The Oklahoma State baseball team defeated the New Mexico Lobos behind a solid effort from Blake Battenfield to take game one of the series.
The Oklahoma State baseball team took the field for game one of their two game series with the New Mexico Lobos today. The Cowboys put their two game winning streak on the line with junior right-hander Blake Battenfield on the mound. It was the first start for Battenfield this season. He already notched three saves early in the 2017 campaign.
It was a slow game throughout the first 6 1/2 innings at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium today. Neither OK State nor UNM was able to manage a single run until the bottom of the seventh inning. However, a single from right fielder Jon Littell in the seventh inning scored two and finally gave the Pokes the lead. That lead would not be relinquished for the rest of the game.
Third baseman Garrett Benge continued his hot streak with the bat as he homered in the eighth inning, giving the Cowboys are 3-0 lead. And 3-0 is where the score would stay at for the rest of the game.
Battenfield notched his first win of the season, throwing seven shutout innings with six strikeouts. He only gave up one hit and three walks on the day as well.
Freshman right-hander Jonathan Heasley got his third save of the season, even though he only pitched 1/3 innings. Jake Cowan and Cole Hearran pitched a shutout in the other 1 2/3 innings on the day to round out the combined shutout for the Cowboy pitching staff.
Second baseman Ryan Cash and first baseman Andrew Rosa also got hits along with Benge and Littell to total four hits for the Cowboys. OK State got walked six total times on the day.
Some good news for the Cowboys is that they did not leave too many runners on base and did not commit a single error today. Those two problems have plagued OK State through their first 16 games.
Up next for the Cowboys is game two, the final game, in the series against the Lobos. OK State’s record moves to 10-6 overall and 6-3 at home.
First pitch for tomorrow’s game at Allie P. is 4 p.m. CT. With Battenfield getting the start today, expect either Tyler Buffett or Jensen Elliott to get the start tomorrow. Buffett would be more likely than Elliott to get the nod.
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You can view the entire box score for today’s 3-0 win over the New Mexico Lobos here. You can view the entire 2017 OK State baseball schedule here. You can watch tomorrow’s game live on the Oklahoma State Athletics YouTube channel here.