By Jeffrey Cohen | Sports Writer
Stephen F. Austin possessed the momentum going into the late innings, scoring three in the fifth and five in the sixth.
After an empty seventh inning, Baylor had traffic on the basepaths. Freshman outfielder Brady Janusek made a break for home on a pickoff attempt to first base. He stole home, sliding under the tag to give the Bears a 9-8 lead in the bottom of the eighth.
“My eyes lit up,” Janusek said. “The stars aligned, and I was able to get in there.”
That run was the difference as Baylor (5-3) defeated SFA (7-3) in a back-and-forth contest Tuesday night, 9-8.
The bats got loud right away after being silent in Round Rock. Two home runs screamed off the bats of Janusek (3-for-5, RBI) and redshirt senior first baseman Tyce Armstrong (3-for-4, 4 RBI) in the first inning.
“I loved the way that we came out of the chute early, and [Janusek] started us off with the leadoff bomb,” head coach Mitch Thompson said. “That was big, hitting two home runs in the first inning.”
Baylor kept laying on the Lumberjacks’ starter Seanan Farney. Armstrong drove in another run with an RBI double, and redshirt freshman outfielder Hunter Snow followed up with a two-run home run to extend the Bears’ lead to 5-0.
“I made a few adjustments after this past weekend, and it feels really good,” Armstrong said. “I talked to my old roommate, and my hands weren’t really stopping where I usually would stop them … They were just flowing, and it was getting me out of [a] funk.”
SFA took a chunk out of Baylor’s advantage with a two-out rally in the fifth. Redshirt freshman right-hander Cayden Baker allowed back-to-back walks before Cermodrick Bland unleashed for a three-run home run to cut the deficit to two.
The Bears struck for three more runs behind an RBI double from redshirt junior infielder Travis Sanders and a two-run double from Armstrong, but the Lumberjacks did not quit. They put up a five-spot in the sixth to tie the game 8-8.
“We had the lead, they punched back, we punched them back, they punched us again, and then it was a fight,” Thompson said. “They were getting after it, and it was a good, competitive game.”
Baylor’s lone run in the eighth ended up being the decider as the Bears completed their 9-8 victory over SFA.
Sophomore right-handed pitcher Zack Wallace started the game and went the longest out of all seven Baylor pitchers, dealing three scoreless innings.
Next up, the Bears travel to Houston to compete in the Bruce Bolt College Classic. They’ll open the weekend against No. 11 Ole Miss (9-0) at 3:05 p.m. Friday at Daikin Park.
