STILLWATER — No matter how much Oklahoma State baseball coach Frank Anderson doesn’t want it to happen, the Cowboys are bound to have a bad game every now and then.

That game came on Wednesday in a 4-0 loss to Ohio State at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.

The Buckeyes (28-21) plated three runs in the top of the second — two before recording their first hit — and chased Oklahoma State starter Kyle Ottoson from the game after 1.1 innings to split the midweek series.

“That’s just baseball, sometimes,” Oklahoma State shortstop Hunter Bailey said. “Everything we hit was right at them, and we had a few mishaps early on that hurt us. That’s just how baseball is. It doesn’t always go your way.”

Ottoson (4-7) took the loss giving up three runs — two earned — on no hits and four walks as the Cowboys (29-19) lost for the fourth time at home this season.

Oklahoma State’s offense struggled as well, tallying just three hits against Ohio State starter Trace Dempsey (2-1), who made his first career start.

“Usually that’s what happens,” Anderson said. “We give them some stuff that they didn’t have to earn and we kind of scuffle. Then it’s like the baseball gods kind of take over and say ‘You haven’t played well enough to earn this stuff,’ so we start hitting line drives right at them.”

Ohio State got the scoring started when a botched fielder’s choice with the bases loaded scored two runs. One batter later, Greg Solomon’s RBI single off reliever Kenton Bevacqua plated David Corna.

“We give up a couple of unearned runs by walking three guys in the second inning, and we make an error that we normally don’t make,” Anderson said. “But like I told my assistant, coach (Greg) Evans, I said, ‘I’ll bet we shut them out the rest of the way,’ and our guys did a good job of that. Their guy just threw strikes and we couldn’t get them to fall.”

The Buckeyes added one more run in the seventh when Solomon doubled and later scored on Josh Dezse’s sacrifice fly.

Robbie Rea led the Cowboys going 2-for-4 from the plate, while Bailey had the only other hit for Oklahoma State.

“We’ve just got to put this one behind us,” Bailey said. “We’ve got a big series coming up this weekend and we play Dallas Baptist and Texas A&M next week, so we’re focused on those games now.”

Oklahoma State will continue its five-game home stand when it takes on Alcorn State starting Friday at 6:30 p.m.

— Nick Snow is a sports reporter for the Stillwater NewsPress.



Ohio State 4, Oklahoma State 0

Buckeyes 030 000 100 — 4 5 1

Cowboys 000 000 000 — 0 3 1

Dempsey, Armstrong (6), Fathalikhani (7), King (8) and Solomon; Ottoson, Bevacqua (2), Abbott (4), Wheeland (7), Barnes (9) and Womack. W — Dempsey, 2-1. L — Ottoson, 4-7. 2B — Ohio St., Solomon (7).