In the nightcap of Underdog Wednesday at the Big 12 baseball tournament, West Virginia couldn’t complete the upset parade.
The Mountaineers were hoping to give lower-seeded teams a four-game sweep on opening day, but couldn’t profit from a bushel of early chances or Chad Donato’s strong pitching. The result was a 3-0 loss to No. 11-ranked Oklahoma State, which played before a partisan crowd of 5,186 in Tulsa, Okla.
Kyle Davis went 2-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to 11 games but also committed a baserunning mishap that cost seventh-seeded West Virginia (27-26) an opportunity for a first-inning lead. Though more opportunities ensued, none were seized, because WVU struggled to 0-of-8 with runners in scoring position over the first four innings.
“We obviously lost the game in the first four innings with missed opportunities,” said Mountaineers coach Randy Mazey. His team’s only hope of reaching an NCAA regional now rests with winning five games over the next four days at ONEOK Field. That begins with an elimination matchup against Oklahoma on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. Eastern.
Oklahoma State (35-17), which likely will host a regional next week, rested ace Michael Freeman and No. 2 starter Jon Perrin yet still dealt WVU its third shutout of the season. After Conor Costello kept the Mountaineers scoreless despite allowing six hits through four innings, Trey Cobb was untouchable the rest of the way, setting down 15 straight.
In a performance that might have been good enough most nights, Donato (7-6) struck out 10 batters over seven-plus innings and curbed the damage from three errors. But he allowed two solo homers—one to Donnie Walton leading off the eighth on what became the right-hander’s 124th and final pitch.
“Chad Donato pitched as well as he has since he’s been a Mountaineer,” Mazey said. “That’s really exciting for his future and ours.”
Walton’s two-out RBI single in the third inning scored the Cowboys’ first run after Corey Hassel stole second base when WVU middle infielders were late covering.
Dustin Williams put the Cowboys up 2-0 with a fourth-inning solo home run.
That’s when OSU coach Josh Holliday turned to Cobb (4-1), who fanned five over the final five innings and did not yield a ball out of the infield.
“He executed almost every pitch he threw,” Mazey said.
West Virginia, after a single by Davis and Justin Fox’s double to the wall in left-center, had second-and-third with none out in the first inning. Taylor Munden’s one-out liner to deep right field should have scored a run, but Davis stumbled while tagging from third base and retreated. Brad Johnson ended the threat with an infield pop-up.
“I just lost my footing and slipped,” Davis said. “We score one there and maybe the momentum changes.”
Errors by first baseman Jackson Cramer and third baseman Fox handed Oklahoma State an opportunity in the bottom of the first before Donato ended the jam by striking out Williams.
Shaun Corso, after narrowly hooking a homer outside the left-field foul pole in the second inning, settled for a leadoff single and eventually was stranded at third base.
West Virginia stranded two more runners in scoring position when Costello struck out Johnson in third inning.
“The story of the game for us was two guys (Costello and Cobb) who pitched extremely well,” Holliday said. ”In order to win a tournament like this, and to win on down the road, you need to develop more than two or three starters that you’ve ridden to this point.”
In Wednesday’s early shocker, eighth-seeded Baylor rallied to beat regular-season champ TCU 6-5. Fifth-seeded Texas was a 2-1 winner over fourth-seeded Texas Tech, and third-seeded Oklahoma saw its fleeting NCAA hopes pushed to the brink by a 7-3 loss against sixth-seeded Kansas State.