Cody Thomas Leads Oklahoma Charge In 9-1 Bedlam Baseball Upset

Oklahoma State's Thomas Hatch entered Friday night's Bedlam contest with a 5-1 record and 1.36 ERA and through the first two plus innings he lived up to the billing by keeping the Sooners hitless. Meanwhile the Cowboys J.R. Davis got off two a hot start, delivering singles on his first two at bats, with the second one scoring Ryan Sluder to give OSU a 1-0 lead and putting Hatch on track for his sixth win.

However, Cody Thomas had a different plan in mind. Sheldon Neuse drove a one-out single into left field for Oklahoma's first base hit in the top of the third and was followed up with a walk drawn by Austin O'Brien. That's when Oklahoma's former quarterback took to the plate and drilled the ball 386 feet over the left-center field wall to put the Sooners up 3-1.

The junior wasn't done either. In his next at bat he knocked a double into center field to score Steele Walker and Sheldon Neuse. Walker had led off the sixth inning with a double of his own and then slid under a tag at third off a fielder's choice hit by Neuse. O'Brien was the third batter of the inning and drew his second consecutive walk to bring Thomas up with the bases loaded. A pair of wild pitches allowed both O'Brien and Thomas to score and sent the Sooners into a two-hour rain delay with a 7-1 lead.

Oklahoma State came out of the delay fired up. A one-out double off the left field wall by Conor Costello put runners on second and third but a pitching change to JB Olson worked the Sooners out of the jam.

A hit by pitch and a two-out walk put the Cowboys in business in the bottom of the seventh but Olson was able to knuckle down and work his way out of danger once again thanks to a ground out to second by Donnie Walton.

The Cowboys threatened again in the bottom of the eighth after Garrett Benge drew a leadoff walk and Ryan Sluder knocked a one-out single to right field. Another couple of pitching changes paid off for Pete Hughes again. Austin Kerns and Keaton Hernandez each worked an out to retire Oklahoma State and send the game into the final frame.

A 2-RBI single to right field by Sheldon Neuse increased Oklahoma's lead to 9-1 in the top of the ninth. The win kept Oklahoma alive for the fourth seed in this month's Big 12 Baseball Tournament.