NO. 12 BASEBALL OVERPOWERS CORNELL, 17-0

WACO, Texas – The No. 12 ranked Baylor baseball team opened its weekend series against Cornell Friday night with a dominating 17-0 win over the Big Red (0-1) at Baylor Ballpark.

Redshirt freshman Chase Wehsener led the offensive attack, going 3-for-4 with 5 RBI, part of the Bears’ (5-0) 18 total hits on the evening.

Junior right-handed pitcher Hayden Kettler (2-0, 0.00) spun a gem, going six scoreless innings and racking up nine strikeouts, a new career high, while allowing just three hits and one walk.

After not scoring in either of the first two innings, Baylor sent 12 batters to the plate in the bottom of the third as part of a six-run outburst. Josh Bissonette started things with a solo home run and Davion Downey later had an RBI knock. Ryan Bertelsman and Wehsener then drove in a pair of runs each to give the Bears a 6-0 lead.

The Bears would score in every inning that followed, as in the fourth Cole Haring blasted a two-run shot over the left field wall to push the lead to 8-0. In the fifth inning, Nick Loftin tripled in two runs and later scored on a Cornell throwing error.

Wehsener picked up a run-scoring single in the bottom of the sixth and was chased around by a Bissonette triple. Then, Harper drove in Bissonette and the lead swelled to 14-0.

In the seventh, redshirt sophomore RHP Jimmy Winston took over on the bump, throwing a scoreless inning before Wehsener picked up his third RBI hit of the night in the bottom half, a two-run single that saw Baylor’s advantage increase to 16-0.

Freshman righty Blake Helton made his collegiate debut in the top of the eighth, retiring all three batters he faced in a clean inning. Junior JUCO transfer Mack Mueller put the exclamation point on with a pinch-hit solo home run in the bottom half to give the Bears their 17th run of the night.

Freshman right-hander Ryan Segner also got in on the action, making his collegiate debut in the ninth inning and dismissed all three batters he faced while picking up his first career strikeout to end the game.

NOTES

*Baylor improved to 2-0 all-time against Cornell. The Bears won the only previous matchup 6-5 on March 19, 1997.

*The Bears have won the first five games of the season for the first time since 2017, when the team won its first 10 games, and fifth time since 2006 (’06, ’08, ’12, ’17, ’19).

*Junior RHP Hayden Kettler recorded a new career high in strikeouts with nine. He topped his previous best of eight, set last week against Holy Cross.

*Kettler has a streak of 13 consecutive scoreless innings pitched to open the 2019 campaign.

*All nine Baylor starters hit safely, the first time a Baylor team has done so since defeating Kansas State 18-0 on April 27, 2018.

*Six Bears collected multi-hit games (Loftin, Wendzel, Haring, Wehsener, Bissonette, Harper).

*Redshirt freshman Chase Wehsener recorded his first-career multi-RBI game with five.

*Four other Bears added multi-RBI games (Loftin, Haring, Bertelsman, Bissonette) with two each.

*Head coach Steve Rodriguez collected his 100th career win as manager of the Bears. He is the fifth Baylor head coach to ever accomplish that feat.

*Josh Bissonette hit his first home run of the season and 11th of his career.

*Cole Haring hit his first home run of the season and eighth of his career.

*Mack Mueller hit his first-career home run as a Bear as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning.

*Baylor sent 12 batters to the plate in the third inning, scoring six runs on seven hits.

*Nick Loftin extended his on-base streak to 12 games.

*Bissonette extended his on-base streak to 12 games.

*Davion Downey has an eight-game on-base streak and a team-leading seven-game hitting streak.

*Davis Wendzel has a five-game hitting streak.

*Cole Haring has a five-game hitting streak.

*Freshmen Jake Walsh, Blake Helton and Ryan Segner all made their collegiate debuts in the victory.

STAT OF THE DAY
5 – Runs driven in by freshman Chase Wehsener, a career high.

QUOTE OF THE DAY
On Baylor’s offensive performance tonight…
“We are just trying to do the same thing every time, making good contact. It felt good to see some finally hit the grass. It was just a great team win. We’ve got to come out and do the same thing tomorrow, just stay on it and not take anything lightly.”

- Baylor redshirt freshman infielder Chase Wehsener

WHAT'S NEXT
The Bears will return to Baylor Ballpark on Saturday for game two with the Big Red at 3:05 p.m.

BU LHP Tyler Thomas is slated to take the mound against Cornell RHP John Natoli.