Controversial rule ends Oklahoma State's season, Duke advances to Super Regional

The season is over for the Oklahoma State baseball team after a controversial ruling on the last out in a regional final matchup against Duke on Sunday. Cowboys freshman Garrett Shull was up to bat and appeared to reach base after a wild pitch, but the umpires convened to discuss the play.

Ultimately, they ruled that Shull had left the runner’s lane according to Jacob Rudner of Baseball America, which is an automatic out. There was initially speculation that Shull had tagged the wrong side of the double first base, but Rudner confirmed that wasn’t the call. Regardless, it ended the game and resulted in a 3-2 loss for OSU.

It was a devastating blow to the Cowboys, which defeated Regional host Georgia earlier in the day to reach the final. OSU was one of the last four teams to make the tournament and seeking its sixth Super Regional appearance.

It needed to win two games against the Blue Devils to do so but looked in a solid position to claim the first after going up 2-0 in the fourth inning on a home run from Kollin Ritchie. The Cowboys carried that advantage into the bottom of the eighth before Duke finally got on the board with a solo homer from AJ Gracia.

That gave the Blue Devils offense the spark it needed as it got two more runners on base after that via a single and a walk. Sam Harris later brought both of them in with a single of his own to give Duke its first lead of the game, 3-2.

That put the pressure on OSU entering the final inning and the Cowboys popped out and grounded out before Shull stepped up to bat. But even if he had been able to get on base, OSU still would have needed one or two more big plays to go its way.

Instead the umps ruled otherwise and Duke now advances to Super Regionals for just the fourth time in its history after outlasting Oklahoma State. The Blue Devils move on to face the winner of the Oxford Regional, which is currently down to Ole Miss and Murray State.

The Cowboys finish their season with a 30-25 record. Even though they failed to move past Regional play, they showed fight late in a year that it wasn’t a given they would even make the NCAA Tournament, and will now move on to next season.