Cowboys Drop Series-Opener To Longhorns

Oklahoma State suffered its third-straight loss Thursday night as Texas knocked off the 18th-ranked Cowboys, 8-5, at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.

With the loss, OSU fell to 19-6 overall and 1-2 in Big 12 Conference play. The current three-game skid marks just the fourth time in the 32-year history of Reynolds Stadium that the Cowboys have lost more than two consecutive games on their home field.

The Longhorns (16-9, 2-2) collected 13 hits on the night against OSU ace Jason Hursh to hand the sophomore his first loss of the season. UT tagged the right-hander for eight runs, six of them earned, as he fell to 3-1 on the season.

"(Texas) swung the bats aggressively and swung the bats well," said OSU head coach Josh Holliday. "We made a mistake or two, and they capitalized on it. That's a credit to their team."

UT jumped out to a quick two-run lead with four hits in the first inning. Weston Hall got things started with a one-out single, and Erich Weiss, who finished 3-for-4 in the contest, delivered an RBI double to plate the Longhorns' first run. Mark Payton followed with a single to make it 2-0.
 
The Cowboys trimmed their deficit in half in the bottom of the first on an RBI single by Tanner Krietemeier, a hit that extended the junior's hitting streak to 18 games, and they would take a 3-2 lead in the second inning on RBIs by Donnie Walton and Gage Green.
 
That advantage was short lived, however, as in the third, UT rallied for four runs to take a lead it never surrendered.  The big blow in the inning came on a three-run home run by Jeremy Montalbano that put the Horns up 6-3.

The two teams return to action Friday at 7 p.m.