ARLINGTON, Texas — There is something about the Arkansas-Oklahoma State baseball series that brings the competitive side out of both teams.
It happened again Saturday night at Globe Life Field, where the Cowboys defeated the fourth-ranked Razorbacks 2-1 in 14 innings. It was the longest game played — college or professional — at Major League Baseball’s newest stadium that opened in 2020.
Oklahoma State nine-hole hitter Lane Forsythe laid down a suicide squeeze bunt on a 0-2 pitch from Arkansas left-hander Colin Fisher to score Donovan LaSalle from third base and set off a celebration from the much smaller section of fans in orange and black.
The announced attendance of 16,271 was overwhelmingly pro-Razorback and was the largest attendance for a college baseball game this season.
Oklahoma State coach Josh Holliday said he called the squeeze play because he felt Arkansas was not going to intentionally load the bases or pitch out.
“I said, ‘Well, let’s go for it. Let’s not sit here on our hands again. If we’re going to go [down] let’s go in a different fashion here,’” Holliday said.
“It looks like a good play because the kid did his job. If he doesn’t do his job, I look like an idiot.”
Oklahoma State and Arkansas played another thriller less than two years after their memorable NCAA regional at the Cowboys’ O’Brate Stadium. The Razorbacks won that series 2-1 during their run to the 2022 College World Series.
Arkansas defeated Oklahoma State 18-1 in a 7-inning rune rule at Globe Life Field last February.
“They have got a hell of a program,” Holliday said. “They are a great team and [Dave Van Horn] is one of the great coaches in college baseball. Look at the fans, look at the players — it’s the real deal. I like to think that we are not bad either.”
The Cowboys (4-2) won on a night when they struck out 25 times. That set a single-game record for the Razorbacks (4-2), who struck out 23 Oregon State batters Friday to eclipse the old record of 18.
Arkansas got strong pitching from freshmen in the late innings. After Oklahoma State tied the game 1-1 in the ninth inning, right-hander Gabe Gaeckle came out of the bullpen to strike out two Cowboys to strand the bases loaded.
Gaeckle and Fisher combined to allow 2 hits and 2 walks, and struck out 12 in 5 innings. The run against Fisher was unearned due to a one-out error by Arkansas third baseman Jared Sprague-Lott that allowed LaSalle to move from first to third.
“We put some freshmen out there in some really, really tough situations and they answered the bell,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “They were getting a lot of really good experience tonight.”
Arkansas took a 1-0 lead into the ninth inning and turned for the second consecutive night to right-handed reliever Jake Faherty. Faherty, who closed a 5-4 victory over Oregon State on Friday, struggled with command as he walked 2, hit 1 batter and allowed the game-tying 1-out RBI single by Aidan Meola. It was the Cowboys’ fourth hit of the game and first since the third inning.
“He didn’t command his fastball like he did last night,” Van Horn said of Faherty. “They didn't hit him really. He got himself in trouble.”
The Razorbacks took the lead in the fifth inning. Sprague-Lott gave Arkansas its first hit, a lead-off double. He moved to third base on Ty Wilmsmeyer’s sacrifice bunt and scored on an RBI single by Kendall Diggs.
Sprague-Lott went 3 for 5 and doubled twice. He also committed both of the Razorbacks’ errors.
Arkansas stranded 15 base runners, including Wilmsmeyer at third base in the ninth inning and Jayson Jones at third in the 13th. The Razorbacks were 2 for 24 with runners on base and 1 for 14 with runners in scoring position.
“Give their pitching staff credit,” Van Horn said. “They just kept getting us to roll over the ball and we hit a lot of ground balls to the pull side, which was really frustrating. We had a lot of shots for the hit to the grab the lead and we never got it.
“We’ve got to make some adjustments that we didn’t make tonight.”
Arkansas squandered a strong start from right-hander Brady Tygart, who lacked the flair but matched the results of classmate Hagen Smith the night before with six scoreless innings. Tygart allowed 3 hits and 2 walks and had 6 strikeouts. He threw 53 of 78 pitches for strikes.
Tygart worked around base runners in every inning but the fifth. Oklahoma State was 1 for 10 with base runners against Tygart and 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position.
Smith and Tygart combined for 12 scoreless innings in Arlington. Smith tied a program record with 17 strikeouts against Oregon State.
“He was a little shaky at first, then really good in the middle,” Van Horn said of Tygart. “We could have sent him back out for another inning, but we just felt like mid-70s was a good number for him [in his] second outing. We had some guys that needed to pitch and for the most part they all did a nice job.”
The Cowboys stranded another runner in the eighth when Carson Benge struck out in three pitches from Stone Hewlett. Hewlett was brought in for the left-on-left situation after Oklahoma State lead-off man Zach Ehrhard drew a four-pitch walk against Arkansas reliever Koty Frank with two outs.
Frank struck out the first five Oklahoma State hitters he faced prior to the walk.
In spite of the errors, the Razorbacks played well defensively behind their pitchers. Jones helped Tygart in the second inning when he threw out Ian Daugherty at second base from left field for the third out.
Daugherty was trying to stretch a single into a double and stranded LaSalle at third base.
That was the first of two outs on the bases for the Cowboys. Tygart picked off Ehrhard at first base after he singled with one out in the third inning.
The third inning ended with the game’s top defensive highlight, a barehanded snag by Sprague-Lott at third base on a high hopper by Benge. Sprague-Lott threw out Benge on a bang-bang play at first base that was reviewed and upheld.
Oklahoma State right-hander Brian Holiday, a junior-college transfer who pitched 6 scoreless innings at Sam Houston State in his Cowboys debut a week earlier, allowed 1 run on 2 hits and 2 walks and struck out 6 in his 6-inning start against Arkansas. He threw 58 of 83 pitches for strikes.
The Cowboys also got 5 2/3 scoreless from right-hander Gabe Davis in relief. Davis worked around 3 hits and 2 walks and struck out 5 during his 84-pitch outing.