By Foster Nicholas | Sports Writer
Baylor baseball dropped the final two contests of a three-game series to Kansas following a blowout win on Friday night that marked the first time Baylor baseball had a .500 record since February 2023. The Bears fell in the series finale by a score of 12-2 on Sunday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark.
Head coach Mitch Thompson and the Bears (18-20, 9-9 Big 12) rode a six-game conference winning streak and landed in a fourth-place tie in the Big 12 after the game-one victory. Baylor promptly forfeited six walks and allowed 14 Jayhawk (21-15, 9-9 Big 12) hits in the game-three loss, which dropped the Bears into a three-way seventh-place tie in the conference standings.
The series loss marked the first home weekend series that didn’t fall in Baylor’s favor since the second week of the season when it was swept by then-No. 22 Indiana in late February.
“We just didn’t pitch well enough, and then we didn’t swing the bat well enough for sure today to win a game. So that’s disappointing,” Thompson said. “The game got away from us today, and it wasn’t a whole lot of fun.”
A big part of @BaylorBaseball's success has been the emergence of SS Tyriq Kemp. He's hitting .647 in the past five games (11-17) and continued that hot hitting today with his 2nd HR of the season before play was postponed vs. KU. #Baylor #SicEm pic.twitter.com/vLUSNYKVKm
— Parker Rehm (@parker_rehm) April 21, 2024
The Bears trudged through the first two innings on the mound with minimal control. Freshman left-handed pitcher Mason Green (1-5) only recorded one out in his seventh start of the season and was tagged with the loss after allowing three earned runs in his abbreviated outing. Green was relieved by sophomore left-handed pitcher Ethan Calder, who walked two batters and allowed four hits while giving up two more runs in 1 1/3 innings.
Baylor found extensive work from redshirt junior right-handed pitcher Patrick Hail, who threw up zeros in the three following frames. Hail worked 3 1/3 innings, giving up three walks, one hit and one run to open the sixth inning before ending his outing.
“Patrick threw the ball well and kept putting up some zeros for us. He gave us an opportunity to kind of crawl back into the game,” Thompson said. “You have to have somebody throwing up zeros for you when you’re behind, and Patrick did his job — no question.”
Hail weathered the storm defensively, but the Bears’ offense recorded just seven hits on the day. Junior centerfielder Ty Johnson (3-for-4) and senior first baseman Cole Posey (2-for-3) each recorded multi-hit games while junior shortstop Tyriq Kemp also reached twice with a double and a walk.
https://twitter.com/BaylorBaseball/status/1782151539630485697
Baylor tallied its only two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning off the bat of junior outfielder Wesley Jordan, who smoked a two-run home run over the left-field fence to extend his team lead to seven long balls on the year.
The homer was all for naught, as the Jayhawks plated seven runs across the final three innings. Senior left-handed pitcher Kobe Andrade allowed a grand slam in the sixth inning, with one of those runs being credited to Hail.
We like grand slams. We learned Ben Hartl does too.
TOP 6 | Kansas 9, Baylor 0 pic.twitter.com/mkjX2Dz9UH
— Kansas Baseball (@KUBaseball) April 21, 2024
Redshirt freshman right-handed pitcher Tanner Duke let a pair of runs cross the plate in the seventh, and redshirt junior right-handed pitcher Drew Leach allowed the 12th run of the ballgame, which put Kansas ahead by double digits at 12-2. That score was enough to run-rule the Bears following the bottom of the frame.
Baylor will wrap up its four-game homestand with a midweek game against Sam Houston at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday at Baylor Ballpark. The Bears lost to the Bearkats (24-16, 7-8 SLC) by a score of 18-3 on March 19 in Huntsville.
