OSU baseball’s bats got hot at just the right time this week in the Big 12 Tournament and have gotten them within one game of advancing to the league’s title game in Arlington. The Cowboys on Saturday smoked Texas Tech 8-1 to force an afternoon rematch at 4:02, where the winner will advance into the title game to face TCU.
OSU with a win can clinch its third Big 12 championship game appearance in four seasons under Josh Holliday against a Texas Tech team that it made look lethargic and lifeless in the first meeting. Led by freshman pitcher Brennan Phillips, who went six innings and posted seven strikeouts while allowing just one run, the Cowboys struck early then struck often in a wire-to-wire win.
To open up the flood gates early, OSU got consecutive doubles from Colin Brueggeman and David Mendham to get things rolling. Mendham fired an opposite field heat-seeker to plate Brueggeman with two outs, and Mendham got around the bags moments later off an RBI from Marcus Brown to complete the big second inning, two-out rally.
Nolan Schubart doubled the run tally in the third inning with a two-RBI double and Tyler Wulfert plated him with an RBI off a double of his own later in the inning to give OSU the 5-0 lead. By the end of the third it was already a blowout, and with the Cowboys leading 6-0, they added two more runs in the fourth from Wulfert off a single before eventually giving one run up down the stretch.
Since OSU lost already earlier in the week at the Big 12 Championship, and since Texas Tech had not, the win for OSU forces a winner-take-all play-in game to the title game to face TCU this weekend.