Rosa's Walk-Off Lifts Cowboys Over Golden Eagles

<p>Andrew Rosa delivered the walk-off double that snapped OSU's losing streak against Oral Roberts.</p>

Wednesday, April 19th 2017, 12:20 pm

By: News 9


Oklahoma State defeated Oral Roberts for the first time in three years Tuesday night as Andrew Rosa's ground-run double in the 11th inning lifted the Cowboys to a 7-6 walk-off win at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.

With the win, OSU snapped a four-game losing streak against its in-state foe and improved to 21-15 on the season. The Golden Eagles fell to 26-10.

OSU smashed four home runs on the night — the Cowboys finished with seven hits — and C.J. Varela struck out the side in the top of the 11th to earn the win on the mound and improve to 2-0.

The win was OSU's first in extra innings this season and marks the Cowboys' fifth one-run victory and seventh come-from-behind triumph of the year.

Rosa entered the game in the top of the ninth as a defensive replacement at first base and became the hero at the plate with one out in the 11th.

Jon Littell led off the bottom half of the final inning with a walk, and following a sacrifice bunt by pinch hitter Ryan Sluder, the Golden Eagles intentionally walked Dustin Williams.

That brought Rosa to the plate, and on the first pitch he saw from ORU's Kyler Stout, the Cowboy junior ripped a ball into the left-center field gap that bounced over the wall for the game-winning double.

Stout entered the game having allowed only one earned run over 20 1/3 innings in 16 appearances but took the loss to fall to 2-1.

OSU's first six runs came via the long ball. Garrett McCain's two-run shot in the first inning gave OSU an early lead and in the third, a solo blast by Garrett Benge made it 3-0.

But the Golden Eagles overtook the home team with a pair of two-run homers, the first coming in the fourth and the second coming the following inning as a shot by Sam Greliner put ORU on top, 4-3.

ORU pushed its lead to 5-3 in the seventh, but the Cowboys answered when Williams led off the bottom of the frame as a pinch hitter and deposited a ball over the center field wall.

The Cowboys went back ahead in the eighth on a two-run bomb by Colin Simpson, his eighth of the season to tie Benge for the team lead.

Leading 6-5 going into the ninth, Trey Cobb couldn't seal the deal for the Pokes as Dylan Snypes lead off with a double before an RBI single by Michael Hungate tied the score.

Cobb would come up big, however, as he left the go-ahead runner stranded on second base in both the ninth and 10th innings; the senior right-hander finished with a game-high five strikeouts over 2 2/3 innings.

After OSU failed to score in the 10th, Varela came out of the bullpen and issued a single to Snypes to open the inning. But the freshman righty struck out the next three batters to end the threat.

OSU returns to Big 12 Conference action at No. 4 Texas Tech Friday at 6 p.m.

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