Costello, Hatch Power Cowboys To Opening Round Victory Against Nebraska

Conor Costello was dominant at the plate and Thomas Hatch turned in a masterful performance on the hill as the Cowboys smothered Nebraska 6-0 in the opening round of the NCAA’s Clemson regional on Friday afternoon.

The senior designated hitter Costello had RBI hits in each of his first three plate appearances including a two-run bomb into the leftfield stands in the third. He finished 3-for-4 with 4 RBI, a walk and a run scored.

Hatch earned the win by throwing 7.0 innings of shutout ball and striking out 10 bringing his season K total to 102. He became the 15th pitcher in Oklahoma State history to reach 100 strikeouts and the first since 2012.

"Great pitching, quality defense, offense throughout the ballgame that gave us a chance to build a lead. That's the way we would draw it up," said OSU coach Josh Holliday. "If we had a chance to draw it up this morning, I would have taken exactly what we got. We'll go back and rest, and turn our focus on our next opponent."

The Cowboys got on the board quickly with a two-run first inning. Leadoff hitter J.R. Davis grounded a single, Corey Hassel took a pitch to the shoulder and a Donnie Walton single loaded the bases for cleanup hitter Garrett Benge. The sophomore third-baseman singled to right scoring Davis and then Costello lined a single to left to bring home Hassel.

Costello’s homer in the third doubled the Pokes’ lead and his RBI single in the fourth made it 5-0. Davis batted in pinch runner Garrett McCain in the seventh inning to make it 6-0.

Trey Cobb finished off the Huskers with a pair of scoreless innings.

Nebraska starter Matt Waldron took the loss.

The Cowboys will face the winner of top-seed Clemson and fourth-seed Western Carolina on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. CT.