Baylor Takes Series Opener against Duke
WACO, Texas – Baylor baseball notched its second win of the season against #23 Duke (3-2) on Friday afternoon.
The temperature at first pitch was thirty-seven degrees Fahrenheit. But the weather conditions did not stop Tyler Thomas from being anything short of phenomenal. Everything was working for Thomas today, his command and offspeed pitches were excellent. He ended his afternoon after six innings pitched, only allowing one hit and striking out five on eighty-nine pitches.
In the bottom of the second, Chase Wehsener hit a single into center to give the Bears their first
hit of the afternoon. Kobe Andrade followed with a pop-up to deep left field that was dropped, advancing Wehsener to third. Esteban Oquendo-Cardoza hit a timely infield single to bring in Wehsener and give Baylor the 1-0 lead.
After starting on the mound in Tuesday night's win over Houston Baptist, Kobe Andrade got the start in leftfield on Friday afternoon. Andrade lined a single into left in the bottom of the fourth, giving him his first career hit.
Tyler Thomas pitched four and a third scoreless before giving up his first hit to Duke's left fielder, Chris Davis. Chris, the son of Rece Davis, was the only one to find any type of success today at the plate against Thomas. And Rece, being in Waco for College Gameday, was able to catch a few innings of today’s game to see his son play.
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth, Harrison Caley hit a 2RBI single into center to extend the Baylor lead to 3-0. Duke used six different pitchers to face eight Baylor hitters in an extended sixth inning, all to no avail. A wild pitch scored Esteban Oquendo-Cardoza from third and that made it 4-0 Baylor at the end of the inning.
The five pitching changes over the course of a forty-minute bottom of the sixth inning prevented Tyler Thomas from coming back out in the seventh. Anderson Needham struggled to add to Thomas’ dominant outing, giving up a single and walking two to load the bases. Matt Voelker then entered and escaped the inning, 4-1 Baylor.
Baylor played eight solid defensive innings. In the ninth, Kyle Nevin dropped a pop-fly then airmailed a throw to allow another Duke run, but the Bears held on for a 4-2 win. The defense improved today but was still not perfect, ending the game with three errors.
Final: Baylor 4 - Duke 2
W: Tyler Thomas (1-1) L: Marcus Johnson (0-2)
POTG: Tyler Thomas 6 IP, H, 2 BB, 5 SO
TOP QUOTES
”Rod said it best, we did not play our greatest and we still won. As long as we can continue in that trend, we will be good... Felt confident, felt good. They swung early, which helps. Getting those first-pitch strikes when you're ahead makes your job kind of easy.” - Tyler Thomas
”[Tyler] located down. He hit his spots well. You can’t really ask much more of that. Defense played good behind him. I think if he just executes like that, he will put us in a good spot... This brings our hopes back up. Still, a lot of stuff to work on, but I think we did a good job today. Felt good.” - Harrison Caley
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor and Duke return to Baylor Ballpark for game two of the series at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 19.