Oklahoma will not ride valiantly into postseason — and the SEC — with with one final Big 12 Tournament trophy.
Instead, the Sooners will try to heal their wounds from being trampled underfoot once again by their old Bedlam rival.
No. 2-seed Oklahoma State hit three home runs and routed top-seeded OU again in a 9-3 Bedlam victory at Globe Life Field in Arlington, TX.
OU lost three out of four Bedlam meetings in the regular season, including two of the three designated conference games. The Sooners get a trophy for winning the Big 12 regular season, but with losses of 14-5, 9-6, 9-5 and 9-3, the Cowboys get a trophy, too, after winning 80 percent of their head-to-head meetings and outscoring their Bedlam brother 53-34 this year.
OSU improved to 40-17, while OU fell to 37-19.
The Sooners had won three in a row and 11 of their last 12, but had no juice on Saturday night in the Metroplex.
OU was hoping to land its second Big 12 postseason title in three years and fourth overall, but will head to the daunting SEC with three Big 12 Tournament trophies in its history — 1997, 2013 and 2022. Only six teams have won both the regular season and tournament title in Big 12 history, with just one (TCU In 2021) in the last 14 years.
For OSU, it was their fourth Big 12 Tournament championship and third and under coach Josh Holliday.
The No. 8-ranked Sooners got to the final by beating TCU and then Kansas twice, including Friday’s walk-off win in the semifinals when Jackson Nicklaus ended it with a ninth-inning home runs.
No. 19-ranked OSU advanced through tournament play with one win over UCF and two over Texas Tech.
The Cowboys started the scoring with a single run in the first inning on a single by Lane Forsythe, a double by Nolan Schubart and a sacrifice fly by Zach Ehrhard.
The game then developed into a brief pitchers’ duel between OU’s Carson Campbell and OSU’s Tommy Molsky.
But OSU broke up that notion with three runs in the fifth.
Campbell yielded a leadoff single and a double to right field before Skip Johnson pulled him for Dylan Crooks. Crooks then gave up a sac fly that made it 2-0, an infield single by Forsythe to put OSU up 3-0, a single by Carson Benge, and a ball-four wild pitch that brought home Forsythe for a 4-0 lead.
The Sooners answered — and finally got on the scoreboard — with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth.
Kendall Pettis led off with a walk and took second on Jason Walk’s one-out single through the left side. John Spikerman then ripped a double to left center to send Pettis home to cut the lead to 4-1. Easton Carmichael made it 4-2 when he sent a sac fly to right field that scored Walk.
But the Cowboys created some separation in the top of the seventh.
Forsythe rapped a one-out single to third base, where Anthony Mackenzie momentarily appeared to injure his left shoulder diving for the play. Benge singled through the right side to put runners at first and third, setting up a tape-measure home run to center field by Schubart that stretched the OSU lead to 7-2. It was Schubart’s Big 12-leading 20th home run of the season.
OU tried to rally in the bottom of the inning when Pettis hit a leadoff single and Walk walked with one out, but Spikerman’s line drive up the middle was caught at shortstop by Forsythe, who then stepped on second base to end the threat.
OSU quickly added to the lead with a pair of long balls off Will Carsten.
Kollin Ritchie hammered a towering home run to right-center to lead off the inning and give the Cowboys an 8-2 lead. Ian Daugherty then blasted a solo bomb to left field to make it 9-2.
OU added a run in the eighth when Carmichael led off with a double and Willits walked. Snyder then doubled down the left field line to send Carmichael to the plate to cut it to 9-3.
Snyder and Pettis each had two hits, and Snyder, Carmichael and Spikerman delivered RBIs.
Forsythe had three of OSU’s 11 hits, while Benge, Schubart and Daugherty each had two.
After Campbell’s exit, Skip Johnson tried five relievers with mixed results.
Oklahoma now turns its attention to securing one of eight national seeds in next week’s NCAA Tournament and hosting for two straight weekends at L. Dale Mitchell Park. OU hasn’t hosted a regional in Norman since 2010.
This year’s NCAA selection show is Monday at 11 a.m. on ESPN2.
The Cowboys also should host next week and but probably aren’t hoping to squeeze into the discussion for a national seed with a record of 11-12 against Quad 1 teams (OU is 10-6).
OU came into Saturday with college baseball’s No. 13 RPI (Ratings Percentage Index), while OSU is No. 14. OU came in with the No. 9 strength of schedule, while OSU was No. 29, according to to D1Baseball, who also projects Oklahoma to be the No. 7 overall seed next week.
