Cowboys Sweep Baylor In Waco

Oklahoma State won both games of a doubleheader Saturday at Baylor Ballpark, claiming a 10-7 victory in the opener and a 3-1 triumph in the nightcap, to complete a series sweep of Baylor.
 
With the wins, the 27th-ranked Cowboys improved to 22-13 overall and 7-5 in Big 12 Conference play. OSU previously had not won a three-game, regular season series in Waco since 1998.
 
"Series sweeps on the road are hard to come by so I feel really fortunate that our kids have shown this type of toughness to bounce back after a tough patch, play good baseball and hold their heads high and get out there and compete," said OSU head coach Josh Holliday.
 
A pair of standout starting pitching performances highlighted Saturday's twin bill as Trey Cobb andJensen Elliott dominated the Baylor lineups.
 
In the opener, Cobb worked a career-high eight innings and struck out 12 to improve to 4-5 on the season. The right-hander allowed three runs, just two of them earned, on seven hits and issued only one walk.
 
The Cowboys gave Cobb some early run support in their first at bat, taking a 2-0 lead on a two-RBI single by Garrett Benge.
 
Baylor (17-19, 4-8) would plate the game's next three runs, scoring in the second and fourth innings and then taking a 3-2 lead in the fifth on an unearned run the result of an error by Benge at third base.
 
But in the sixth, the Cowboys would take control of the contest with a six-run rally in which they batted around and recorded five hits.
 
Benge atoned for his error by driving in the tying run with an RBI single, and Ryan Sluder put OSU up 4-3 with an RBI single of his own. Jon Littell followed Sluder with another run-scoring single, and two batters later, with OSU up 6-3 after Sluder scored on a wild pitch, J.R. Davis brought home a pair of runs with a single to push the lead to five.
 
OSU extended its lead to 10-3 in the seventh when Colin Simpson smashed his second home run of the season, a two-run shot to right field.
 
The Bears made things interesting in the ninth with four unearned runs, but OSU was able to clinch the series.
 
Benge finished the opener 2-for-4 and tied a career high with three RBIs, while Davis was 2-for-4 and drove in two runs.
 
Davis would also spark the Cowboys in the nightcap, both at the plate and in the field at second base, where he made a number of diving stops to rob BU of base hits.
 
In the second inning of game two, Davis gave OSU a lead it would never surrender with a two-out, two-RBI single off BU starter Kyle Hill.
 
The Bears managed their lone run off Elliott in the third, getting an RBI single by Kameron Esthay to cut their deficit in half.
 
But Elliott would settle in and dominate after Esthay's hit, retiring 13-straight BU hitters over the next four innings before issuing a two-out walk in the seventh.
 
A freshman right-hander, Elliott worked seven innings to improve to 4-2 on the season, with Remey Reed and Tyler Buffett coming out of the OSU bullpen to help seal the win.
 
With OSU leading 3-1, Reed opened on the mound in the eighth, recording a pair of outs before yielding to Buffett.
 
Buffett hit the first batter he faced to bring the go-ahead run to the plate, but he induced a groundout to end the inning.
 
In the ninth, a one-out single by T.J. Raguse brought the tying run to the plate, but Buffett got pinch-hitter Cameron Miller to ground into a game-ending double play as he recorded his fifth save.
 
Davis and Donnie Walton each had two hits to combine for four of OSU's five hits in the nightcap. Along with Davis' two-RBI single, Walton collected the Cowboys' other RBI with a fifth-inning single.
 
OSU returns to action Tuesday when they travel to Norman to take on Bedlam-rival Oklahoma in a non-conference midweek showdown at 6 p.m.