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Baylor Baseball

Bears Even Series with 7-4 Victory Over Oral Roberts

February 23, 2020
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WACO, Texas – The Bears evened the series with Oral Roberts up at one game apiece after taking game two, 7-4, on Saturday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark. 

The Bears (4-2), collected seven runs on 11 hits and were flawless on defense, bouncing back from an uncharacteristic night in the field on Friday. 

Senior catcher Andy Thomas launched his second home run of the year and was tied for the team lead on the day with two RBI.

Junior infielder Nick Loftin, sophomore infielder Ricky Martinez and senior outfielder Mack Mueller each also had two RBI apiece. 
The Bears jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning off Thomas' two-run shot and never looked back. 

They added four more runs on four hits in the bottom of the third to extend the lead to 6-0. Martinez brought home two on a double and Mueller followed with a two-RBI single. 

Through the first three frames, Baylor starter Evan Godwin, making his first collegiate start, faced just one batter over the minimum, not surrendering a hit until there were two outs in the third inning. 

In the fourth, a solo home run by Jordan Wiley put Oral Roberts on the board, 6-1 Bears. 

The Bears added one more run in the sixth inning, taking advantage of an Oral Roberts fielding error to make it a 7-1 ballgame. 

The Golden Eagles plated three in the seventh inning, with back-to-back solo home runs from Blake Hall and a second long ball of the day for Wiley. Reliever Logan Freeman entered the game with two on and one out and a walk loaded the bases and a wild pitch brought home the third run of the inning. Freeman locked in and minimized damage, however, getting a strikeout and a line out to end the inning. 

Baylor relievers Tyler Thomas and Luke Boyd took care of things down the stretch, both facing the minimum in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively. 

Godwin earned the win to improve to 1-0 on the year, while ORU starter Tanner Rogen fell to 0-2 on the year after allowing six runs on eight hits through 4.0 innings of work. 

Boyd earned his first save of the year. 
 
NOTES

The Bears are now 25-21 all-time against ORU

CF Jared McKenzie extended his hitting streak to six games (he has reached safely in all six games on the year). 

Five of Jared McKenzie's six games have been multi-hit performances. 

C Andy Thomas extended his reached based streak to nine games, stemming back to the 2019 season. 

OF Mack Mueller extended his on-base streak to seven games, going back to 2019.

INF Ricky Martinez extended his hitting streak to four games and his on-base streak to eight games, good for second-best on the team. 

C Andy Thomas connected on his second long ball of the season. He is already two home runs shy of tying his career high for home runs in a season (4, set in 2019).

True freshman starter Evan Godwin earned the win in his first collegiate start, tossing 6.1 innings, allowing just four runs on five hits with a season-high four strikeouts to just one walk. 

RHP Luke Boyd collected his first save of the year in his second appearance of the season. Tossed a clean 1-2-3 top of the ninth including his first strikeout of the year. 

RHP Logan Freeman made his third appearance of the season. Tossed 0.2 innings as he entered in the seventh to get the Bears out of trouble. 

LHP Tyler Thomas made his third appearance of the year, facing the minimum in the eighth inning with two strikeouts. 

Seven of nine starters had at least one hit on the day, with five having multi-hit performances. 

Infielders Esteban Cardoza-Oquendo had his second multi-hit performance on Saturday, going 2-for-4 with one run scored.  

QUOTE OF THE DAY
On Evan Godwin's first career start…
"I'll tell you what. Really excited for what Evan Godwin did out there. He threw a couple innings in a tight game against Nebraska last week. Really happy and proud of what he did that day. We wanted to make sure we gave him an opportunity today. He absolutely did exactly what we wanted him to do. Ran through it and did really well. He did hit a couple barrels. The great thing is, he didn't walk many which was a blessing for us. He forced them to swing the bat. Like I said, they ran into a couple barrels with the wind blowing out. They got some balls up in the wind. They went out, but overall I am really happy with him." – Head Coach Steve Rodriguez

WHAT'S NEXT
The Bears and Oral Roberts will return to Baylor Ballpark for the rubber match on Sunday, Feb. 23 at 1p.m. CT. The game will be streamed live on Big 12 Now on ESPN+. Fans with tickets from Saturday's men's basketball game vs. Kansas or the women's basketball game vs. Oklahoma will get into the baseball game free when showing their ticket stub at the gate. 

Tags: Baseball
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Bears Even Series with 7-4 Victory Over Oral Roberts

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