Thomas Masterful as Baylor Baseball Tops No. 23 UCLA, 2-1

HOUSTON – Baylor baseball’s (5-4) senior LHP Tyler Thomas turned in a gem Friday against No. 23 UCLA (6-4), leading the Bears to a 2-1 victory in the opening game of the 2022 Shriners Children’s College Classic.

Thomas (2-1) went 8.2 innings and allowed just four hits and one run, a solo homer in the top of the ninth, and set a career-high with 10 strikeouts in the win.

Runs, and even hits, were at a premium as UCLA’s sophomore righty Jake Brooks (2-1) nearly matched Thomas pitch-for-pitch. However, he was tagged in the bottom of the fourth by Kyle Nevin’s two-run home run which opened the scoring and proved to be the difference maker.

Thomas faced the minimum through seven innings for the Bears and had no troubles working around Cody Schrier’s second hit of the day in the eighth. He came back out to start the ninth, picked up his 10th punchout of the day, but then gave up a solo home run to pinch-hitter Carson Yates which cut the lead to 2-1.

After a groundout and a double, Thomas exited and handed the ball off to freshman RHP Mason Marriott, who allowed two baserunners via a walk and a hit-by-pitch. With the bases loaded and two outs, the rookie closer buckled down to force a groundout and pick up the first save of his career.

NOTES

• Baylor improves to 5-7 all-time against UCLA and 2-3 against the Bruins under seventh-year head coach Steve Rodriguez.

• The Bears are now 7-3 at the Shriners Children’s College Classic under Rodriguez and have won five in a row at the tournament.

• BU is now 16-18 in neutral-site contests in the Rodriguez era.

• Senior LHP Tyler Thomas set a career-high with 10 strikeouts, taking a shutout into the ninth inning.

• Sophomore OF Kyle Nevin blasted his second home run in as many games. He leads the team with 2 HR in 2022.

• Nevin also collected his third multi-hit game of the year.

• Junior INF Jack Pineda has reached base safely in 12 consecutive games, dating back to 2021.

• Freshman RHP Mason Marriott notched his first-career save.

STAT OF THE GAME

10 – Tyler Thomas struck out a career-high 10 batters in 8.2 innings of work.

TOP QUOTES

Head coach Steve Rodriguez

On Tyler Thomas’ performance...

“When you come out and you’re able to shut down a team like UCLA, you have to give credit to Tyler [Thomas] for everything he did. Being able to move his fastball in and out, and being able to get his curveball in there when he needed to. He got some big strikeouts. The greatest thing was watching him rear back on a couple pitches where he needed a little extra velocity and he was able to get it to blow it right by a guy.”

On Kyle Nevin’s home run…

“The big thing is, he’s 6-5 and it was an elevated offspeed pitch which he got to. That’s something we’ve been trying to work on, is making sure he gets those pitches and doesn’t miss them. You’ve got to hand it to [Jake] Brooks from UCLA, he did a great job of keeping guys off balance. Our guys had a tough time squaring him up, but I was really proud of Kyle [Nevin] getting that pitch elevated and doing something with it.”

Senior LHP Tyler Thomas

On what was working for him today…

“Getting ahead of hitters early. Throwing that first pitch strike was crucial. Pounding the zone after that, too. [UCLA] likes to swing, they hit the ball hard, so I tried to offset that with some offspeed and throw the ball in, which worked for me today.”

WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor (5-4) takes on No. 17 Tennessee (8-0) in its second game of the Shriners Children’s College Classic with first pitch tentatively set for 3:05 p.m. CT at Minute Maid Park on Saturday, March 5.