Feb. 21, 2002
Box Score
WACO, Texas - Joni Miller, Cristin Vitek and Katie Decker combined to toss Baylor's second no-hitter of the season here Thursday night, defeating Stephen F. Austin 8-0 in five innings in the back end of a doubleheader. The Lady Bears defeated the Lady Jacks 3-0 in the opener.
Baylor improves to 18-2 on the season, the best 20-game start in the program's existence. The Lady Bears have won eight straight games, tying for the fourth-longest winning streak in school history. SFA falls to 3-12 on the year.
Miller (7-1) started for Baylor, she lasted three and two-thirds innings with no walks and two strikeouts. Vitek recorded the next three outs, two of which were strikeouts, before Decker got Devin Cobb to groundout to third for the game's final out. In fact, the lone Baylor miscue in the game was a dropped fly ball in the first inning by left fielder Carrie Leerberg, that kept the Lady Bears from pitching the first perfect game in school history.
This is the sixth no-hitter ever tossed by Baylor and the first time multiple pitchers have combined for the feat. Success continues for Baylor pitchers against the Lady Jacks. Decker no-hit SFA last Friday at the Houston Invitational, and Miller struck out a school-record 15 SFA batters in a meeting at the UTA College Classic two weeks ago.
Baylor jumped on top early, scoring three runs on two hits and an SFA error in the first inning. The Lady Bears did the exact same thing in the third, opening a commanding 6-0 lead. With one run already scored in the bottom of the fourth, Kourtny Westerfeld dropped a two-out, Texas Leaguer into right-center to score Stacey Hundley and make the lead 8-0. A 1-2-3 top of the fifth brought the mercy rule and an 8-0 Baylor victory. The Lady Bears are now 9-0 this season when scoring in the first inning.
Seven different Lady Bears had one hit each in the second game. April Luce and Kristen Lancaster each scored twice, while Luce and Stephanie Pomes each had two RBI.
In the opener, Decker (5-0) silenced the SFA bats for five and one-third innings before giving way to Vitek. Decker allowed just two hits and struck out six, she has now allowed just five hits in her last 20 and one-third innings of work. Vitek pitched the final five outs perfectly with two strikeouts for her second save of the season.
Baylor pounded nine hits in the opener, led by Leerberg and Kim Wilmoth with two each. The Lady Bears put a run on the board in the second when Lancaster laced a leadoff double into right-center and later scored on an SFA error. In the third, BU pieced together two singles and a walk before Nan Wilkins scored Hundley on a sacrifice fly. Baylor added another run in the sixth on a Vitek RBI single that plated Leerberg.
Thursday's action was just a precursor to this weekend's Compass Bank Invitational, hosted by the Lady Bears at Getterman Stadium. Action gets underway at 9 a.m. Friday with Akron facing Oakland, followed by Oakland against San Diego State at 11 a.m., SFA against Akron at 1 p.m. and San Diego State against Creighton at 3 p.m. Baylor hosts Creighton at 5 p.m., wrapping up the day's action against SFA at 7 p.m.
