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OSU baseball secures series win as Oklahoma State clinched its fourth Big 12 Conference series of the season with a 9-2 win over TCU Saturday night at O’Brate Stadium.
Read more: OSU baseball secures series win over TCU
With the win, the Cowboys improved to 30-17 overall and 13-10 in Big 12 play, while TCU is now 29-17 and 13-10 in the league. First pitch for Sunday’s finale is set for 1 p.m.
Four Pokes had multi-hit games, and Aidan Meola, Avery Ortiz and Garrett Shull each collected two RBIs. Ortiz and Shull both homered.
Mario Pesca picked up the win in relief of starter Stormy Rhodes as he worked the final 3 1/3 innings and improved to 5-3. The senior righty did not allow a run while racking up six strikeouts and giving up only one hit.
Rhodes pitched 5 2/3 innings, the longest outing of his career, and tied a career best with six strikeotus while allowing just two runs on four hits.
The night was a pitchers’ duel through five innings, with Rhodes and TCU right-hander Lance Davis holding the game scoreless.
The Cowboys set up a two-out rally in the third, with Brock Thompson smoking a ball off the top of the wall for a double, followed by an intentional walk to Kollin Ritchie. However, Davis induced an inning-ending pop up from Aidan Meola.
TCU finally opened the scoring in the sixth, with Chase Brunson lining a two-out, two-run double to left field to knock Rhodes out of the game. Pesca entered the contest and got a strikeout to end the frame and keep the score at 2-0.
The Pokes responded in the bottom of the inning by putting runners on second and third with nobody out. Ritchie lead off the frame with a walk and was followed by a double from Meola. The next two hitters, Campbell Smithwick and Ortiz, each hit sacrifice flies to tie the game at two. The inning ended with Brunson making a leaping grab at the wall in left-center field, robbing Colin Brueggemann of extra bases.
Pesca struck out the side in the seventh before OSU took the lead in the bottom of the inning thanks to some aggressive base running by Danny Wallace. Wallace got on with a single and went first-to-third on an Alex Conover single to left field.
With runners at the corners and two outs, Conover took off on a wild pitch in the dirt, and Wallace raced home on the throw to second. After Ritchie walked to reach base for the fourth time, Meola roped a two-run double to left to extend the lead to 5-2.
Pesca allowed the first two runners in the eighth to reach base before striking out a pair. With two outs, he issued a walk to bring the go-ahead run to the plate, but he induced an inning-ending groundout to escape any damage.
The Cowboys broke the game open in the eighth, scoring four to push the lead to 9-2. Ortiz led off the inning with a towering shot into the left field bullpen, his first home run of the season. Two batters later, Shull smacked a two-run home run into the right field bullpen before Thompson capped of the scoring with an RBI double.
Pesca locked down the Frogs in the ninth to secure the series.
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