Baylor Baseball Reaches 20 Wins, Ends Season with Sweep of CSU Bakersfield

WACO, Texas – Baylor baseball (20-35) finished its season on a four-game winning streak and completed the sweep of CSU Bakersfield (18-31) with two wins Saturday at Baylor Ballpark.

Jack Mackenzie - SicEm365

Baylor baseball reached 20 wins and finished the season on a four-game winning streak.

In Game One of the doubleheader, the Bears defeated the Roadrunners, 11-2, and exploded for three home runs and 11 hits. Fifth-year senior Blake Helton tossed five one-run frames and picked up the win in his final appearance on the mound for BU.

“It felt good to end the season on a high note for everybody,” Helton said after the game. “On the record, you can’t really tell, but the culture that we have going here is night and day from the past. Moving forward, I think the program is in great hands, and you’ll see a lot more Baylor baseball at the top of the standings in the future.”

Baylor was held in check and totaled just seven hits in Game Two, but the Bears were led by four solid innings on the mound from Will Rigney and came away with a 5-2 victory. Hambleton Oliver closed out the game with 2.2 scoreless innings in relief.

“We’ve been through a lot, and there’s been a lot of disappointment,” coach Mitch Thompson said after the game. “And there’s been a lot of ‘Gosh. I wish this happened differently here.’ And so for everybody to still be together really does tell you what we have.”

OF Gavin Brzozowski crushed a 415-foot no-doubter to put the Bears on the board in the second inning of Game One. It was Brzozowski’s fifth homer of the year.

Jack Mackenzie - SicEm365

SS Kolby Branch finishes his freshman season with a team-leading .325 batting average.

The redshirt freshman finished the season on a good note and picked up nine base knocks in his final 17 plate appearances.

Kolby Branch extended the third inning after a misplay at shortstop. The following at-bat, the Roadrunners tied the game on a two-out RBI single off junior lefty Cam Caley.

In the fourth, Branch made up for the error with a three-run shot over the left-field wall to tie the team lead in home runs with six. 

At the conclusion of the fourth inning, the Bears led 5-1 before the game was put in an hour-long lightning delay. The coaches ultimately decided to continue the game Saturday at noon.

Baylor Athletics

Fifth-year senior Blake Helton finishes his Baylor career with 48 appearances on the mound and a 5.58 ERA.

Helton was on the bump for the resumption of the second game. The fifth-year senior closed out his season by tossing five innings, striking out four and picking up his first victory of the year.

Helton finishes his Baylor career with 48 appearances on the mound and a 5.58 ERA; he is also a two-time member of the Academic All-Big 12 list.

The Bears added two more runs in the sixth after two costly CSUB errors and scored four runs in the eighth, highlighted by a two-run homer from sophomore 3B Hunter Teplanszky, his sixth of the season.

Game One:  Baylor 11 - Cal State Bakersfield 2

W: Blake Helton (1-6) L: Davonte Butler (0-5)

POTG: Kolby Branch 3-3, 3 R, 3 RBI, HR, 2B, HBP, BB

Jack Mackenzie - SicEm365

Junior OF Hunter Simmons finishes the season third on the team in batting average (.297).

A bases-loaded walk, a bases-clearing error at first base on a Brzozowski grounder, plus a Casey Sunseri RBI groundout gave Baylor a quick 5-1 lead after the first inning in the second game of the doubleheader.

The Bears did not score a run the rest of the afternoon and were outhit by CSU Bakersfield, 13-to-7, but managed to walk away with the win.

Rigney started his eighth and final game of the season on the mound. After surrendering a run in the first, the fourth-year junior settled in nicely and tossed three shutout innings and struck out six.

Rigney, although rarely 100% healthy, finished the year with a 4.18 ERA, the second-lowest on the team.

Jack Mackenzie - SicEm365

In Mitch Thompson’s first season as head coach, the Bears finish with a 20-35 record.

CSU Bakersfield started to creep back into the game and added a run in the sixth off of freshman lefty Ethan Calder. With runners on the corners and two outs later in the frame, veteran reliever Anderson Needham entered and got the Bears out of the jam.

In the following inning, Needham let runners reach second and third base before getting replaced by Hambleton Oliver.

Oliver picked up two quick outs to keep the Bears' lead at 5-2 and would go on to close out the game and pick up his fifth save of the season.

Game Two: Baylor 5 - Cal State Bakersfield 2

W: Ethan Calder (3-0) L: Matt Comnos (3-5) S: Hambleton Oliver (5)

POTG: Hambleton Oliver 2.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 52 pitches

WHAT’S NEXT

Stay tuned for offseason coverage, transfer portal updates, etc. It’s going to be a very intriguing next month or so for the Baylor program. The end-of-season survey article will be posted on Monday.