No. 18 Baseball loses series finale at No. 11 Oklahoma State, 8-3

Sunday, April 5

Stillwater, Okla.

1 p.m.

University of Texas

17-15, 0

Oklahoma State

22-9, 0

Texas

Oklahoma State

No. 18 Baseball loses series finale at No. 11 Oklahoma State, 8-3

04.05.2015 | Baseball

Box Score

Longhorns return to action Tuesday vs. Wichita State

STILLWATER, Okla. -- The No. 18 Texas baseball team dropped its series finale at No. 11 Oklahoma State, 8-3, Sunday afternoon at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.

Facing OSU ace lefty Michael Freeman, who entered with a 5-0 record and a 1.32 ERA, the Longhorns scored two runs in the third but were unable to strike again until the ninth. Freeman (6-0), who had allowed just two earned runs in his previous five starts spanning 38 innings, went eight innings in the win.

Texas starter Kacy Clemens (2-2) took the loss after surrendering five runs on six hits while striking out four in 3 1/3. Jon Malmin was charged with two runs in 1/3 of an inning and Connor Mayes went 3 1/3, allowing a run on three hits.

Ben Johnson led the Texas offense with his 18th multiple-hit game of the season, while Oklahoma State's Dustin Williams was credited with a 2-for-4, five-RBI day.

The Longhorns (17-15, 5-4 Big 12) didn't catch any breaks. OSU(22-9, 7-2 Big 12) had the bases loaded in the third, trailing 2-1, when Cowboys Williams hit a ball down the line that was ruled to have landed in fair territory before striking the first base umpire in foul ground and ricocheting into right field, bringing in two runs.

In the top of the sixth, Johnson led off with a triple and Tres Barrera followed by ripping a liner that OSU second baseman Tim Arakawa dove for before hopping to his feet and firing to first for the out, with Johnson crossing home plate. It was ruled to be a lineout, however, and OSU threw to third to double off Johnson.

After Oklahoma State took a 1-0 lead in the first, Texas had bounced back with a pair of runs in the second to take the lead. With runners on second and third and two outs, Johnson blooped a clutch single to left field just out of the reach of a diving Gage Green to score both runs.

Following their three-run third inning, the Cowboys struck for four runs in the fourth with all of the runs coming with two outs. With a man on and one out, Malmin came into the game and got a flyout before allowing back-to-back singles that brought in a run. Mayes then came on and hit the first batter he faced before Williams doubled to left field, just out of the reach of Johnson, to clear the bases.

The Longhorns were unable to punch across a run from there until the ninth, when Barrera and C.J Hinojosa singled to setup a RBI fielder's choice by Collin Shaw.

Sunday's loss was the seventh straight for Texas which returns home to face Wichita State on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

AUGIE GARRIDO QUOTES

On his message to the team: The message is that we played a much better offensive game against one of the best pitchers in college baseball today than we have in the past. But when you're in these funks, what you can count on is for things to go wrong on the day you can't have it go wrong. But we actually took a lot better at-bats today, got really aggressive against good pitching and we need to build off that.

On not catching any breaks on Sunday: We're not making any excuses. We understand the responsibilities we have… Momentum is what gets it rolling. I'm very proud of our players – they did not give into that at all. Their body language was not feeling sorry for themselves, we went out and competed. We had a run taken away from us in the sixth inning and then we scored in the ninth. They got some runs that were gifts and that was the separation.