Eight-run OSU fifth sends Baseball to 10-4 opening round loss in Big 12 Championship

Wednesday, May 25

Oklahoma City, Okla.

7:30 p.m.

University of Texas

22-31

Oklahoma State

36-18

Texas

Oklahoma State

Eight-run OSU fifth sends Baseball to 10-4 opening round loss in Big 12 Championship

05.26.2016 | Baseball

Box Score

Texas will face Baylor on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. CT in an elimination contest.

Box Score | Postgame Quotes | Championship Central

OKLAHOMA CITY—An eight-run fifth inning sent Texas Baseball to a 10-4 loss at the hands of Oklahoma State on Wednesday night in each team's first game of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship. The Longhorns will face off against Baylor in an elimination contest on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. CT.

The Longhorns wasted no time getting on the board against the Cowboys. Freshman Tyler Rand opened the ballgame with a single through the left side before swiping his 14th bag of the season. After a fielder's choice left Zane Gurwitz as the only baserunner, designated hitter Travis Jones drove a 1-2 pitch over the center fielder's head to score Gurwitz and give Texas an early 1-0 lead.

Tres Barrera followed Jones' effort with an RBI single and the Longhorns were out ahead 2-0 after the first half inning.

The two sides exchanged zeroes through the next three frames, but the Longhorns doubled their lead in the fifth. Sophomore Jake McKenzie led off the inning with a single through the left side. After a pitching change, a Rand sacrifice moved the Texas second baseman into scoring position before Gurwitz delivered with a big RBI single to make it 3-0.

Barrera came through once again for the Longhorns, driving a 2-0 pitch to left to score Gurwitz from second and to give the Longhorns a 4-0 advantage.

Senior lefthander and All-Big 12 second team selection Ty Culbreth was stellar through four innings of work, but the Cowboys offense came alive in the home half of the fifth.

Oklahoma State strung together a double, a single and walk to load up the bases with no outs. After a fielding error at short allowed the first run to score, a pair of singles make it 4-3. Culbreth got the first out of the frame with a popup before freshman Beau Ridgeway entered in relief.

OSU designated Conor Costello then took the second pitch he saw from Costello over the wall in left-center to put the Longhorns behind 7-4. A pair of errors, coupled with a wild pitch, gave the Cowboys their eighth run of the game and Texas trailed 8-4 after five full.

The Cowboys tacked another run on in the sixth off Eric Dunbar and their 10th run of the ballgame in the eighth. The Longhorns could not mount a comeback in the ballgame, falling by a 10-4 final.

The Longhorns will face off against Baylor tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. CT in an elimination contest.

Postgame Notes

•   Texas is now 35-26 all-time in Big 12 Championship games.
•   Despite the loss, the Longhorns still hold a 15-12 advantage over Oklahoma State in postseason play but Texas is 0-4 against the Cowboys this season.
•   Texas drops to 14-5 when collecting 10 or more hits in the ballgame and 3-14 when its opponents register at least 10 hits…the Longhorns are now 2-23 when outhit by their opponent.
•   Gurwitz finished the ballgame 1-for-3 with two runs and an RBI…in nine career Big 12 Championship games, Gurwitz is batting .500 (15-for-30) with eight runs and five RBI overall.
•   This was Tres Barrera's 10th multi-hit game of the season and his team-leading eighth multi-RBI effort.
•   Lefthander Travis Duke made his 113th career pitching appearance for Texas, the second-most all-time in Longhorns history and just five appearances behind former UT pitcher Austin Wood.
•   The Longhorns allowed double-digit runs for the seventh time this season.
•   The eight runs allowed in the fifth are the most allowed by the Longhorns in any innings this season…the previous high was seven runs on April 22 at Texas Tech…Texas had allowed just 15 runs in the fifth inning all season prior to tonight.
•   Ridgeway had gone eight straight appearances without allowing an earned run before giving up the grand slam to Costello…only one run was charged to Ridgeway, who hadn't allowed an earned run since April 15 vs. Kansas…the homer was the only hit he allowed in his two-thirds of an inning and he's allowed just seven hits and one walk over his last 18.1 innings of work.
•   Culbreth did not make it out of the fifth inning for the third consecutive outing, though one of those outings was a "designated start"…he had pitched at least five innings in each of his previous 11 starts prior.
•   The Longhorns committed three errors in the game, the 10th time they've done that this season…overall, it was the Longhorns' 24th multi-error game.