What Went Wrong for Oklahoma State in Loss Against USC Upstate in Baseball Regionals
The Oklahoma State Cowboys will have win the Tuscaloosa Regional the hard way after their 8-5 loss to USC Upstate on Friday.
The Cowboys (37-21) fell behind 4-0 early, tied the game in the second inning but immediately fell behind again. They squandered chances to rally past the Spartans (34-28), who advanced to the winner’s bracket game on Saturday with the win.
The Cowboys will play at 1 p.m. on Saturday to stay alive in the regional.
Cowboys left-hander Ethan Lund (5-3) took the loss for OSU while Upstate starter Brent Stukes (8-3) claimed the victory.
Here’s what went wrong for the Cowboys on Friday.
Walks and Errors
Cowboys starting pitcher Ethan Lund had a rough start. He walked the first three hitters he faced in the game and then gave up two runs on a wild pitch and a passed ball with the Spartans’ Johnny Sweeney at the plate. Then he walked Sweeney. He managed a ground ball double play to get out of the jam but allowed a run to score.
USC Upstate scored its first three runs without a hit.
Lund gave up another run on a wild pitch in the second inning. After OSU tied the game in the second, he gave up a single and hit a batter around two outs before Cowboys coach Josh Holliday finally pulled him for Stormy Rhodes, who went the rest of the game.
But it wasn’t just that. Two more errors in the fourth inning allowed the Spartans to score another run. An error by OSU’s Alex Conover in center field allowed Wylie Waters to advance to second after a single. Then, Rhodes’ throwing error to first on a sacrifice bunt allowed Waters to score to make it 6-4.
Upstate scored eight runs but only six were earned. Oklahoma State committed three errors. From the start it was not a clean game.
The Top of the Order Faltered
That's Amore@RemoIndomenico with the no-doubter#GoPokes pic.twitter.com/fBBFSgPKLK
— OSU Cowboy Baseball (@OSUBaseball) May 29, 2026
The Cowboys have one of the most powerful lineups in college baseball. But the Cowboys’ biggest hitters faltered on Friday.
Conover, Brock Thompson and Kollin Ritchie batted in the first three spots and went a combined 1-for-13. Avery Ortiz, Campbell Smithwick and Colin Brueggemann batted in the next three spots and did a bit better, going a combined 3-for-11.
But it was the bottom three hitters that did the most damage. Between Garrett Shull, Evan Saunders and Reno Indomenico they went a combined 5-for-12 and drove in all five of the Cowboys’ runs. That included Indomenico’s home run in the second inning.
But the bats the Cowboys expect to produce didn’t. And that didn’t help in another key area.
No Cashing in with Bases Loaded
Shull delivers
— OSU Cowboy Baseball (@OSUBaseball) May 29, 2026
RBI 2B for @gshull_8 pulls us to within 1 in the 5th#GoPokes pic.twitter.com/tRBVc9YrzL
The Cowboys stranded 13 baserunners. They let opportunity after opportunity slip away. They lost by three runs and had legitimate chances to win the game in the final two innings.
In the eighth inning the Cowboys loaded the bases after a Shull bunt single, a Conover walk and a Thompson walk. With two outs the Cowboys had the right guy up in Ritchie. But he grounded out to second base.
In the ninth inning the Cowboys got another crack at it. Smithwick singled, followed by a Brueggemann and a Shull walk. With one out, the Cowboys had their two best hitters of the day at the plate. But Saunders and Indomenico struck out looking.
Those final two innings will haunt Oklahoma State until Saturday’s elimination game.
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Matthew Postins is the publisher of Oklahoma State on SI. He is an award-winning sports journalist who was formerly the editor of the College Football America Yearbook and covers the Big 12 Conference for Heartland College Sports.
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