Baylor Uses Ninth-Inning Rally to Salvage Series and Defeat Cincinnati 8–3

CINCINNATI – Baylor baseball (20-15, 8-7) salvaged its series with a come-from-behind, thrilling 8-3 victory over Cincinnati (23-14, 6-9) on Sunday afternoon at UC Baseball Stadium.

Left-handed pitcher Ethan Calder (Sr.) gave the Bears another excellent outing, allowing three earned runs and totaling six punchouts against a potent Bearcat lineup across 5.2 innings of work. Veteran reliever Caleb Bunch (5Sr.) secured the win with three shutout frames out of the bullpen.

After scoring just four runs over the course of the first 25 innings of the series, the Bears exploded in the top of the ninth, posting a five-spot, highlighted by RBI base knocks from shortstop Travis Sanders (RJr.) and right fielder Brady Janusek (Fr.).

Baylor out-hit Cincinnati in the series finale, 15-to-11, and was 9-for-24 (.375) at the plate with runners in scoring position in victory. Janusek led the Bears with three hits, two of which were doubles, but five other players also recorded multi-hit contests: Pearson Riebock (So.), Brytton Clements (RFr.), Ty Johnson (5Sr.), JJ Kennett (Jr.) and Bo Caraway (Fr.).

“It was a gut-check win, and it was a great team win,” head coach Mitch Thompson told the Baylor Sports and Media Network post-game. “It was a fight throughout the entire game.”

Thompson later added, “We wanted to win the series. There’s no question about that, but when you lose the first two, there’s only one thing left to do, and you’ve got to get that third one. Every one of them counts. Every one of them is big. We’re halfway through the league now, and we’ve got another half to go. It’ll be another 15 games of fight, but I’m really proud of our fight.”

The Bears got on the board in the top of the first when Riebock lined a one-out double down the left line, and later came around to score following a single from Janusek and an error on a pickoff from Cincinnati’s starting pitcher, Connor Blue (Fr.). Riebock finished the series with four base knocks and reached base in seven of his 12 plate appearances.

The Bearcats took back the lead on a two-spot in the bottom of the third off Calder, following back-to-back run-scoring hits from left fielder Ryan Tyranski (RFr.) and first baseman Quinton Coats (So.).

Baylor had multiple chances to regain the lead against Blue, as it started with a runner on second base and no outs in each of the middle innings, but only came away with one run. In the top of the fifth, Johnson poked a double into the left field corner; he advanced to third base on a single from Kennett and later scored on a 4-6-3 double play.

Cincinnati scraped another run across off Calder in the bottom of the sixth, but Baylor tied the game in the following frame on a perfectly executed squeeze bunt from Caraway, who went 2-for-5 in the contest.

With Blue finally off the mound and the game all knotted up at three apiece, the Bears swung the momentum back in their direction on a leadoff triple from Caraway in the top of the ninth.

Sanders, who was 0-for-12 on the weekend with eight punchouts, finally broke out of his slump and shot an RBI single into center field to score Caraway. From that point forward, three more Bears got RBI base knocks as Janusek chopped a two-run double into right-center field, and Clements and Kennett both came through with RBI singles.

Final: Baylor 8, Cincinnati 3

W: Caleb Bunch (4-1) L: Dominic Mauro (1-3)

POTG: Caleb Bunch (3 IP, H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 10 BF, 34 TP, 21 ST, W)

What’s Next

The Bears (20-15) will return to Waco to take on UTSA (25-11) in a midweek matchup at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 14, at Baylor Ballpark. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.