May. 1, 2005
Box Score
WACO, Texas - No. 11 Baylor blasted four home runs, including two by Seth Fortenberry, en route to an 8-5 victory over Texas Tech in Sunday's series finale at Baylor Ballpark. With the win, the Bears (30-17, 15-6) win the series against the Red Raiders (28-16, 8-11) two games to one.
By virtue of other weekend series results around the Big 12, Baylor remains in first place, one and a half games ahead of Nebraska (12-6) and Texas (13-7). Missouri (11-7) dropped two of three at Texas over the weekend and slipped to fourth place, two and a half games behind the Bears.
Sunday's attendance of 3,166 brought the weekend gate at Baylor Ballpark to 9,567 for the three-game series, the fourth-largest three-date series tally in the facility's seven-year history. It was the third-largest three-date Big 12 series attendance total in Baylor Ballpark history, all three against Texas Tech.
It was a career day for Fortenberry, who made just his 14th start of the season and his first since March 26 at Oklahoma State. Fortenberry entered the game hitting .153 on the season with one career home run, a solo shot March 16, 2003, against Texas Tech at Baylor Ballpark. To top things off, Fortenberry made a sliding catch on a dying Matt Smith Texas Leaguer down the right field line in the top of the third and doubled off Brian Capps at first.
Fortenberry's first homer of the day came in the second inning, a solo shot off the light pole in right field that doubled a 1-0 Baylor lead. Kevin Russo pushed Baylor's lead to 5-0 with a three-run homer to left in the third; it was his second round-tripper of the season.
Texas Tech got on the board in the top of the fifth with a pair of runs on three consecutive two-out hits. Carey Avants started the rally with a double down the right-field line; Capps and Matt Smith followed with RBI singles.
Baylor answered in the bottom of the inning on Fortenberry's second blast of the day, a two-out, two-run shot down the line in right. Tech got a run back in the top of the sixth on a Chris Williams leadoff home run just to the left of the batter's eye in center. Michael Griffin led off the bottom of the ninth with a homer to left, his sixth of the season.
That gave Baylor an 8-3 cushion entering the ninth, but the Raiders did not go quietly. Cameron Blair hit a solo homer to left, and Capps blasted a solo shot to right-center with two outs. However, that was as close as Tech could get.
Baylor starter Cory VanAllen did not factor in the decision, allowing two runs on seven hits and a walk with three strikeouts in 4.2 innings. He gave way to Abe Woody (5-3), who earned the victory after allowing one run on two hits over 1.1 innings. Tyler Bullock allowed one run on two hits with two strikeouts in 2.1 innings, and Ryan LaMotta allowed only Capps' ninth inning homer in 0.2 innings' work.
Tech starter Adam Lawford did not escape the third inning and was saddled with the loss. Lawford (2-6) lasted 2.0-plus innings, facing three batters in the third, and was touched for five runs on six hits and two walks with one strikeout.
Kyle Reynolds plated Baylor's first run of the game, following a Michael Griffin leadoff single in the bottom of the first with an RBI double down the line in right.
Fortenberry, Russo, Griffin and Reynolds all turned in two-hit afternoons, the first three also scoring twice each. Russo and Fortenberry had three RBI each.
Baylor returns to action Tuesday, hosting Texas-San Antonio at Baylor Ballpark. First pitch between the Bears and the Roadrunners is scheduled for 6 p.m. CDT. Baylor defeated UTSA 4-2 earlier this season in San Antonio. Tuesday is Baylor's final game before taking a week-long break for finals.
NOTES: Texas Tech leads the all-time series 65-61, including a 17-13 advantage since the inception of the Big 12 Conference in 1997. Baylor holds a 39-23 advantage in games played in Waco. ... Baylor improves to 10-2 this season on Sunday, 5-2 in Big 12 games. The Bears are 11-3 in Championship Gold jerseys, 5-2 in league play. ... Baylor improves to 24-4 when scoring first, 8-2 when scoring in the first inning and 18-2 when scoring at least six runs. ... The Bears are 8-1 when leading after one inning, 11-4 after two, 15-3 after three, 17-3 after four, 19-1 after five, 25-1 after six and 26-1 after seven or later. ... Baylor's four home runs on the day were the most by a Bears' team since hitting four May 22, 2004, at Texas Tech. ... Fortenberry turned in Baylor's first multiple-homer game since Griffin had two April 3, 2004, at Missouri. ... Baylor improves to 8-4 this season VanAllen starts. ... Brees (eight games), Reynolds (six games) and Dillon (five games) all extended hitting streaks. Kevin Sevigny (seven games), Paul Witt (six games) and Josh Ford (three games) all had hitting streaks snapped; Sevigny's was a career-long. ... Ford walked three times, tying his career high. ... LaMotta made his 80th career relief appearance, passing Kyle Edens (1999-02) for second all-time at Baylor. Woody made his 75th career relief appearance, passing Matthew Marcom (1995-98) for fourth all-time at Baylor. ... Griffin's home run was the 34th of his career, tying Eric Nelson (1996-99) for sixth in Baylor history. He now has 82 career RBI in Big 12 games, tying Nelson for first all-time at Baylor.
