Baylor Baseball Drops Series Opener to Oklahoma, 5-3
Norman, Okla. – Baylor baseball (11-10, 1-3) dropped the series opener to Oklahoma (13-7, 1-0) on Friday night. The Bears looked great early in the ballgame.
In the top of the second inning, Alex Gonzales singled through the left side to score Ian Groves, giving Baylor the 1-0 lead. Jack Pineda followed Gonzales’ single with a line drive into centerfield to score Esteban Oquendo-Cardoza. The Bears were up 2-0 early and the energy was as good as I have seen all season.
Oklahoma’s Trent Brown hit a solo home run in the bottom of the second to close the lead to 2-1 Baylor.
The energy quickly subsided when Max McGwire, the son of former MLB star Mark McGwire, hit a solo home run over the left-field wall to tie the game. Later in the inning, OU got a two-out double by Blake Robertson. Diego Muniz then singled into center to score Robertson giving Oklahoma the 3-2 lead.
The Sooners would not let go of the lead for the remainder of the night.
What looked like a promising start for the Bears, turned stale in the middle innings. From the third inning all the way to the seventh inning, Baylor only got one hit.
Both aces gave up their season-high in runs. Tyler Thomas and Jake Bennett both allowed three earned runs. Allowing a season-high of three runs is a testament to how great of pitchers Thomas and Bennett are.
Tyler Thomas still pitched rather well, but he would like to have those two pitches back that Oklahoma sailed over the left-field wall. Thomas went 5.2 IP and gave up six hits, three earned runs, and struck out nine.
Jake Bennett went 7.1 IP and gave up six hits, three earned runs, walked one, and struck out seven.
Baylor did see a little bit of life in the late innings though.
In the top of the eighth, Tre Richardson beat out a throw from the shortstop to start the inning. Jared McKenzie and Kyle Nevin followed with strikeouts. Then Chase Wehsener was able to get a two-out single to put runners on the corners for Casen Neumann who pinch-hit for Ian Groves. Neumann hit an infield single and scored Richardson to close the gap to 5-3 Oklahoma.
Harrison Caley walked to load the bases, but Esteban Oquendo-Cardoza stranded the bases loaded after hitting a weak ground out to first.
Baylor got two runners aboard and Jared McKenzie was hit by a pitch to load the bases again in the ninth. With only one out and the prior pitch being thrown into McKenzie’s knee, Kyle Nevin swung at a first-pitch chest-high fastball and popped it out to shallow left. Chase Wehsener then also swung at the first pitch of the following at-bat and flew out to right field to end the game. Another example of iffy situational hitting that, at the end, cost the Bears the game.
In a year full of tough losses so far, the loss tonight may have been one of the most frustrating.
Final: Oklahoma 5 - Baylor 3
W: Jake Bennett (2-0) L: Tyler Thomas (3-3)
WHAT’S NEXT
Baylor baseball continues the series against Oklahoma tomorrow at 2:00 P.M. at L. Dale Mitchell Park.