GRANVILLE — There were no ninth-inning heroics to be found inside Mon County Ballpark on Friday night.
No West Virginia player was hoisted on his teammates’ shoulders. There were no pats on the back for WVU head coach Randy Mazey.
That’s been the scene so many other times this season for the Mountaineers who seemingly have pulled off one late-inning rally after another.
Instead, it was No. 6 Oklahoma State flexing its pitching muscles, while the Mountaineers came up well short on what may have been the difference-maker in the seventh inning.
It all led to an extremely well-played 2-1 Cowboys’ victory in front of a season-high 3,291 fans.
“I just told the guys I hated being a coach tonight. I wish I was a fan,” Mazey said. “If you’re a fan of college baseball, you just got treated to one of the best games you’ll ever see.”
It was a game where Oklahoma State starter Justin Campbell and WVU starter Jacob Watters battled pitch-for-pitch in a seven-inning duel where one guy was great and then the next one went out and said, “Wait to you see what I do next.”
“That’s fun for me playing against a team like that,” Watters said after taking a tough loss after throwing 109 pitches that led to just six hits, one walk and eight strikeouts. “Knowing I was facing one of the top pitchers in the nation, it just adds a little more competitiveness in there and makes it more fun for me.”
The Cowboys (25-9, 8-2 Big 12) took a 1-0 lead in the third when Caeden Trenkle’s two-out RBI single scored Marcus Brown and then Nolan McLean hit a solo home run in the seventh to officially end Watters’ night.
West Virginia’s eye-raising moment also came in the seventh, one that may be second-guessed for quite a while.
McGwire Holbrook led off with a single and when Braden Barry rocketed a line drive down the left field line, Holbrook was waved in to try and score.
Just one problem, Jake Thompson’s relay to Brown at shortstop and Brown’s throw to the plate were perfect and Holbrook was out by a mile.
Rather than having two guys on with no outs, Barry was now at third with one out. Dayne Leonard walked before Campbell settled in by striking out both Grant Hussey and Mikey Kluska to officially end his night.
“It’s just baseball. We’re an aggressive team,” Mazey said of the play at the plate. “We’re going to make outs on the bases. When you make outs at home plate, it gets magnified. That’s the type of offense we have. We’re going to force people to play defense and they made a great defensive play.”
Campbell struck out eight over seven innings, allowing six hits and no runs with just one walk.
WVU (21-11, 5-2) saw its six-game winning streak come to an end, and the Cowboys vaulted past the Mountaineers to take over first place in the conference standings, although two games remain in this series, with the second game beginning at 4 p.m. Saturday.
WVU did make one final push in the eighth inning when Austin Davis singled with one out and then stole second and third base. He scored on Victor Scott’s sacrifice fly, but the inning ended when Holbrook struck out on a high fastball.
WVU managed one base runner in the ninth when Hussey walked with two outs, but Kluska struck out to end the game.
McLean, who hit the go-ahead home run also earned the save. Watters took the tough loss.
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