By Foster Nicholas | Sports Editor
Baylor baseball was in the running for its third Big 12 series of the year before a disastrous five-run top of the seventh inning set up by a throwing error allowed Arizona State to skate away with an 8-6 win Sunday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark.
The Bears (29-18, 10-14 Big 12) struck out 36 times across the weekend — approximately 46.2% of all at-bats. Head coach Mitch Thompson’s squad struck out 11 times on Sunday and stranded 13 runners on base as they went 4-for-18 with runners in scoring position.
“For the most part, we pitched incredibly well all weekend long, except for the seventh inning [today],” Thompson said. “If you were to tell me that we could hold the best offense in our conference to four runs [Saturday] and four runs [Sunday] and keep them there, then again, I would have been really pleased … It’s frustrating that we didn’t win. We wanted to win. That’s where the frustration is.”
Baylor rattled off a 7-4 win on Friday night, benefitting from four Sun Devils (32-17, 16-8 Big 12) errors. Arizona State bounced back on Saturday, and two Baylor errors allowed the visitors to swipe a 4-1 victory.
For the third straight game, Arizona State quickly responded to the Bears scoring first. Redshirt senior right fielder Ezno Apodaca doubled and was singled in by senior left fielder Wesley Jordan in the bottom of the first inning.
Junior left-handed pitcher Ethan Calder ran into trouble in the second, allowing four hits and two runs to come across before ending the inning with a caught stealing. Calder bounced back and finished the day allowing two earned runs on six hits and one walk in four innings of work.
Baylor had a chance to tack on in the fourth with the bases loaded and two outs, but redshirt sophomore second baseman Travis Sanders struck out looking on a 3-2 pitch and walked back to the dugout in disbelief.
The Sun Devils tacked on another run in the fifth, but it came across as unearned due to an error to open the inning. Redshirt sophomore right-handed pitcher Lucas Davenport worked past the miscue, only allowing an RBI single that was credited as an unearned run to Calder.
After a Tyriq Kemp double to lead off the bottom of the inning, Baylor matched with an RBI sacrifice fly from freshman third baseman Pearson Riebock, who went 3-for-4, to keep the deficit at 3-2. Davenport lasted 2 2/3 innings, allowing two unearned runs on three hits and three strikeouts.
After Riebock overthrew first base to lead off the seventh, Davenport threw a double, strikeout and sac fly. That marked the end of his day as Thompson went to sophomore left-handed pitcher RJ Ruais with two left-handed bats due up. Ruais walked the only two batters he faced, and with two outs, the bases were loaded, prompting another pitching change.
Only trailing 4-2, right-handed pitcher Grayson Murry took the long jog onto the mound. The junior quickly got ahead 0-2 on senior catcher Josiah Cromwick, before he fouled off two more pitches and pumped a high breaking ball off the wall in left field, clearing the bases. Murray allowed another single that scored Cromwick before a soft groundout ended the inning with Arizona State on top 8-2.
“I’m disappointed that the game got away from us there in the seventh inning,” Thompson said. “We were one pitch away from getting out of it with just a run, so that’s disappointing that we couldn’t do that.”
But Baylor wasn’t down and out just yet. Redshirt sophomore outfielder Gavin Brzozowski, who entered the game for Jordan as a defensive replacement in the sixth inning, swatted a 363-foot solo home run to left field in the seventh inning. Brzozowski was also at the heart of a three-run eighth inning rally for the Bears.
Brzozowski slowly chopped a ground ball to first base after two singles and a walk loaded the bases with one out. As the ball skipped across the infield grass, it hit a divot when it touched the dirt and jumped over the first baseman’s head just enough to roll past him. Brzozowski rolled into second with a two-run double to keep the inning alive.
Another strikeout put two outs on the board, but Riebock drilled a two-strike single to plate another and trim the Sun Devils’ lead to 8-6. Senior right-handed pitcher Hunter Teplanszky entered the game for the Bears in the eighth, but left after pointing to his elbow in pain.
Redshirt senior right-handed pitcher Gabe Craig delivered a scoreless top of the ninth inning, giving Baylor one last shot. However, as was the tune of the weekend, the Bears went down 1-2-3 with their 10th and 11th strikeouts of the day.
“Some of our best hitters had really tough weekends, and we’ll go to work on trying to be better,” Thompson said.
The Bears will continue their seven-game homestand against UTRGV (32-15, 21-8 SLC) at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Baylor Ballpark.
