(Matt Hellman | Lariat Photo Editor)
By Daniel Hill
Sports Writer
Baylor baseball split a road series with No. 20 Oklahoma State over the weekend. The Bears fell in game one on Friday 5-0 and then won in extra innings 5-3 on Saturday. Game three was scheduled for Sunday but was cancelled due to inclement weather. The Bears are 11-13 overall and 1-1 in the Big 12 Conference.
In the opening game of Baylor’s Big 12 schedule, the Bears fell to Oklahoma State 5-0 Friday night in Stillwater. Junior right-handed pitcher Dillon Newman took the mound for the Bears and tossed five shutout innings before running into trouble in the sixth and seventh.
Newman hit a Cowboy batter and then allowed a two-out single. With two runners on base, Oklahoma State’s cleanup hitter Zach Fish crushed a home run over the right field fence to give the Cowboys a sudden 3-0 lead.
In the seventh inning, the Cowboys added on two more insurance runs with a squeeze bunt and the help of a Baylor wild pitch.
“We had some chances but we didn’t do a good job when we had them,” head coach Steve Smith said. “Some of that you have to give credit to their guy. I thought he pitched pretty well, as did Dillon. The only real difference in the game was that pitch Fish hit to right field… On a day like today with the way we were offensively, that’s all they needed.”
After Newman was pulled, junior left-handed pitcher Doug Ashby came on in relief for the Bears in the eighth inning and pitched a scoreless frame. Ashby still has not conceded a run in more than 7.1 innings of work in seven appearances.
“The stat line doesn’t do what Dillon did and how he pitched justice, but that’s how the game is,” Smith said. “It could’ve been a different story for him as well, but we didn’t get any runs in.”
In game two of the series on Saturday, the Bears won 5-3 in 12 innings. In the sixth, the Bears scored their first runs of the game when senior third baseman Cal Towey crushed a two-run single up the middle. Sophomore left fielder Adam Toth singled to score Towey to give the Bears a 3-1 lead.
In the tenth inning with the game tied 3-3, the Bears broke through with two runs.
Junior catcher Nate Goodwin earned a walk. Senior shortstop Jake Miller put down a sacrifice bunt to advance freshman pinch runner West Tunnell to second. Then sophomore center fielder Logan Brown delivered with a double to score Tunnell. After two intentional walks, sophomore infielder Duncan Wendel hit a ground ball to short, and the infielder committed an error on the play that allowed Brown to score.
“They pitched us away for two days and finally we got one in, and Logan hooked it down there and gave us a little room to breathe,” Smith said.
Senior right-handed pitcher Max Garner took the mound for Baylor and went six and one-third innings. He allowed three runs on seven hits.
Sophomore right-handed pitcher Ryan Smith took the mound in relief. Smith and junior right-handed pitcher Josh Michalec held the Cowboys scoreless after nine innings. In extra innings, senior left-handed pitcher Crayton Bare earned the win with more than three innings of shutout work.
“We had to turn some magic there late in the ball game a couple of times,” Smith said. “Defensively, we executed well and got a really, really good performance out of Crayton.”
The Bears will play at 6 p.m. today at the University of Texas- San Antonio.
