By Jeffrey Swindoll
Sports Writer
The Bears dropped its opening series in conference play to the No. 4 TCU Horned Frogs last weekend in Fort Worth with a 3-1 loss on Friday, 3-2 loss on Saturday and a 10-1 blowout on Sunday. Baylor (6-12, 0-3) extended its losing streak to 10 games with the series loss to TCU.
The Horned Frogs batted-in two runs in the third inning of game one to get out to take an early lead. TCU totalled 10 runs in game one compared to Baylor’s total of four. Sophomore pitcher Drew Tolson (0-3) started for the Bears, pitching all the hits and runs that TCU accumulated.
“[In game one,] neither one of us swung the bats well so there was a chance,” Baylor head coach Steve Smith said. “They have some big arms. Their guys were good tonight and did their job. We competed but weren’t able to get the timely hit that we needed.”
Baylor grabbed the lead in game two with a two-run first inning thanks to freshman catcher Cameron Miller and freshman third-baseman Jonathan Ducoff.
TCU would come storming back, silencing the Bears’ upstart offense for the rest of the game. Sophomore pitcher Daniel Castano pitched five-straight shutout innings against the Horned Frogs but eventually broke down, allowing three runs late in the game to seal TCU’s fate as winner of the series.
“We had some really good, competitive at-bats; we didn’t do many things wrong in [game two],” Smith said. “We made really tough defensive plays. They got a couple seeing-eye singles that got through to tie the game.”
The floodgates opened in the series finale. The Bears allowed 14 hits and 10 runs to the Horned Frogs in game three, marking Baylor’s first time since 1958 losing 10 straight games.
