By Foster Nicholas | Sports Writer
Baylor baseball junior third baseman Hunter Teplanszky tripped at first base when taking his secondary lead in the bottom of the first inning, but it was intentional. As Teplanszky face-planted, Sam Houston senior left-handed pitcher Gavi Coldiron disengaged with the rubber in confusion.
Coldiron’s teammates barked at him that Bears junior center fielder Ty Johnson was on his way home. Amidst the madness, Johnson swiped home and Teplanszky cruised into second base, giving Baylor an early one run lead en route to a blowout 9-3 win over the Bearkats on Tuesday night at Baylor Ballpark.
“That’s a play that we worked on a lot in the fall, so it was really fun to see it actually work,” junior designated hitter Wesley Jordan said. “You run it a lot and normally it doesn’t work, but every now and then it does and it’s really cool when it does.”
https://twitter.com/baylorbaseball/status/1782921427408064606?s=46&t=Fr_Yc7z_ZhQSkKNVIryL_A
Baylor head coach Mitch Thompson and the Bears (19-20, 9-9 Big 12) returned the favor with Sam Houston (24-17, 7-8 C-USA) after falling 18-3 in Huntsville on March 19. Baylor flipped the script as it fired on all cylinders, receding 12 strikeouts on the mound and recording 10 hits at the plate.
“I think that it was a really, really well-played game all the way around,” Thompson said. “I thought we swung the bats well. We ran the bases well. We were aggressive, stole some bags.
“It all starts on the mound, it usually does. If the mound is good, the rest of the game kind of falls into place. And I thought Jared Matheson started us out well.”
The Bears threw six different pitchers, with senior right-handed pitcher Jared Matheson (1-1) earning the win after firing 3.0 scoreless innings without allowing a hit to open the ballgame. Freshman left-handed pitcher Mason Green allowed one earned run in his 1 2/3 innings of relief following Matheson, while redshirt junior right-handed pitcher Andrew Petrowski also allowed an earned run in 1/3 innings.
Freshman left-handed pitcher RJ Ruais allowed one earned run in his lone inning of work, but that was where the Sam Houston bats peaked as redshirt junior right-handed pitcher Gabe Craig and senior left-handed pitcher Kobe Andrade combined for 3.0 scoreless innings with seven strikeouts to end the game. The six arms combined to walk just three batters on the evening.
“Throw strikes; that’s the number one job for a pitcher, and if you don’t throw strikes, you just can’t be counted on to pitch,” Thompson said. “These guys did a really nice job tonight.”
Jordan notched his 10th multi-hit game of the season, going 2-for-3 at the dish, including a two-run triple in the seventh inning. The strong night extended his on-base streak to 30 consecutive games, making him the first player since Davis Wendzel (37 in 2018) to reach first base in at least 30 straight games. Johnson also recorded a multi-hit game, going 2-for-3 with three stolen bases and three runs scored.
In just his third start behind the plate this season, freshman catcher Brayden Buchanan was the only other Bear with multiple hits as he clubbed a triple and a double, his first two extra-base hits at the college level.
“I just played really loose tonight and tried to get my best swing off,” Buchanan said. “[I] made really good contact with old balls tonight. It was a lot of fun.”
After Johnson stole home in the first, he added another run on the basepaths in the third inning after singling in Buchanan from third, then promptly stole his way to third base. The stolen base threat crossed home a couple of pitches later as Coldiron (4-3) was called for a balk.
Junior shortstop Tyriq Kemp extended the Baylor lead to 4-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning after a sacrifice fly, but SHSU cut the deficit to one in the following two frames. The Bears added a run in the bottom of the sixth on a double play, but the offensive explosion came in the seventh inning.
Johnson singled in a run with runners on the corners, then Jordan cleared the bases with a triple. One batter later, Jordan trotted home on a sac fly to push the Bears to a 9-3 victory.
https://twitter.com/baylorbaseball/status/1782953864838123925?s=46&t=Fr_Yc7z_ZhQSkKNVIryL_A
“It’s nice to play well,” Thompson said. “The thing that we’ve learned this year in the Big 12 — and it really goes for any team in the conference — if you play well, you have a chance of winning. If you don’t play well, you’re not winning, and that’s just how it goes.”
The Bears will get back to conference play at 5:30 p.m. on Friday to open a three-game series against West Virginia (23-16, 11-7) at Monongalia County Ballpark in Morgantown, W.Va.
