Baylor
Texas
Baseball Edged by Texas 7-6
4/16/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 16, 2004
WACO, Texas - Baylor pulled to within one in the bottom of the ninth, but a double play ended the rally as the Bears fell to top-ranked Texas 7-6 Friday night at Baylor Ballpark. A facility-record crowd of 5,602 witnessed the game.
The Bears fall to 15-20 overall and 5-7 in Big 12 Conference play with the loss, just their third in the last nine games. The Longhorns improve to 37-4 overall and 10-2 in league play with their 10th-straight victory.
Chase Gerdes led off the ninth with an infield single and advanced to second on an errant throw by Longhorn pitcher Huston Street. Drew Sutton then singled up to the middle, plating Gerdes and bringing the potential winning run to the plate in Michael Griffin. However, Griffin bounced the first pitch he saw up the middle and into a 6-3 double play. Street got the next batter, Kyle Reynolds, to ground out to second, ending the game.
J. Brent Cox (3-1), the fourth of five pitchers on the night for Texas, earned the victory after silencing the Baylor bats in the middle innings. He held the Bears hitless with three strikeouts in 1.2 innings of work. Street pitched the ninth for his fourth save of the season.
Ryan LaMotta (2-4), the second of four Baylor pitchers, was touched for three runs, two earned on five hits with two strikeouts in 2.1 innings. All three runs scored in the eighth on a Drew Stubbs two-run home run and a Taylor Teagarden base hit that followed a two-out error.
Baylor built a 4-1 lead through the first four innings. Reynolds put the Bears on the board with an RBI single in the first, and Gerdes doubled the lead with a run-scoring two-bagger in the second. Texas answered in the top of the third on a Teagarden solo home run. With one out in the fourth, Gerdes plated Mike Pankratz on a single up the middle and then Paul Witt scampered home on a wild pitch.
Texas tied the game at 4-4 with a run in the fifth and two more in the sixth. Robby Hudson had the game-tier, a one-run single up the middle. Sutton put the Bears back in the lead with a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth, his team-leading sixth round-tripper of the season.
Neither starter lasted past the sixth. Baylor's Sean Walker surrendered four runs on eight hits and a walk with two strikeouts in 5.1 innings, while Texas' Sam LeCure was touched for four runs on eighth hits with three walks in 3.1 innings.
Gerdes finished 3-for-5 with a run and two RBI. Sutton and Reynolds had two hits each as the Bears got hits from all but one starter.
Baylor and Texas return to action Saturday as the series shifts to Austin's Disch-Falk Field. The Bears and the Longhorns meet at 6:15 p.m. CDT.
NOTES: This was the 310th meeting between Baylor and Texas, the most-played series in Baylor baseball history. Texas now leads the series 213-93-4 overall and 82-57-3 in Waco. ... The record-setting crowd shattered the previous Baylor Ballpark standard of 4,876 set April 21, 2000 in a 6-5 victory over Texas. ... Baylor has collected 10 or more hits in seven consecutive games, in 11 of its last 13 and 14 of its last 17 games. ... The Bears have at least one double in 20 straight games. ... Michael Griffin extended his season-long hitting streak to 14 games, the longest run by a Bear this season. Griffin has reached safely in 30 consecutive games. ... Kyle Reynolds (nine games), Paul Witt (seven games), Zach Dillon (five games) and Chase Gerdes (four games) also extended hitting streaks. Reynolds has hit safely in 13 consecutive starts. ... Baylor falls to 3-13 in one-run games.
