By Foster Nicholas | Sports Writer
With opening weekend in the rearview mirror, Baylor baseball blew out the Houston Christian University Huskies by a score of 11-4 Tuesday night at Baylor Ballpark.
Baylor (2-2) got to play its first evening game of the season; the green and gold outshined HCU (0-4) with key contributions from several players.
Head coach Mitch Thompson said he was proud of the contributions made by several new additions and that those moments will benefit the players more than they think.
“The only way you can get experienced is to experience it, and so they’re getting it,” Thompson said. “It’s fun to see that, and it does give you hope for the future. We’re going to have these guys around for several years. It’s going to be fun to watch them play.”
Junior left-handed pitcher and outfielder Kobe Andrade got the start on the mound for the Bears and hit fifth in the lineup. Andrade struggled in his first start of the year, as Baylor trailed 3-0 after the first inning. He then walked a couple of batters in the second inning and was taken out of the game after just 1.2 innings of work.
In came one of the Bears’ new arms, junior right-handed pitcher Jared Matheson, and he made his way to the mound for the first time of his career in the green and gold. Matheson was the first of many new faces to make an impact. He threw 2.1 scoreless innings while only allowing one walk and zero hits, also striking out four batters. Matheson’s day was done after the top half of the fourth inning with Baylor still trailing 3-0.
The Bears opened the bottom of the first inning with a hard hit ground ball to second that resulted in a Huskies error, allowing the batter to reach base. Then a strikeout and two-consecutitve walks loaded the bases for freshman infielder Kolby Branch.
A new pitcher entered the game for Houston Christian and with a 1-2 count, Branch hammered a grand slam over the left field fence to give Baylor the 4-3 lead.
“It’s just goals you set when you’re younger,” Branch said, reflecting on his first collegiate home run. “I’m excited to be out here [and] excited for the opportunity. [You] never know how many of these you get, so I’m just happy to be out here.”
That’s where the scoring stopped for the Bears in the early innings, but both teams were able to rely on solid pitching in the fifth and sixth innings. With the green and gold still holding strong at a 4-3 advantage, the top of the seventh rolled around and the Huskies started reaching base. Junior right-handed pitcher Hambleton Oliver entered the game for the Bears with two runners on base and only one out in the inning.
Oliver walked the first batter he faced to load the bases before bouncing back and striking out the next batter. However, on the next pitch, he threw a wild pitch and a run was able to even the game at four runs apiece. Oliver was able to get himself out of the jam, and that run was the last that HCU would score.
“The good news is that there’s no quit in us,” Thompson said. “We’re going to battle, we’re going to compete and that’s what we’ve done even in the game we got blown out in. We came back and tried to score.”
Baylor didn’t waste any time answering the Huskies. Branch led off the inning with a double and then redshirt freshman outfielder Gavin Brzozowski hit his first homerun of the year to give the Bears the lead back.
“It felt awesome [hitting] my first college home run,” Brzozowski said. “Hopefully I can hit a lot more and my goal is to keep on hitting balls hard: that’s my plan.”
Baylor kept hitting the ball hard as well. The eighth inning rolled around and the green and gold broke the game wide open. Branch spanked his second double of the game down the left field line, this time with the bases loaded. Two runs scored and up came Brzozowski, where he then slapped a single into the outfield and the Bears scored two more. Baylor kept the rally going and tallied one more in the inning to ultimately move the score to 11-4.
Oliver (1-0) got the win for the Bears and the top two hitters in the lineup, Branch and Brzozowski combined for a whopping 10 RBIs.
Baylor will be back in action at 3 p.m. on Friday when they travel to the Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, N.C., for the first game of a weekend series against Duke University.
