Baylor takes game one over No. 22 Texas Tech in thrilling fashion
LUBBOCK, Texas – The No. 18 Bears battled down the stretch and it took extra innings, but held on to defeat No. 22 Texas Tech 11-10 in 11 innings on Thursday night.
The Bears (26-10, 9-3) took the lead for good in the top of the 11th inning, as Richard Cunningham brought home the go-ahead run on a one-out RBI single.
On the mound, the Bears were led by reliever Kyle Hill who was outstanding, tossing a career-high 3.1 innings in relief, including striking out a six, also a career-high mark in relief.
Overall, the Bears tallied 11 runs on 14 hits, with five extra base hits. For the second-straight game the Bears did not outhit their opponent, but still took the win. Outfielder Mack Mueller was outstanding on the day, going 2-for-4 with a career-high five RBIs. Both of his hits were for extra bases as he brought home the third run of the second inning on an RBI double and then delivered a huge two-out grand slam in the bottom of the third, his first as a Bear and second homer of the year.
The Bears jumped out to a 9-3 lead after plating three in the second, four in the third and two in the fourth inning. The three runs in the second came off an RBI single by Cole Haring, a sac fly by Bissonette and an RBI double from Mueller. The four runs in the third came off Mueller’s two-out, full-count grand slam and the two in the fourth came off another big fly, this time as Wendzel delivered a two-run homer.
However, the Red Raiders were not going to go down easily, and battled back with four of their own in the fifth and one in the sixth to make it a 9-8 BU ballgame.
In the top of the seventh the Bears added one more on their third home run of the day, this time a solo shot by Haring.
In the eighth the Red Raiders added two on RBI doubles by Dylan Neuse and Josh Jung, despite a play earlier in the inning where it looked as though Gabe Holt was caught off the bag at second and picked off, but after an umpire review the call of safe was upheld.
Hill entered for the Bears and closed out the eighth inning before tossing three more scoreless innings, including striking out four-straight at one point over two innings. He would finish the game with a career-best six strikeouts in relief en route to his sixth win of the year.
With Hill earning the win, Red Raider reliever John McMillion took the loss as the game-winning run Nick Loftin was his responsibility. Cunningham hit his RBI single off lefty reliever Dane Haveman.
NOTES
*Baylor is on a season-high four-game win streak.
*The Bears improve to 5-6 against Texas Tech under fourth-year head coach Steve Rodriguez.
*The Bears tallied double-digit hits for the 23rd time this season and seventh time in their last eight games.
*122 of Baylor’s 258 total runs in 2019 have come with two outs, including four of Baylor’s 11 tonight.
*Baylor has hit 176 home runs in 203 games under Rodriguez, including 38 in 36 games this season. BU hit 54 homers in 2018, its most in a season under Rodriguez. The Bears are coming off back-to-back seasons with at least 50 home runs (51 in 2017, 54 in 2018) for the first time since 2009 (73) and 2010 (57).
*Davis Wendzel extended his on-base streak to 17 games and his hit streak to eight games.
*Cole Haring extended his on-base streak to 10 games.
*Richard Cunningham has an eight-game hitting streak.
*Andy Thomas has an eight-game hit streak.
*Josh Bissonette has a six-game on-base streak.
*Shea Langeliers has a six-game hit streak.
*Mack Mueller blasted his second homer of the year, a grand slam, the first of his Baylor career.
*Mack Mueller collected a career-high 5 RBIs.
*Haring smashed his team-leading eighth homer of the year, a solo shot.
*Wendzel collected his seventh home run of the year, a solo shot.
*The Bears have 10 multi-home run games on the year. The Bears are 9-1 in those contests.
*Five Bears recorded a multi-hit game, as Wendzel and Haring both tallied three, while Cunningham, Thomas and Mueller each had two.
*Three Bears recorded a multi-RBI night, led by Mueller with 5 and Wendzel and Haring with two apiece.
*Closer Kyle Hill tossed a season-high 3.1 innings in relief, striking out a season-best six batters. Those six strikeouts in relief are a career-high.
*Hill now has 132 strikeouts in relief, jumping him up to fourth on the career strikeouts in relief category. He is now 11 away from third place.
*For the second-straight game the Bears were outhit by their opponent, but were able to come through with the victory.
*Starter Jimmy Winston went 4.2 innings in his sixth start of the year.
*Reliever Caruso made his 18th appearance of the year.
*Leckich made his team-leading 20th appearance of the year.
*Boyd made his 17th appearance of the year, while Hill made his 19th.
STAT OF THE DAY
11 – It took the Bears 11 innings to complete the 11-10 victory over the Red Raiders.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
On today’s contest…
“Just an amazing victory for us in all aspects. We jumped up big, with our offense really having great at bats and then our pitching staff towards the end of the game did a great job of holding them off and allowing our offense to be able to score one more run. Kyle Hill really did a great job and our offense was doing everything it could against McMillon who is throwing 98 out there. I was just really happy for our offense to get out there to get one more run and for Kyle Hill to get the win for us.
- Baylor head coach Steve Rodriguez
WHAT'S NEXT
Game two of the series at Texas Tech is set for 6:30 p.m. CT on Friday, April 19 in Lubbock. The game will be televised live on FS1.