OSU baseball eliminated by Duke, 3-2

OSU baseball eliminates Georgia

OSU baseball‘s season came to an end in the NCAA Athens Regional finals Sunday night at Foley Field as third-seeded Oklahoma State dropped a 3-2 contest to No. 2 seed Duke.

With the loss, the Cowboys concluded their season with a 30-25 mark, while Duke improved to 40-19. OSU had advanced to the Regional finals for the eighth time in 12 tournament appearances under head coach Josh Holliday by beating No. 7 national seed and host Georgia earlier in the day.

Against Duke, OSU took the game’s first lead in the fourth. After Nolan Schubart drew a leadoff walk, Ritchie followed and smashed a pitch over the right field wall for his fifth home run of the Regional and 14^th of the season.

That lead held up as Noah Wech dominated the Blue Devils’ lineup. The freshman right-hander, making only his second start of the season, worked six shutout innings and allowed just five hits while striking out five and not issuing a walk.

The Cowboys maintained the two-run advantage until the eighth when Duke’s A.J. Gracia homered to left-centerfield; the solo blast came off Ryan Ure and cut the Cowboys’ advantage to one.

After Ure gave up a hit and a walk, Mario Pesca came out of the bullpen and struck out Tyler Albright for the second out of the inning. But up next, Sam Harris singled to right-center field and both Duke runners came home to put the Blue Devils up, 3-2.

In the ninth, Duke’s Reid Easterly retired the Cowboys in order to secure the win.

OSU had three players named to the NCAA Athens Regional All-Tournament Team, with Ritchie, Schubart and Brayden Smith making the list. Ritchie hit .538 with five homers and 10 RBIs in the Cowboys’ four games, while Schubart went 7-for-14 and homered twice.

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