Cowboys run-ruled by Missouri State — grand glams, Knight combine to hand OSU 16-2 loss

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Josh Holliday often tries to make the most of his postgame team huddles. 

Win or lose, the Oklahoma State coach utilizes such time to rehash the prior contest with his team. To skim over the ebbs and flows of the game, all while analyzing the good and bad and emphasizing what needs to be improved upon moving forward. 

On Tuesday afternoon, the team huddle was lengthy and drawn out following the Cowboys’ 16-2 run-rule loss in seven innings to Missouri State at Hammons Field. Yet, Holliday’s postgame sentiment to reporters was short, concise and to the point. And after a performance as subpar as Tuesday’s, not much is needed verbally to illustrate what went wrong. Conciseness will often suffice.  

“We just flat out got beat,” Holliday said. “We got beat in just about every phase of the game.”

Holliday said entering the game, he and pitching coach Blake Hawksworth outlined a pitching plan to utilize between six to seven arms in a bullpen game. Offensively, Holliday said, his game plan centered on recent production and favorable analytical matchups from freshmen Ezra Essex, Danny Wallace and Sebastian Norman against Missouri State two-way left-hander — and former Cowboy — Max Knight.

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Instead, the polar-opposite transpired, and Holliday’s blueprint was swiftly scratched. 

Two grand slams through the first two innings gave Missouri State an 8-0 lead it wouldn’t come close to surrendering. The Bears (16-7) made easy work of OSU’s starter, southpaw Brennan Phillips, chasing him after a first-inning grand slam from Carter Bergman.

But a pitching change wasn’t the remedy the Cowboys (16-9) needed. One inning later, freshman right-hander Drew Winslow endured Missouri State’s offensive wrath, surrendering a grand slam to Logan Fyffe. 

On the other end, Knight dazzled. He stifled OSU’s lineup with a fine mixture of four-seam fastball and slider, leading to seven strikeouts on just five hits through 4 1/3 innings of work. And as Knight’s outing progressed, Missouri State’s lead ballooned.

At the end of the fourth, the deficit reached a 9-0 mark, courtesy of Bergman’s second home run of the game — this time in solo fashion. By then, the game was already out of reach.

Three swings drastically altered the trajectory of the game in Missouri State's favor. Simultaneously, OSU had no answer for night for Knight.

“I think the reason why the home run is such a celebrated component of baseball is for a handful of reasons,” Holliday said. “One swing of the bat can create, two, three and in this case for today, four runs. But when you get on the right side of something like that, you've got to fight back. And we didn’t.”

The Cowboys had utilized seven arms over the course of the game, only two of which didn’t surrender an earned run. Some of that was predetermined, Holliday said. Most of it, however, was a product of Missouri State's hitting barrage. That forced Holliday and Hawksworth's hands, as they dug deeper into their bullpen, all while attempting to refrain from unveiling high-leverage arms in preparation for OSU's impending weekend series at BYU.

"It's a difficult element to navigate," Holliday said. "You're getting your teeth kicked in, but you want to win and you do want to come back. At the same time, you want to preserve most of your (high-end) arms for this weekend. (Missouri State) really had us in a bind only three or four innings into this thing."

Meanwhile, the Bears bullied their way to 14 hits, four home runs — the last of which came from a solo shot from Taeg Gollert in the bottom of the sixth — and ultimately, a season-high run total.

While game-changing opportunities came sparsely for the Cowboys, OSU got one in the top of the fifth.

Trailing 9-0, a leadoff walk and consecutive singles from catcher Brady Francisco and Essex loaded the bases with no outs. Kollin Ritchie followed suit with a two-RBI double off the center field wall to make it 9-2.

One clean swing of the bat could have clawed OSU back into the game. Instead, the latter happened.

Consecutive strikeouts squandered a prime opportunity to alter the game’s momentum, as OSU's struggles with runners in scoring worsened. 

Shortly after, Missouri State plated six runs in the bottom half of the inning, all but finalizing the end result.

“We left the strike zone and we gave it away there,” Holliday said. “We needed a big inning there. That needed to be a four- or five- or six-run inning if we were going to get back into this thing, and we didn’t. We gave it away there.” 

Now comes a pivotal two-week stretch for Holliday's team.

As Holliday has profusely stated throughout the season, midweek baseball is taxing. High-major programs often opt for bullpen games on the mound and prospect development within the lineup. Mid-majors throw the kitchen sink from the opening pitching, chasing an RBI-enhancing, resume-boosting win, all while coaches are factoring in load management with high-end arms.

Perhaps Tuesday — to an extent — was a product of precisely that. But holistically, the Cowboys were uncompetitive, and were run out of the ballpark against a lethal midweek opponent, suffering their third run-rule loss this season.

Now, Holliday said, the vitality behind a "short memory" becomes immense. As OSU embarks on a three-game road series at BYU (10-12, 2-4 Big 12), which begins Thursday at 7 p.m. central standard time at Miller Park in Provo, Utah, that will be tested.

What transpired is in the past. Awaiting the Cowboys is an opportunity to rebound and get back on track in the Big 12 standings. Maintaining a short memory, Holliday said, "will likely" result in a successful weekend. Otherwise, the dire effect a loss such as Tuesday can have will be on full display.

“What games like this are like as a competitor is they’re hard to swallow — they’re very difficult to handle in every way,” Holliday said. “Whether you get steadily beaten like we did today, or you lose by a run or two, the bottom line is that this game is over, and it goes in the record books as a loss. There are no such things as asterisks. We got beat, fair and square. And so, we have to very quickly recalibrate our mentality and get ready to play this weekend. But that’s what remains in front of us. How did this happen today? They kicked our butts. And I guess they kicked my butt because my team wasn’t ready to play like I thought they were.

“We got down early, couldn’t quite get back in it and they just kept scoring. At the end of the day, they were ready to play ball and we weren’t. You just have to tip your cap to them, give credit to their kids while making the necessary adjustments moving forward to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

No OSU players were made available to the media