By Foster Nicholas | Sports Editor
Behind 5 2/3 innings of scoreless relief from redshirt sophomore right-handed pitcher Lucas Davenport and sixth-year senior Gabe Craig, Baylor baseball salvaged the series finale against No. 23 TCU with a 6-3 win Sunday afternoon at Lupton Stadium in Fort Worth.
The Bears (27-16, 9-12 Big 12) never led during the first two games of the series, falling to the Horned Frogs (31-13, 14-7 Big 12) 7-2 and 8-4 on Friday and Saturday, respectively. After junior left-handed pitcher Ethan Calder forfeited three runs in 3 1/3 innings on six hits, Davenport (3-1) shut down TCU for 3 2/3 innings and Craig tied a career-high five strikeouts in two innings to earn his seventh save of the year.
“It’s a great build game,” Davenport said. “We’re going to build from here, going into next week against Arizona State. I think we’re in a really good spot. This team will always compete — I know that. We’re always going to do our best and when we do that, you’re always going to get games like today’s win.”
Three Bears tallied multi-hit games — redshirt sophomore second baseman Travis Sanders, freshman third baseman Pearson Riebock and senior center fielder Ty Johnson. Redshirt senior designated hitter Hunter Simmons helped Baylor take its first lead of the weekend with a two-run triple as part of a four-run fourth inning.
“I feel like that kind of embodies what our team’s been the entire year, just responding,” Johnson said. “We haven’t been able to do that as well as we had earlier these past couple of weeks. But now is the time to start getting this thing rolling, and that was a statement win today, for sure.”
With Baylor’s bullpen cruising, the green and gold headed into the sixth inning needing insurance with a 4-3 lead. Senior left fielder Wesley Jordan and Riebock each reached base and advanced on a wild pitch, setting up Johnson for a two-out, two-run single in an 0-2 count to bump the Bears’ advantage to 6-3.
Not looking back, Craig took over and fanned the side in the eighth and picked up two more strikeouts in the ninth inning to secure a series finale win. With the win, Baylor avoided a sweep for the third time this season and has won at least one game in all seven Big 12 series’ this season.
“We need to win [the three remaining series], and we’re going to fight our tail off to do that,” head coach Mitch Thompson said. “We will celebrate this one for the rest of the day, then we’ll take a breath and get ready to go on Tuesday, but we have a lot ahead of us. We’re playing pretty good defense for the most part, we’re in a lot of games, so I’m proud of the team. We just have to keep battling.”
The Bears will be back in action against Sam Houston (9-35) at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Don Sanders Stadium in Huntsville.
