Bats Struggle as Baylor Drops Big 12 Home Opener to Kansas State, 8-2

WACO, Texas – Baylor baseball (15-6, 1-3) dropped its Big 12 home opener 8-2 to the Kansas State Wildcats (14-7, 4-0) on Friday evening at Baylor Ballpark.

The Bears couldn’t overcome an early deficit and played from behind throughout the game, trailing by as many as seven runs. Baylor out-hit Kansas State, 8-to-7, but left 11 runners on base in the loss compared to the Wildcats’ three. The Bears were 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

Designated hitter Hunter Simmons (Sr.) collected another multi-hit performance, going 2-for-4 with a walk. The Mansfield native has a team-high 13-game hitting streak and has reached base in 27 straight games.

“It’s a total team win or a total team loss, and tonight was definitely a loss,” head coach Mitch Thompson said post-game. “I give K-State credit. Their guys threw the ball well. They played well. They didn’t make any mistakes; we did, and they ended up winning the game.”

Similar to last Friday’s 9-1 loss to Kansas, the Bears got behind early with an insurmountable deficit.

To lead off the second inning, Kansas State right fielder AJ Evasco (Fr.) blooped a double off the end of his bat into left field, and Keegan O’Connor (Sr.) followed the extra-base hit with a single to put runners on the corners.

On the ensuing at-bat, Kyran Lodice (Sr.) hit a routine grounder to Jack Little (RSo.) at first base. Little had a potential play at the plate but opted to try his hand at a double play. Instead, Little sailed the ball over Tyriq Kemp’s (Sr.) head at shortstop into left field.

With runners on the corners and no outs, catcher Bear Madliak (Jr.) smoked a three-run homer — his fourth of the season — over the left-field fence, giving Kansas State a 4-0 lead. The Wildcats added three more runs across the third and fifth innings.

Left-handed pitcher Ethan Calder (Jr.) finished his evening striking out six but surrendering seven runs (six earned) and six hits across five frames. Calder has allowed more earned runs in his last two starts (11) than last season (10) in 36.2 innings out of the bullpen.

“We have to make a couple of plays that we didn’t make on defense that kind of opened up the door for that three-run homer that really was the dagger, and it was on one pitch,” Thompson said. “We were playing catch-up again, and we have to quit playing catch-up.”

Baylor got on the board in the fifth inning when right fielder Enzo Apodaca (RSr.) crushed a two-run double into the right field corner to chip into Kansas State’s lead, 7-2. Apodaca has four extra-base hits across his last two games.

Outside of Apodaca’s double, the Bears got next to nothing against the Wildcats starting pitcher, Jacob Frost (Sr.), who struck out five and allowed just four hits and two earned runs across 4.1 frames. Right-handed pitcher James Guyette (So.) entered in relief of Frost and shoved 4.1 scoreless innings.

Baylor had a chance to push some more runs across in the eighth inning after back-to-back singles from Simmons and Pearson Riebock (Fr.), but Travis Sanders (RSo.) and Ty Johnson (Sr.) struck out to close the frame. The Bears had the bases loaded in the ninth, but Simmons flew out to right field to close the contest.

“When the other team gets a lead, they’re going to be throwing their best bullpen guys at you,” Thompson said. “It’s a struggle. The thing that you have to do is stay in the game early, and we’ve been chasing pretty good deficits early in four conference games in a row. We’ve got to get past that. That’s not all on our pitching. I thought we could have done some better things on defense early, and it’s on our offense to try and get a lead themselves. We’re all in this together.”

Veteran righty Caleb Bunch (Sr.) went a season-long four innings on the mound, and the lone blemish on his stat sheet was surrendering a solo shot in the ninth to second baseman Shintaro Inoue (Jr.). Bunch struck out four on 56 pitches.

 

Final: Kansas State 8, Baylor 2

W: Jacob Frost (1-0) L: Ethan Calder (3-3)

POTG: Hunter Simmons (2-4, BB)

WHAT’S NEXT

The Bears (15-6, 1-3) will continue their series against the Kansas State Wildcats (14-7, 4-0) at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 22, at Baylor Ballpark. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.