By Jackson Posey | Sports Writer
Texas State upset the Bears at Baylor Ballpark Tuesday, 6-2, three weeks to the day after the Bears run-ruled the Bobcats in San Marcos. The loss marked the third in four games for the Bears, who closed out March with a series win over No. 23 Arizona.
The Bobcats (16-16, 6-6) got off to a hot start, scoring in the second and third innings and extending Baylor’s (21-11, 5-7) scoreless streak to 15 innings. The Bears went hitless with two outs and 1-for-15 with runners on.
“If you don’t play defense and you don’t score, you’re not going to win,” Baylor head coach Mitch Thompson said.
A first-inning shoe blowout left Baylor sophomore left-handed pitcher Mason Green with one sock glinting in the fading sunlight. After scrambling to find a replacement, a freshman’s arm emerged from the dugout to unceremoniously toss a size-12.5 cleat onto the mound. Green had allowed the first two batters to reach base, but clad in newly mismatched footwear, he struck out the side swinging.
“Carson Bailey threw them off, and here we go,” Thompson said. “I haven’t seen that one before, so kind of weird.”
Texas State small-balled its way to a pair of early runs — Justin Vossos scored on a second-inning grounder by Chase Mora, and Coy DeFury sent one back up the middle to score Alan Shibley in the third. Baylor was within reach, but the Bears were just 3-for-17 at the plate in the first five innings.
Then, in the top of the sixth, the wheels fell off.
Bobcat outfielder Zachary Gingrich launched a double down the right field line for an RBI, sending DeFury home. Center fielder Ty Johnson failed to corral a deep fly ball from Samson Pugh; Gingrich scored easily, and Pugh rounded third as the ball rolled to the warning track. The throw never got past the cutoff man.
The next batter singled, prompting Thompson to send in Andrew Petrowski in relief. He incited a grounder to shortstop Tyriq Kemp — but the ball ricocheted awkwardly, bouncing into the air and past Kemp. The Bears had as many errors (three) as hits in six innings against a Bobcat team they previously beat 19-3 in San Marcos.
With desperation mounting after another scoreless frame, Baylor turned to former starting third baseman Hunter Teplanszky on the mound.
Teplanszky, who appeared in every game last season, has only started one game during Big 12 play. He’d pitched one career inning, the final frame of a blowout loss to Oklahoma during his freshman year at TCU. He walked one, allowed a hit and threw a wild pitch. No earned runs. The memory was just a twinkle in his mind’s eye.
But Tuesday, Teplanszky showed no signs of novelty. He displayed real command, striking out two swinging and allowing one hit in a clean inning of work. To that point in the game, he was only the second Baylor pitcher (after Cole Stasio) to pitch an inning without allowing multiple hits or a run.
“It was good to see him get out there and pitch,” Thompson said. “He showed that he’s got the ability to help us on the mound as well, and I think that that’s a positive, too.”
Mora lifted a solo shot to left field in the eighth to cap the Bobcats’ six-run performance. Baylor furnished a miniature rally in the bottom of the ninth, scoring one unearned run and another on a wild pitch, to close its scoreless streak at 15 innings. The Bears will try to refocus before facing rival Texas Tech in Lubbock this weekend.
“We just gotta get back to work in practice,” Thompson said. “We gotta get in here, we gotta start working on their heads. Hitting is contagious, it’s a confidence thing. It’s obvious that there are guys that are questioning.”
