Cowboys take series with Baylor

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State claimed its first conference series win of the season by defeating Baylor, 13-6, in Sunday’s rubber game at O’Brate Stadium.

With the win, the Cowboys improved to 16-8 overall and 2-4 in the Big 12, while Baylor fell to 12-11 and 2-4 in conference play.

Campbell Smithwick homered in the contest and was one of three Pokes to collect multiple RBIs, along with Brock Thompson and Sebastian Norman. 

After not pitching since leaving in the second inning of the game against Gardner-Webb on March 6, Hudson Barrett returned to the mound for his fifth start of the season. The southpaw pitched three innings, allowing two runs while striking out four.

Zane Burns earned his first career win, pitching three innings in relief and allowing two runs while picking up a pair of strikeouts.

Barrett struck out two in a scoreless top of the first, and the OSU offense opened up a hit parade in the bottom of the inning to jump ahead, 4-0. Thompson reached on a walk and moved to third on a Kollin Ritchie single. From there, three-straight Cowboys collected RBI hits; Aidan Meola scored Thompson on an RBI single, Norman plated two with a double and Smithwick brought Norman home with a single.

Baylor cut the lead in half in the top of the third on a two-run homer run by Travis Sanders to make the score 4-2.

Drew Blake replaced Barrett in the fourth and recorded two outs before Burns entered with inherited runners at second and third. Burns allowed a game-tying single to the first batter he saw before getting out of the inning.

The Pokes responded with five runs in the bottom of the inning, aided by four walks and three hits. Ezra Essex knocked in the go-ahead run with an RBI single and the next batter, Thompson, hit a two-run double. Ritchie then delivered his second single of the game, and Norman walked to load the bases. With nowhere to put them, Smithwick and pinch-hitter Alex Conover worked back-to-back RBI walks to make it a 9-4 game.

After Burns pitched two shutout innings in the fifth and sixth, the Cowboys had their third inning of the game in which they scored four or more runs. The rally started with Ritchie racing home on a dropped third strike. Smithwick then hit his third home run of the season, with the ball clearing the right-field wall. After Conover poked a single to left field, Colin Brueggemann brought him home with an RBI double, and Garrett Shull then plated Brueggemann with a single to make it a 13-4 game.

The Bears pushed across two runs in the seventh, cutting their deficit to seven. Bryce LeBlanc entered to get the final out of the seventh and stayed in for a scoreless eighth. 

Noah Wech had the ninth inning duties and worked a scoreless inning to clinch the series.

The Cowboys return to action Tuesday at Missouri State with first pitch scheduled for 3 p.m.