Baylor Baseball Outlasted By No. 21 TCU, 11-9, in Extras

WACO, Texas – Baylor baseball (9-9, 0-2) battled No. 21 TCU (14-4, 2-0) to extra innings, but fell 11-9 to the Horned Frogs on Saturday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark.

The Bears recorded a season-high 17 hits and three home runs as a team, including four knocks from Tre Richardson, but were unable to put the game away late.

BU opened the scoring with Jared McKenzie’s second home run of the season, a two-run shot, in the bottom of the first. Richardson made a couple of nifty plays on defense in the second, but TCU put up a five-spot in the top of the third to take a 5-2 lead.

Baylor responded with two runs in the bottom half thanks to a Chase Wehsener RBI single and an Esteban Cardoza-Oquendo sacrifice fly, then retook the lead in the fourth as three-straight two-out singles by Jack Pineda, Richardson and McKenzie, plus an error by the Horned Frogs’ center fielder, resulted in two runs.

With a 6-5 lead, BU reliever Kobe Andrade settled in to toss four scoreless innings out of the bullpen. When TCU loaded the bases in the eighth inning, closer Mason Marriott was able to force a groundout and keep the Bears in front heading into the home half.

Needing an insurance run, Kyle Nevin delivered a two-run shot over the left-center field wall to go up 8-5 in the bottom of the eighth. However, four consecutive walks and a hit-by-pitch in the top of the ninth allowed TCU back in the ballgame, and a two-out infield single knotted the tally at 8-8 to force extras.

Both sides were retired in order in the 10th, but TCU scored three runs in the 11th to take an 11-8 lead.

In his Baylor debut, Ian Groves bashed a solo home run in the bottom of the 11th to cut into the deficit, but the Bears would strand two runners on base as TCU clinched the series.

With Andrade pitching well out of the bullpen, this loss is even tougher to take. The Bears are learning the tough way that it will often take complete team efforts to win against good opponents and to win in conference. 

Offensively, the output is hopefully a sign of things to come. McKenzie was 3 for 6 with that home run and 3RBIs. Meanwhile, Richardson was a brilliant 4 for 7, scoring four of Baylor’s nine runs. Richardson is now batting .292, and McKenzie is up to .224

NOTES

• Baylor recorded a season-high 17 hits in the ballgame.

• The Bears hit three home runs, their most in a single game this season.

• Saturday’s attendance of 3,066 is the most at Baylor Ballpark since April 5, 2019 (3,302 vs. Texas).

• Tre Richardson tied a career-high and set a single-game season-high for the Bears with four hits.

• Richardson also extended his on-base streak to nine games and his hit streak to six.

• Ian Groves made his Baylor debut and hit his first home run as a Bear.

• Jared McKenzie posted his third multi-RBI game and fourth multi-hit game with three hits and three runs driven in.

• McKenzie hit his second home run of the year, and first that left the yard.

• Kyle Nevin blasted his team-leading third home run of the season and recorded his sixth multi-RBI performance, also a team best.

• Jack Pineda added to his team lead with his eighth multi-hit effort.

• Chase Wehsener collected his sixth multi-hit game of the year.

• Harrison Caley extended his on-base streak to seven games.

• Kobe Andrade tossed a career-most four innings, allowing just one hit and no runs, with a career-high three strikeouts.

STAT OF THE GAME

17 – Baylor collected a season-high 17 hits as a team.

TOP QUOTES

Head coach Steve Rodriguez

On the offensive breakout…

“I’ll tell you what, offensively, it was great to actually see them kind of break out. That was the offense I’ve been expecting, watching guys take really good at-bats. Regardless of hits or not, just hitting balls hard and swinging at pitches they knew they could hit, not everything that was thrown up there. I thought they did a really good job of being really selective. And then, once they got some pitches to hit, they laid some pretty good swings on them. Tre [Richardson] and Jared [McKenzie] had like eight or nine hits combined. That’s what you’re looking for, you’re looking for guys to take really good at-bats and just continuing to grind like that. They’ve been working really hard on every aspect of that, and it was just great to watch them be able to get it through today.”

Sophomore INF Tre Richardson

On going into the series finale…

“We’ve been here before. We were here last year. We understand what has to be done. Salvaging the series is always big, especially going toward the end of the season and tournament ball. By that point, we’re hot and we’re rolling and people look at it and say ‘They didn’t get swept by TCU. They won a game.’ That’s the way we look at it. Go game by game and win every chance we get.”

WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor (9-9, 0-2) looks to salvage the series against No. 21 TCU (14-4, 2-0) in the weekend finale Sunday, March 20, at 1 p.m. CT at Baylor Ballpark.