Cowboy Baseball Evens Series With Baylor

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State picked up its first conference win of the season Saturday night with a 5-3 triumph over Baylor at O’Brate Stadium.

With the win, the Cowboys improved to 15-8 overall and 1-4 in the Big 12, while Baylor fell to 12-10 and 2-3 in league play. The two teams will square off in the series rubber game Sunday at 1 p.m.

Mario Pesca made his sixth start of the season and earned his second win to move to 2-2. The right-hander worked 5 2/3 innings, striking out eight and allowing two runs.

Stormy Rhodes earned his first career save, striking out two in the ninth inning, while Kai Fyke was also outstanding in relief with 2 1/3 shutout innings and a pair of strikeouts.

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Offensively, OSU got home runs from Aidan Meola, Brock Thompson and Garrett Shull, and eight of the nine Cowboys in the lineup collected hits in the contest.

After Pesca started his night with two scoreless innings, Meola opened the scoring with a solo home run to left-center field; the blast was Meola’s eighth of the season.

In the top of the third, TP Wentworth cut down Baylor’s Travis Sanders trying for a double with an outfield assist from right field. The play prevented Pesca from dealing with runners on second and third with one out, and he struck out the final batter of the inning to strand the runner at third.

In the bottom of the inning, Thompson lifted a two-run home run over the left-field wall to put the Pokes ahead, 3-0.

The Bears got to Pesca in the fifth inning, which was set up by a perfectly placed hit-and-run to place BU runners at first and third with nobody out. Ty Johnson then knocked in a run with a single, and a slow infield single scored a second to make it a 3-2 game. Pesca escaped the inning by stranding runners at the corners.

Shull immediately answered back in the bottom of the inning with a leadoff home run into the right field bullpen, extending the lead to 4-2.

Pesca returned for the sixth and recorded two outs before Fyke replaced him with runners on first and third. Fyke induced an inning-ending groundout to get the Cowboys out of trouble.

Fyke pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning, striking out one in between a pair of groundouts to Thompson at short.

Wentworth opened the bottom of the seventh with a triple to the left field warning track, and Alex Conover took advantage of the drawn-in infield with a line drive double past the shortstop to push the lead to three.

Fyke pitched another scoreless frame in the eighth, working around a walk and hit-by-pitch.

Rhodes entered for the save in the ninth nursing a 5-2 lead. The sophomore allowed an unearned run but shut the door on the Bears by striking out two, including the final out.