBI double in the frame; nine of the 10 Cowboys who batted had at least one RBI and run scored during the three-game series.
Colin Simpson added a solo shot in the eighth inning, his Big 12-best 14th. He stopped to watch as OSU’s 15th extra-base hit and seventh home run of the weekend series flew over the right-field fence.
“These kids are gonna enjoy the last three days forever,” Holliday said. “These are moments that they’re creating for themselves they’ll always have.”