Baylor's Season Ends with 11- 1 Loss to Oklahoma State in Big 12 Tournament

ARLINGTON, Texas – The No. 8 seed Baylor Bears (26-28) were eliminated from the Big 12 Tournament via a run-rule loss in seven innings to the No. 4 seed Oklahoma State Cowboys (37-19), 11-1.

The loss on Thursday ultimately ended the Bears' disappointing 2022 season.

The game started with Oklahoma State picking up the first run of the game in the bottom of the second off of an RBI single on Thursday’s starter, Jake Jackson. 

Jacob Schoenvogel led off the third inning with an infield single. A throwing error advanced him to second and a vacant third base allowed Schoenvogel to sprint to third untouched. With a runner on third and only one out, a hard-fought at-bat from Alex Gonzales turned into an RBI groundout to tie the game at one apiece.

The top of the Pokes order was due in the bottom of the third inning. And after Jackson allowed 12 hits in 4.2 IP last Thursday against Oklahoma State, it was safe to say they see him pretty well. Leaving him out there for the second time through the deep OSU order was potentially going to cause problems. 

Sure enough, the 1 and 2 guys in the Cowboys’ lineup picked up singles. With runners on the corners and only one out, all 6-foot-4 240 pounds of Griffin Doersching got hold of a ball and sent it 447 feet into the left-field stands to put the Oklahoma State lead at 4-1 through the third inning.

Jackson’s final line was 2.1 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, and a BB on 34 pitches. 

OSU picked up two more runs in the fourth off of Grant Golomb and two in the sixth off of Matt Voelker. The Cowboys led 8-1 after the sixth inning.

Baylor’s offense could not get anything going against the All-Big 12 pitcher, Justin Campbell. He struck out 10 in 7 innings pitched and only allowed 3 hits. 

In the bottom of the seventh inning with Anderson Needham pitching, the Pokes scored another run on a wild pitch. And with runners on second and third with one out, Jake Thompson shot a ball into left that went right under the glove of a charging Cam Caley to ultimately give Oklahoma State the 10-run lead. A 10-run lead after seven innings resulted in a run rule that ended the ballgame with a final score of 11-1.

With today's loss, the Bears have been eliminated from the Big 12 Tournament and have put an end to the 2022 season. The Bears finish with a 26-28 record while going 7-17 in conference play. 

The upcoming weeks could bring a lot of change to the Baylor baseball program. But despite the disappointing season, this team fought till the very end. Through all the injuries and the tough losses, this team never quit when they very easily could have.

Final in 7: Oklahoma State 11 - Baylor 1

W: Justin Campbell (9-2) L: Jake Jackson (4-5) 

TOP QUOTES

Coach Rodriguez on the pitching this year

“I couldn’t be any more proud of our pitching staff, and I know that is weird to say when you go through this. But when you have starters go down and you have bullpen guys trying to fill in the gaps and then some of them go down and pretty soon you have to keep moving pieces to fill those holes. When you have guys going into roles that they weren't really designed for them yet. Just because of their experience, their opportunity, their youth. I have to sit back as a coach and I look at them and they went out there and they battled. I’m not going to say they had success, but I can’t give them that experience until they go through it and went through it”

Coach Rodriguez on if missing the tournament the past couple of years is due to bad luck

“Well, it’s interesting. The year Covid hit, we went to Shriners and won that. We beat three SEC teams. We came back from Cal Poly with a series win and then Covid hits. Then last year Covid hits us again with a couple of our starting pitchers. We actually played one game with 10 guys out of a series that we ended up winning. We get Covid issues that take us out of the Big 12 Tournament and the last weekend. It’s unlucky in some regards. Then when you look at how they started placing teams RPI-wise, you can argue that as well. Right now, our job is to continue to recruit the right guys, continue to coach them and make sure they get better. We have a young team in a lot of aspects and that’s what’s kind of encouraging is a lot of those guys got a lot of good experience this year.”

Coach Rodriguez on if he expects to be back next year

“That’s Mack Rhoades' decision. My job is to coach baseball. His job is to pick coaches.”