No. 24 Baylor Softball Drops Series Finale Against No. 1 Texas, 9-5

AUSTIN, Texas – No. 24 Baylor Softball dropped its series finale against No. 1 Texas, 9-5, Sunday afternoon at Red and Charline McCombs Field. 

The Bears dropped game one in Waco 14-1 as well as the Saturday game in Austin 9-6.

THE RUNDOWN

The Bears tried to get the bats going early against Texas, but Shaylon Govan’s double in the top of the first would be all the action to lead off the game the Bears would get. Texas was then able to bring two runs home across in the bottom of the inning to take the early 2-0 lead. 

BU capitalized with a three-spot on the top of the second to tie the game at 3-3. Sydney Collazos got things started in the second inning with a single to center field before a sacrifice bunt and groundout moved her to third. Zadie LaValley then brought the Bears’ first run home on a single to right field before Ashlyn Wachtendorf hit an infield single to put two on for Emily Hott. The left fielder then roped a single to right field that brought home the second run before a double down the right-field line off the bat of Presleigh Pilon tied the game. 

With two on in the second inning, Govan was intentionally walked to re-load the bases, but a strikeout ended the threat. 

Texas got back four runs in the bottom of the second off of four hits and a walk to regain the lead, 6-3. 

After a quiet inning from both teams in the third, the Longhorns tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the fourth to extend their lead to five runs. 

UT was able to add its sixth run in the bottom of the sixth to make it a 9-1 ballgame heading to the final inning. 

Down to its last chance, Baylor’s Pilon led off the seventh with a single before Aliyah Binford walked and Collazos singled to load the bases for Kaci West. She then singled to the shortstop, which made it out of the infield to plate two runs and cut into the Longhorns lead. But that would be it for the Bears in the seventh as a fly-out and pop-up ended the Bears’ comeback short.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The Bears had seven different Bears record nine hits
• Prelsiegh Pilon and Sydney Collazos each had two hits
• Kaci West recorded a team-leading two RBIs
• Pilon and Shaylon Govan each had a double
• RyLee Crandall started for the Bears in the circle, pitching 3.2 innings
• Kaci West and Aliyah Binford each only gave up one hit while in the circle
• Binford passed 100 season strikeouts today and now sits at 102 on the season
• The Bears’ 23 hits in the series are the most hit against the Longhorns this season in a three-game series   

QUOTABLE

Head coach Glenn Moore on the bounce back after Friday’s game … 

“I'm absolutely happy with this team. I thought they represented well. We are wounded a little bit. Had we had all the bullets in our gun, we'd have had a better chance. Again, this is a very good Texas team. It was going to take everything we had and then some and hoping that they maybe don't play their best. But we did not lay down. We came out fighting yesterday and today and forced some pitching changes. You could tell from the emotions on both sides that it was a good game both days so I'm happy that we were competitive to the level that we were. We need wins of course but you're playing the No. 1 team in the country, you've got to play a little bit better than we did and hope they don’t play as well as they did. I think they played well all three games.”

UP NEXT

The Bears will host UT Arlington for a midweek match on Tuesday, April 16, at 6:30 p.m. at Getterman Stadium.