NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Baylor rallied past Stephen F. Austin, 7-3, Tuesday night at the SFA Softball Field. The Bears improve to 5-0, with all of the games coming on the road, for the first time since going 9-0 in 2018.
Baylor got off to a little bit of a slow start, giving up two runs to the Lady Jacks in the bottom of the first. The Bears’ only two hits through the first two innings were singles by McKenzie Wilson and Zadie LaValley.
Finding her groove, starting pitcher Dariana Orme went three up, three down in the third inning before the BU bats got hot.
Wilson led off the fourth inning with a double to left-center field. After Aliyah Binford reached second on a Lady Jack error, Wilson came around to score. Binford eventually scored to knot the game at 2-2. Orme closed out the bottom of the fourth with another 1-2-3 inning.
Baylor scored three two-out runs in the fifth, Wilson driving in a pair of runs with a two-run triple down the left field line and scoring on a single by Ana Watson that gave the Bears a 5-2 lead.
The bottom of the fifth saw Binford make her first relief appearance this season in the circle and immediately struck out the next three batters.
Neither team plated a run in the sixth, although the Bears had two batters on after a leadoff triple from Kendall Cross. Binford then retired the side in order in the bottom of the inning.
Wilson and Kaci West both scored in the top of the seventh, bringing the Bears’ lead to 7-2. The Lady Jacks plated one in the bottom of the seventh.
Binford closed out the night with five strikeouts, two in the bottom of the seventh.
HIGHLIGHTS
Wilson was a home run away from the cycle
Binford and Orme combined for eight strikeouts
Cross hit her first career triple
The Bears had two triples on the night
STAT OF THE GAME
9 – Number of hits on the night
TOP QUOTES
Glenn Moore on the game…
“We had a good productive day on the road. I was most pleased with how we refocused after a bad start. We minimized the damage and gave Dari a chance to get going. The Orme-Binford combination is going to be a deadly one for lineups. Offensively we are getting timely hitting and good momentum from our lineup. The stand out was McKenzie Wilson going 3-3 with a double and a triple.”
