By Foster Nicholas | Sports Writer
Baylor baseball lost in the series finale to Central Michigan University, 4-3, Sunday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark.
The Bears (1-2) opened up the weekend with a walk-off win to secure head coach Mitch Thompson’s first victory. It took ten innings for Baylor to get a win, but junior reliever Cole Stasio (1-0) was given the win after throwing up zeros at the end of the game.
On Saturday, the Bears were able to score a couple runs towards the end of the game, but after giving up 15 runs in just one inning, the green and gold ultimately fell to the Chippewas (2-1) by a score of 20-5.
On Sunday, Baylor trusted sophomore right-handed pitcher Mason Marriott to start on the mound. Marriott (0-1) came out hot and so did the Bears’ bats as they scored a run early in the bottom of the first to take a quick 1-0 lead.
The advantage quickly went away though as CMU scored four runs in the top of the second to take a 4-1 lead. However, after the second inning, Baylor didn’t give up another run to the Chippewas.
Marriott finished the day giving up four earned runs in four innings and struck out six batters, a career high in the first weekend start of his career. Following Marriott, junior right-handed pitcher Andrew Petrowski came in and threw four scoreless innings, only giving up two hits while striking out five in his first appearance as a Bear.
“It was really fun, [the] crowd was really good. Everything was working pretty good, fastball and slider were pretty good. I thought we looked really solid [this weekend] and I’m excited to see what we can do in the future,” Petrowski said.
The Baylor bats came back alive in the sixth inning when junior left-handed pitcher and outfielder Kobe Andrade hit a leadoff triple. And then just one batter later, sophomore first baseman John Ceccoli hit the first home run of the year for the Bears and cut the CMU lead down to one, 4-3.
“We’re going to be growing up every game, every inning we play,” Thompson said. “We’re learning as a coaching staff. We’re learning as players. We’re getting experience. We have guys out there who have never been out there before. They competed hard. I think it showed a lot of heart for our guys how we came back after yesterday’s ballgame. They showed the fire and the fight.”
Unfortunately, that was the last of the offense for Baylor as the final score was 4-3 and Marriot was awarded the loss. The Bears had an opportunity in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and a runner at second base, but a groundout ended all hope of another walk-off win.
Baylor will be back in action at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday against Houston Christian University at Baylor Ballpark.
