WACO, Texas – Baylor baseball (18-17, 4-8) beat Kansas (14-20, 2-7) on Saturday afternoon to win their first conference series of the season.
With Tyler Thomas being out this weekend, Will Rigney started on Thursday in his place. Kobe Andrade remained in his regular role as the second man in the weekend rotation. And that left the coaching staff to choose the bullpen by committee method in the series finale on Saturday.
Brett Garcia was first on the bump to begin the game. He started out well and retired the first six batters he faced. But in the third inning, Garcia struggled to stay low in the strike zone and trouble ensued. KU’s eight-hole hitter launched a solo shot over the right-field wall. The next two Jayhawk batters reached base with hits. By the end of the inning, it was 2-0 Kansas.
Esteban Cardoza-Oquendo started the third inning with a double that awkwardly landed in between the left-fielder and third-baseman. Neither Jaywawk could come up with the ball. A few batters later, Tre Richardson delivered a two-out RBI single on a great piece of hitting to score Cardoza-Oquendo and advance Jack Pineda to third. With McKenzie at the plate, Pineda scored on a wild pitch that went straight into the backstop. The game was tied 2-2 after three.
Henry Cone came in to pitch the fourth and gave up a run. Kansas regained the lead, 3-2.
The Bears had an opportunity to tie the game, but Harrison Caley struck out with the bases loaded to end the inning.
Jake Jackson took over for Cone in the fifth. Through three pitches, he allowed a single, a sacrifice bunt, and another single. A sac-fly scored another run for KU, 4-2.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Bears had runners on the corners with one out. Kyle Nevin hit a sacrifice fly to score Tre Richardson from third, trimming the Jayhawks’ lead to 4-3 at the end of the fifth.
Chase Wehsener led off the bottom of the sixth with a double down the right-field line. But the dreaded bunt made its unwarranted return with Cam Caley at the plate. Caley, who started in left-field again today, tried to lay one down, but he was unsuccessful in two attempts before he struck out swinging. However, Harrison Caley came to the rescue with a huge two-out, RBI single to tie the game at 4 apiece.
Then, with a 3-1 count, Jack Pineda lifted a ball opposite field that appeared to be heading foul. Instead, the ball nailed the left-field foul pole for a go-ahead solo home run. Pineda’s solo shot was his fourth extra-base hit in two days.
Kyle Nevin added another run in the inning, with a solo homer of his own. It was his team-leading sixth home run of the season and second in two days. The two runs gave Baylor a 6-4 lead.
Matt Voelker made things interesting though when he gave up three straight singles to start the eighth inning. Kansas came within one run and was battling for more, but Voelker was able to get out of the inning.
Voelker went back out in the ninth and struck out the first two batters he faced before Chandler Freeman entered to face the KU cleanup hitter and get the final out.
Freeman was successful and the Bears picked up the win in the series finale.
Final: Baylor 6 - Kansas 5
W: Matt Voelker (2-5) L: Stone Hewlett (1-1) S: Chandler Freeman (1)
POTG: Jack Pineda 1-3, 2 R, HR, RBI, BB
TOP QUOTES
Matt Voelker on staying resilient
”Not letting [three straight hits from KU] affect the next pitch. Staying with the one-pitch mentality and attacking hitters... It felt great [to start the ninth with a strikeout], it was a lot of fun.”
Jack Pineda on his go-ahead home run
”Honestly, it didn’t feel that great. I have been working really hard on my swing. That’s when you know your swing is going well when you are missing balls and you are still having that much success. But yea I think it’s a product of all the work I have put on my swing this week”
Coach Rodriguez on the state of the team
”When you have your offense coming out like it did and the pitching does it what it did. You can’t help but get excited. We have some confidence and I really do believe we were lacking some of that confidence. Guys were showing up like, ’oh my gosh, what’s going to be today?’ Then we had great outings from Kobe Andrade. A great outing from WIll Rigney, we didn’t get the win but it was still a great outing. The same thing with our bullpen on Thursday. When you are starting to get those things, you can’t help but get excited to start playing again. You are starting to see guys take care of their business.”
WHAT’S NEXT
Baylor baseball (18-17, 4-8) will have Easter Sunday off and then return to Baylor Ballpark on Monday to face Lamar (22-13) at 6:30 P.M.
