Trojans Fall to No. 18 Oklahoma State

Box Score LITTLE ROCK- Miguel Soto hit his first home run wearing the maroon and silver but the Trojans fell to No. 18 Oklahoma State 8-3 on Wednesday afternoon at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.
 
Ryan Benavidez and Chase Coker each notched multi-hit days at the plate with two hits apiece.
 
The Trojans would make it a staff day on the mound as McKinley Moore would start the game, but Chandler Fidel would relieve him to pitch the second. Jose Torres then came on to pitch the third inning while Hayden Arnold took the ball in the fourth. Ethan Daily relieved Arnold in the fourth inning and Mason Leeming made his first appearance of the season in the fifth. In the sixth, Eli Sievert toed the rubber and maneuvered his way out of a jam to record a scoreless inning. Ty Gordon was the new hurler in the bottom half of the seventh and tallied a scoreless inning of his own. The trend continued in the eighth when Carter Brown came on to throw.
 
The Cowboys got on the board first in the opening frame by using a leadoff walk to their advantage. A sacrifice fly from Oklahoma State's Christian Funk brought home Andrew Navigato to give their team a 1-0 lead.
 
Both teams would go scoreless in the second inning but Oklahoma State would double their lead in the third using a two-out base hit to make the score 2-0. The Trojans would load the bases in the top of the fourth using singles from Garrett Scott and Coker, but the runners would be left stranded.
 
A five-run fourth inning broke the game open and made the score 7-0 in favor of the Cowboys. Two Trojan errors in the inning would help prolong the Oklahoma State rally.
 
Neither team scored in the fifth, sixth or seventh inning as Leeming, Sievert and Gordon each registered a scoreless inning. The Trojans threatened again in the seventh frame but were unable to find the timely hit.
 
In the eighth inning, Miguel Soto smacked a deep fly ball that just stayed inside the left field foul pole for the first home run of his Little Rock career. The two-run home run cut the Cowboy lead to five runs and made the score 7-2.
 
Each team would tack on a run in their final turn at bat but Oklahoma State would walk away with an 8-3 victory.
 
Jake Lyons picked up the win for the Cowboys while Moore suffered his first loss of the season.
 
The Trojans will look to pick up their first win of the season when they host Evansville for a three-game series, starting with a doubleheader on Feb. 24 at 1 p.m.
 
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