Okie State Trips CU Baseball, 6-4, In NCAA Opener

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.-- Twenty-second ranked Oklahoma State (39-19) scored four runs in the top of the first inning and never trailed while posting a 6-4 win over 20^th-ranked Creighton (44-15) on Friday.

With the win, third-seeded Oklahoma State will advance to tomorrow night's 6:30 pm winner's bracket game against the winner of tonight's 6:30 pm game between Arkansas/Albany. Second-seeded Creighton will now face an elimination game against the loser of the Arkansas/Albany game tomorrow at 2:30 pm.

Oklahoma State's scored four times in the first inning against Bluejay starter Marc Lewis. Rebel Ridling's tape-measure blast to left with two on and two out in the first was the most damaging, his 12^th homer of the year. Ryan Flavell would later single up the middle to score Matt Mangini, who was hit by a pitch.

Creighton scored twice in the bottom of the first to answer OSU's early attack. Chris Gradoville was hit with two outs and moved to third on Darin Ruf's single to right-center. Gradoville scored on Steve Winkelmann's bouncer up the middle, while Ruf scored on a single to right-center by Chad Ogden.

The Cowboys scored once more in the top of the third to chase Lewis. Ridling doubled to the right-field corner and scored on a single by Mangini, which prompted CU head coach Ed Servais to bring in ace long reliever Pat Venditte. Venditte gave up a double to the first man he faced, but recovered to strike out Flavell and Steve Ptak to end the top of the third with CU trailing 5-1.

As was their trademark in last week's MVC Tournament, Creighton would answer. Ruf singled to open the third. Steve Winkelmann then hit a ball deep in the hole. Mercer gloved it but threw wildly into the OSU dugout. Ruf was awarded home by the umpires, while Winkelmann went to second on the play. Winkelmann then stole third and came home on Ogden's RBI groundout.

The teams traded zeroes on the scoreboard until the eighth inning, when Corey Brown hit a leadoff homer for his 20^th dinger of the season. That came after Creighton had a chance to tie it in the bottom of the seventh when Gradoville got to second with one out, but a pair of groundouts ended that rally.

Lewis (8-3) gave up six hits and five runs in 2.1 innings of work. He suffered a second consecutive loss to fall to 8-3. Venditte threw the final 6.2 innings, giving up just three hits and one run with eight strikeouts in his longest career outing. He lowered his ERA to 1.80 and upped his team-lead in innings pitched (95) and strikeouts (98).

Odle was more than up to the task while improving to 7-4 on the season. He gave up nine hits and four runs while tossing his second career complete game. All five of his strikeouts were looking. Odle threw a whopping 143 pitches, but was around the zone all game long with 103 strikes.

Offensively, Ruf, Winkelmann and Ogden each had two hits. CU's 7-8-9 hitters were a combined 0-for-12 in the game.

OSU was paced by Ridling (2-for-4, 3 RBI), while Ty Wright also had two hits in five at-bats.

NOTES: Oklahoma State leadoff man Ty Wright had a single up the middle in the top of the first, extending his Big 12-record hitting streak to 35 straight. Former OSU star Robin Ventura owns the NCAA record with a 58-game streak ...The four runs allowed by Creighton in the first inning were a season high ...Pat Venditte's 40.2 consecutive innings without an extra base hit snapped when the first batter he faced, Jordy Mercer, doubled ...Pat Venditte's appearance was the 37^th of the season, tying him for the national lead and tying him with Scott Reese (2005) for the school record ...Creighton turned a double play in the top of the fifth inning, and has now turned a DP in 17 straight games, 24 of the past 25 games and 37 of the past 39 games ...Oklahoma State had three extra-base hits against Pat Venditte, the first time the ambidextrous reliever has allowed multiple extra-base hits all year.

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Players Mentioned

Chris Gradoville

Marc Lewis

Chad Ogden

Scott Reese

Darin Ruf

Pat Venditte

Steve Winkelmann