The Baylor Bears baseball team walked away with a 4-0 shutout victory over the Wofford Terriers on Wednesday at Baylor Ballpark. The Bears are now 15-14 overall.
The Bears started the day strong on defense with freshman starting pitcher Andrew McInvale forcing four strikeouts in the first three innings and allowing no runs.
Although the Bears managed to get men on base in the first inning, it wasn’t until the second that they began to score.
After a bunt by sophomore outfielder Levi Gilcrease, the Terriers committed an error on the throw, allowing freshman outfielder T.J. Raguse to run home for the Bears’ first score.
The scoring continued in the second inning when senior infielder Justin Arrington and sophomore infielder Steven McLean each hit a single RBI to bring home freshman infielder Josh Bissonette and Gilcrease, respectively.
The Bears were able to score again for the final time in the fifth inning on a single RBI from sophomore first baseman Kameron Esthay to bring home freshman outfielder Richard Cunningham to make the score 4-0.
With the score at 3-0, the Bears continued to play well on defense, with McInvale finding his rhythm. After six innings pitched, he allowed only three hits and zero runs.
In the seventh inning, the Bears made a pitching change to senior Kody Hessemer.
Despite the fact that the Terriers were able to get bases loaded in the top of the seventh, Hessemer remained calm and allowed zero runs.
Once again in the eighth inning, the Bears found themselves in a tight spot with three Terriers on base.
This time, however, it was sophomore pitcher Joe Heineman who kept his composure and got two strikeouts in a row to end the inning and keep the Terriers off the board.
In the ninth inning, the Bears made one more pitching change to sophomore Troy Montemayor.
Montemayor recorded two strikeouts in the final inning to allow the Bears to post the shutout victory.
On the day, the Bears had zero errors to the Wofford Terriers’ 2 errors.
McInvale was happy with the win and felt that it helped his confidence.
“I had been struggling for the first part of the year, and to come out and get six scoreless really helped my confidence,” said McInvale. “That puts me on a good track for the rest of the year.”
Baylor head coach Steve Rodriguez was pleased with his team’s victory, but he knows there is still a lot of baseball left to play.
“I just think that everybody is starting to realize and find a role on this team, and the expectation is that everybody knows that they could be called on at anytime,” Rodriguez said.
“The way I look at it, it’s just about the next game. It’s nice that we won six out of seven, but those are in the past. We need to make sure that we are continuing to get better, continuing to put good swings on the ball, keep pitching down in the bottom of the zone. If we continue to do that then the wins will come, but if we don’t do that then what happened in the six of (the last) seven is irrelevant,” Rodriguez said.
The Bears will look next to get a road series conference win against the University of Oklahoma this weekend in Norman, Okla.
