Baylor Baseball Loses Fifth Straight, Falls to Abilene Christian, 9-8

ABILENE, Texas – Baylor baseball (15-30) fell to Abilene Christian (27-16), 9-8, in the midweek matchup Tuesday evening at Crutcher Scott Field.

Baylor Athletics

Junior LF Hunter Simmons went 3-5 with a home run and two RBIs in his first game back from injury.

Trailing 9-8 with runners on the corners and two outs in the top of the ninth inning, sophomore 1B Casen Neumann flew out to left field to end the game and extend BU’s losing streak to five games.

Baylor outhit ACU in the loss, 12-to-10, but went 4-18 with runners in scoring position.

Meanwhile, the Wildcats went 5-13 with runners in scoring position, and six of their nine runs came with two outs.

Fifth-year senior Blake Helton started on the mound for the Bears and struggled to make it through three innings. Helton’s evening was cut short after allowing six earned runs and seven hits on 79 pitches.

Baylor’s offense responded with a four-spot in the top of the second, highlighted by a two-run homer from freshman SS Kolby Branch, his fifth of the season.

In relief of Helton, Grant Golomb was fantastic out of the bullpen in the middle innings. The junior righty went a season-long 3.2 innings pitched and surrendered just one hit and two runs, struck out three and did not issue a walk.

Baylor Athletics

Fifth-year senior Blake Helton allowed six earned runs and seven hits in three innings pitched.

With two outs in the fourth, junior Cole Tremain dropped a routine fly ball that would allow two Wildcats to score and give ACU an 8-5 lead. Neither run scored off of Golomb was earned.

Junior LF Hunter Simmons, in his return after missing ten games with injury, lined a solo home run over the right field wall in the fifth. Simmons finished Tuesday’s contest 3-5 with two RBIs.

Later in the frame, sophomore C Cort Castle plated a run with an RBI groundout, but with Tremain on third and only one out, Neumann and freshman CF Caleb Bergman both struck out to end the inning.

Veteran reliever Brett Garcia entered for Golomb with two outs in the seventh and immediately surrendered a walk and an RBI double to extend ACU’s lead to 9-7.

Sophomore 3B Hunter Teplanszky delivered a two-out RBI double in the eighth, but the following at-bat, Branch flew out to right field with the tying run on second base.

Final: Abilene Christian 9 - Baylor 8

W: Adam Stephenson (3-1) L: Blake Helton (0-6) S: Zach Smith (5)

POTG: Hunter Simmons 3-5, HR, R, 2 RBI

WHAT’S NEXT

The Bears (15-30) will return to Waco to face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (20-23) Wednesday. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., and the game will be streamed on ESPN+.