West Virginia Falls Short to No. 3 Oklahoma State

Granville, WV - The third-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys (25-9, 8-2) escaped with a 2-1 decision in game one of a three game series over the West Virginia Mountaineers (20-11, 5-2) Friday night.

"If you’re a fan of college baseball, you just got treated to one of the best games you’ll ever see," said West Virginia head coach Randy Mazey. "That was well pitched, well defended."

Jacob Watters held Oklahoma State hitless through two innings before Marcus Brown's leadoff double in the third, and a sacrifice groundball advancing Brown to third base, set up an RBI single from Caeden Trinkle and gave the Cowboys the early 1-0 lead.

In the seventh, Nolan McLean drove the 3-1 pitch well over the left field wall for a solo home run, giving Oklahoma State the 2-0 advantage and ending the evening for Watters. The junior went six and a third, striking out eight, and allowed two earned runs on six hits.

"He actually didn’t have control of his breaking ball he normally has," said Mazey. "He really couldn’t keep them off the fastball. I think every hit he gave up was off of fastballs – they were sitting on fastballs, but he pitched great. He’s got a fastball that even if you’re sitting on it, it’s pretty hard to hit too."

In the sixth, Austin Davis singled but was caught stealing second, but in the eighth, again, Davis reached on a single and was determined to swipe second. Oklahoma State reliever Roman Phansalkar checked over on Davis several times, but to no avail, Davis took second, then stole third before Victor Scott hit a deep sacrifice fly ball to bring home Davis and the Mountaineers were back within a run.

"Most guys, who get thrown out stealing, they may get a little bit timid and a little bit scared, scared he is not. And stole second and stole third and put us in a position where he scored our only run and put us in a position to win the game."

Oklahoma Starting pitcher Justin Campbell came into a hostile atmosphere and tossed six scoreless innings with eight strikeouts and picked up the win while Nolan McLean came in the ninth and collected his second save of the season.

"Proud of the way the guys played, they just kept grinding, kept grinding and gave us a chance to win at the end," said Mazey.

West Virginia and Oklahoma State will meet for game two Saturday at 4:00 pm and the series finale and Sunday with the first pitch set for 1:00 pm.

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