The Daily O’Collegian

For the first time in Allie P. Reynolds Stadium’s 26-year existence, the Cowboys lost three straight games on their home field.

No. 4 Texas became the first team to sweep the Cowboys this season, securing its spot as the top team in the Big 12.

After Sunday’s 7-0 loss, No. 12 OSU fell to third in the Big 12 standings behind Texas and Missouri.

Sunday’s game was also the first time the Cowboys had been shut out at home since 1998, when OSU lost 8-0 to Texas A&M.

Coach Frank Anderson said the biggest issue for the Cowboys (31-13, 10-8 Big 12) was keeping their composure, which was hard at times because of controversial calls at the plate.

On Sunday, junior third baseman Matt Mangini was thrown out of the game in the seventh inning for arguing a called third strike.

Anderson said he thought the Longhorns (37-12, 17-4) handled the series better than OSU.

“If you haven’t played at the highest level like some of these guys have, the University of Texas comes in here, which is a really nice club, but there’s not a huge separation between them and us,” Anderson said. “The team that competes and handles the game better is going to win easily. They handled the game better.”

The game began as a pitcher’s dual as neither team recorded a hit until the third. Texas struck first, scoring three runs in the third against sophomore Joe Kent, ending his day.

Junior Justin Friend came on in relief and allowed one run in 3 1/3 innings. Sophomore Jordy Mercer came in after Friend and gave up three runs in three innings. Five of Texas’ seven runs were unearned.

Although the Longhorns scored seven runs in Saturday’s and Sunday’s game, Anderson said he thought the pitching was good overall in the series. However, the Cowboys did not produce as many runs as they have in previous series, scoring only four runs in three games.

“I think [Texas] pitched OK, but sometimes you’re your own worst enemy,” Anderson said. “I think a lot of times, that was the case with ourselves. [Texas] is a good club. They did a pretty good job of just making the plays they needed to make.”

The Cowboys will look to bounce back in a big way this weekend when they play Oklahoma. Senior catcher Ryan Flavell said he thinks the team will be able to get back on track for Bedlam.

“It was a really tough series,” Flavell said. “We just need to come together as a team. Lately, we’ve been hitting the ball really good and the pitching’s been kind of down, and this weekend our pitching kind of stepped it up and the hitting was a little down, so we just need to pull it all together for this weekend.”

The Cowboys will get a break this week because of finals, which senior second baseman Tyler Mach said will help the team.

“We’re going to take Monday and Tuesday off and just kind of clear our minds and get ready for this weekend with Bedlam,” Mach said.

Mach also said he expected the offense to step up against OU.

“Our offense, we just never really got it going [against Texas],” Mach said. “We left too many runners on base this weekend, and just doing things that we normally don’t do.

“Basically, it’s three losses, and we just need to put it behind us and move on.”

Although the Cowboys struggled against Texas, Anderson said every team goes through hard times, even in the major leagues.

“You see the (New York) Yankees doing this right now,” Anderson said.

“You wonder how they can do it with the number of guys they’ve got and the ability they’ve got on the field, and you know what, that’s baseball.”

After Bedlam, the Cowboys will travel to Lubbock, Texas, to play Texas Tech; Wichita, Kan., for one game against Wichita State; and finish the regular season with a home series against Missouri.

Anderson said as long as the team can learn from the sweep, it will be successful in its remaining games.

“You don’t give up, you don’t give in, you just go back to work,” Anderson said. “If you go in there and just dwell on every negative thing, you’re never going to pull yourself out.”