Bears defeat Arkansas- Pine Bluff in seven

WACO, Texas – The Bears defeated visiting Arkansas-Pine Bluff 10-0 in seven innings on Tuesday evening at Baylor Ballpark.

The Bears (3-1) put up seven runs with two outs in the top of the first inning, capped off by a two-run home run by Kyle Harper to put the game out of reach early and never looked back.

Four Baylor pitchers combined to shut out the Golden Lions (1-3), holding them to just two hits on the day. Freshman pitcher Hambleton Oliver started things off with two shutout innings and was followed by junior Tyler Thomas and senior Logan Freeman, who also each threw two innings apiece. Junior college transfer Jonathan Pierce made his Baylor debut and finished off the seventh inning for the Bears as they the 10 runs in seven innings rule was in effect.

The Bears added two more runs in the second inning on a bases-clearing double by Ricky Martinez to make it a 9-0 ballgame. Martinez led the Bears with 3 RBI in the contest.

The Bears then finished off their scoring in the third inning on an RBI single from Jared McKenzie, one of two hits for the freshman on the day.

Freshman Kyle Nevin earned his first Baylor start at third base and took advantage, leading the team with three hits on the day and one RBI while playing flawless defense.

Oliver earned the win on the staff day to improve to 1-0 on the year, while Golden Lion starter Race Tittle took the loss to fall to 1-0.

NOTES

Six of the Bears’ seven runs on the day came with two outs.

The Bears are now 3-0 all-time against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

Three Bears made their Baylor debuts on Tuesday – INF Benjamin Greer, OF Nolan Rodriguez and RHP Jonathan Pierce.

FR INF Kyle Nevin made his first Baylor start and connected on his first Baylor hit, an RBI single in the first inning. He finished the day with a team-high three hits in four at-bats with 1 RBI.

OF Jared McKenzie was 2-for-3 with 1 RBI. He has had multiple hits in all four of the games on the year.

FR RHP Hambleton Oliver made his first collegiate start on the staff day, tossing 2.0 scoreless innings, scattering one hit and striking out three while not allowing a walk.

Four different pitchers combined to shut out the Golden Lions. RHP Hambleton Oliver tossed 2.0 shutout innings, LHP Tyler Thomas threw 2.0, RHP Logan Freeman threw 2.0 and RHP Jonathan Pierce closed things out in the seventh with a 1-2-3 shutout inning.

LHP Tyler Thomas struck out a season-high five batters, while RHP Hambleton Oliver struck out a season-high three.

C Kyle Harper connected on his first home run of the season, a two-run shot in the first inning, the second home run of his career.

Seven of the Bears’ 10 runs came with two outs, including all seven in the first inning. On the season, 15 of the Bears’ 34 runs scored on the year have come with two outs.

The Bears had five consecutive hits in the first inning, the most since also having five consecutive hits on March 26, 2016 at Dallas Baptist.

STAT OF THE DAY

0 – Baylor pitchers showed great command on the day, not allowing a walk in seven innings of work.

QUOTES OF THE DAY FROM HEAD COACH STEVE RODRIGUEZ
Performance in first 3 innings….

“I think it’s important to get good quality at-bats, and our guys did a really good job of taking the walks when we needed them or when they gave them to us. Same thing with the hit-by-pitches. We were able to score a lot of runs early, which was great.”

Depth within the team this season…

“Depth is enormous, and the fact that our freshman are coming out and doing such a good job is big. I tell them all the time, as soon as you step on the field your year is irrelevant to me, I just want them to go out and play good baseball. Kyle Nevin did great work for us today. Tre Richardson and Jared McKenzie are doing awesome for us at the top of the order. Being able to have those guys in and get experience, while at the same time allow some of our upperclassmen to kind of find their footing as we get started is huge.”

WHAT'S NEXT

The Bears return to action this weekend as they host Oral Roberts in a three-game set. Game one is set for Friday, Feb. 21 at 6:30 p.m. CT at Baylor Ballpark and will be streamed live on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.