Cowboys take Bedlam rubber game to seal share of Big 12 regular season title in 11

Oklahoma State's Chase Adkison homered in an 11-1 win over Oklahoma on Saturday at L Dale Mitchell Park in Norman.

LATEST: Saturday's Bedlam baseball matchup ended after print deadline. For our coverage of the game, point your smartphone camera at the QR code, then tap the link.

NORMAN — A day after suffering only its second shutout of 2023, Oklahoma State rekindled its offensive firepower Saturday afternoon at L. Dale Mitchell Park, fueling an 11-1 win over Oklahoma in Saturday's series finale on the final day of the regular season.

Eleven runs on 14 hits — including home runs courtesy of Chase Adkison and Nolan Schubart — handed the 25th-ranked Cowboys (37-16) a series victory and sealed OSU's share of the Big 12 regular season championship.

The Cowboys' claim to the league title is shared with Texas and West Virginia after the program's finished tied atop the conference standings at 15-9 in league play following the Longhorns’ sweep over the Mountaineers.

The championship marks OSU's second Big 12 regular season title since the conference was established in 1996 and the Cowboys’ first since 2014.

"I knew if we played well in this series we’d help our cause," OSU coach Josh Holliday said. "We did that in Game 1. Last night they got us. Today we had a chance. I knew if we came out here today and won a ballgame and some other things fell our way maybe we could have a share of that Big 12 championship. After the last out was recorded we found out that was true."

Round-robin tiebreakers place Texas as the top seed in this week's Big 12 Championship at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas (May 24-28).

The Cowboys hold the No. 2 seed followed by third-seeded West Virginia, setting up another Bedlam matchup with No. 7 OU (30-23) on the opening day of the league tournament at 4 p.m. Wednesday. OSU is 3-1 against the Sooners this spring, outscoring OU 44-16 in those games.

"Right back into a great competition against a good baseball team," Holliday said. "We’ve played them four times now. We get a chance to play them a fifth and here we go."

Holliday and Co. laid their claim on the conference title after wrapping up a series victory behind the bats of Schubart and Adkison and the pitching of former Sooner Ben Abram.

Schubart, the freshman outfielder, finished 3-for-4 with five RBI via two doubles and a seventh-inning blast that landed among the fans on the right field berm for his 15th home run of the season. Adkison's ninth-inning, two-run shot capped a 3-for-5, three-RBI day for the junior catcher.

Abram, who spent four seasons with the Sooners before transferring to OSU, appeared comfortable toeing a familiar rubber in front of a crowd of 3,371, the fifth largest all-time at Mitchell Park. Abram (7-2) picked up the win after allowing one run on four hits and no walks with four strikeouts in 5.0 innings.

"It's the same Ben," OU coach Skip Johnson said of Abram's performance. "They get a lead and he went out and threw strikes. He threw strikes here. He did a great job."

Left-hander James Hitt (5-1) took the loss Saturday and the series defeat now sends the Sooners into the postseason with the program's NCAA Tournament hopes hanging in the balance.

Johnson's message for OU now?

"That season's over with and a new season starts," he said. "You got to win it one pitch at a time but you have to be present to do that. You got to be ready to play."

OU enters the postseason at No. 36 in the NCAA RPI rankings with a winning road record (13-10) and having played nation's 19th-ranked strength of schedule, per D1Baseball.com.

Does the weekend result change the picture of what OU needs to achieve in Arlington this week?

"I have no clue," Johnson said. "I'm not the NCAA. I mean, our RPI is really good because of our strength schedule. I don't think there's anybody in our league that has a strength of schedule like ours. Going in you can just see that.

"If anybody has a record that we had in our league, you can look at the difference (in the schedule). I mean, some of those teams have won. But our strength of schedule is probably up there in the top two or three, if not one."

OU's chance to bolster its resume further begins Wednesday evening with a fourth meeting with OSU inside of a week. The Bedlam rematch will be broadcast on ESPN+.

[email protected]

Get local news delivered to your inbox!

Tulsa World Sports Writer

A six-run second inning lifted the Cowgirls to a run-rule victory on Friday night at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium.

The Cowboys were the first team eliminated from the Stillwater NCAA Regional, being outscored 24-8 in two postseason games.

The Golden Eagles (47-11) advanced to face Washington (35-18) at 8 p.m. Saturday in the winners' bracket while OSU (41-19) meets Dallas Baptis…

OSU (46-15) only managed four hits against FSU ace Kathryn Sandercock, who pitched five innings and struck out four batters.

"I think we have so much room for growth and potential with our team next year," Lexi Kilfoyl said. "We’ll be in forever debt to these seniors…