Oklahoma State Blasts Seven Homers, Stays Alive in NCAA Athens Regional

Oklahoma State kept its postseason hopes alive in dominant fashion Saturday, crushing seven home runs in a 13-5 win over No. 4-seed Binghamton at Foley Field in the NCAA Athens Regional.

With the victory, the third-seeded Cowboys improved to 29-24 on the season and will face the loser of Saturday night’s Georgia-Duke matchup in an elimination game set for Sunday at 11 a.m. CDT. Binghamton ends its season at 29-26.

The Cowboys’ seven home runs marked the most ever hit in an NCAA Tournament game under head coach Josh Holliday, topping the five they launched last year against Florida in the NCAA Stillwater Regional. The performance also tied for the seventh-most homers in a single game in NCAA Tournament history — just two shy of the all-time record.

Six different OSU players homered in the victory, and four Cowboys recorded multiple hits. Kollin Ritchie paced the offense with a 3-for-4 day, including two home runs and a career-high four RBIs.

On the mound, freshman Stormy Rhodes earned his first career win, tossing 2 1/3 innings in relief while allowing just one run on three hits. Starter Hunter Watkins pitched 4 2/3 innings, giving up four runs on six hits and striking out four. Ethan Lund closed things out with two scoreless innings and two strikeouts in his first appearance since April 1.

OSU jumped on Binghamton early with back-to-back doubles from Brayden Smith and Avery Ortiz to open the first inning, followed by an RBI double from Ritchie to make it 2-0. Binghamton responded with an unearned run in the second after a dropped fly ball in left field, trimming the Cowboys’ lead to 2-1.

The third inning is when OSU’s power truly erupted. Ritchie, Colin Brueggemann, and Ian Daugherty hit back-to-back-to-back home runs — the first time the Cowboys have done so all season — extending the lead to 5-1.

They weren’t done. In the fourth, Ortiz belted a two-run shot and Nolan Schubart followed with his team-leading 18th homer of the season and 58th of his career to push the lead to 8-1.

Binghamton hit a pair of homers in the fifth to cut the deficit to 8-4, but the Cowboys answered with an Alex Conover solo shot and a Brayden Smith RBI groundout in the bottom of the frame to stretch it back to 10-4.

In the eighth, OSU tacked on three more runs to seal the win. Ritchie launched his second homer of the day — a two-run blast — and finished with his 13th home run of the season.

With their season on the line, the Cowboys delivered a historic offensive performance to stay alive in Athens and will look to keep the momentum going in Sunday’s elimination game.