Baylor
Texas Southern
VanAllen Slings Six Hitless as Baseball Tops TSU 10-3
4/28/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 28, 2004
WACO, Texas - Cory VanAllen tossed six no-hit innings, and Reid Brees and Josh Ford each homered as Baylor defeated Texas Southern 10-3 Wednesday night at Baylor Ballpark. The Bears (20-22) have won four straight and 10 of their last 14 games. Texas Southern falls to 13-16.
Making his first start at Baylor Ballpark since combining with Zane Carlson for a no-hitter Feb. 15 against Loyola Marymount, VanAllen (2-2) was just as un-hittable against Texas Southern. The freshman southpaw retired the first 13 batters he faced before hitting Cory Alexander with one out in the fifth. VanAllen left the game after tossing just 61 pitches in 6.0 innings with four strikeouts.
Meanwhile, Baylor's bats gave VanAllen, who averaged just 2.0 runs per game in his first three starts, all the offense he would need. RBI doubles by Josh Ford and Paul Witt in the second gave the Bears a 2-0 lead. In the third, Kyle Reynolds tripled to right-center and later scored when Reid Brees walked and was caught attempting to steal second.
The Bears broke the game open in the fifth. Michael Griffin singled, stole second and scored on a Reynolds single. Brees followed with a home run to left-center, his first round-tripper since May 27, 2003 against Nebraska at the Big 12 Tournament.
With VanAllen out of the game, Texas Southern made things interesting in the seventh. The Tigers touched Cody Hall for three runs, two earned, on four hits in 0.2 innings. Andy Schnizer induced an inning-ending foul out before Ryan Bennett and Jeff Mandel pitched the eighth and ninth innings, respectively. Bennett posted two strikeouts.
Baylor answered Texas Southern's three-spot in the top of the seventh. Brees produced a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning, pushing the lead back to 7-3. Ford led off the bottom of the eighth with a home run to left-center, his team-leading eighth round-tripper of the season and his third in the last four games. The Bears tacked on two more runs in the inning on a Jared Clements fielder's choice and a TSU error.
Brees finished 2-for-2 with a career-best three RBI, two runs scored and a walk. Ford, Griffin, Reynolds, Witt and Chase Gerdes added two hits each; Ford, Griffin and Reynolds also scored twice each.
Baylor returns to action this weekend, traveling to Manhattan, Kan., for a three-game series at Kansas State. The Bears and the Wildcats play Friday at 7 p.m. CDT, Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. Live streaming video for all three games is available at www.BaylorBears.com.
NOTES: This was the first ever baseball meeting between Baylor and Texas Southern. ... Baylor improves to 7-0 this season when Josh Ford hits a home run. ... Tyler Bullock's career-long five-game hitting streak ended. ... Kyle Reynolds extended his hitting streak to five games. He has hit safely in 17 of the last 18 games. ... Josh Ford, Kevin Sevigny and Paul Witt all extended hitting streaks to four games each. ... Cory VanAllen has yet to allow a hit in 12.0 innings as a starter at Baylor Ballpark. ... Michael Griffin and Chase Gerdes swiped two bases each. The Bears tied their season high with those four stolen bases.
