Feb. 24, 2008
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WACO, Texas -- Adam Hornung and Dustin Dickerson had back-to-back, first-inning RBI singles, and four Baylor pitchers made that stand as the 15th-ranked Bears defeated Purdue 2-1 in Sunday's series finale at Baylor Ballpark. Baylor (3-0) has won seven consecutive home games, dating back to last season, and starts 3-0 for the third time in the last four seasons.
All three Baylor victories in the Purdue (0-3) series were one-run wins. The Bears were 4-5 in one-run games last season and did not win their third one-run game until the 53rd game of the season. That was a 9-8 victory over Kansas State in the first game of their final regular-season series.
Ben Booker singled up the middle to start the bottom of the first and moved to second on Shaver Hansen's groundout. After a Beamer Weems walk and an Aaron Miller fly out, Hornung singled to left field, scoring Booker. Dickerson followed with a single to center, scoring Weems.
That was all the offense Baylor needed as Willie Kempf, Craig Fritsch, Miller and Nick Cassavechia combined for 11 strikeouts on the day. Kempf (1-0) allowed a run on four hits and four walks with four strikeouts through 5.0 innings for the win. Fritsch surrendered a hit with three strikeouts in 2.0 scoreless innings.
Miller moved from right field to the mound at the start of the eighth inning. Brandon Haveman led off with a single, and Miller hit Ryne White to put runners at first and second with no outs. However, Miller struck out the next three batters to get out of the jam. Cassavechia allowed a two-out walk in the ninth but got Jordan Comadena to fly out for the game's final out. It was Cassavechia's second save of the season and the 21st of his career.
Purdue's lone run came in the third inning. A one-out balk allowed Nick Overmyer to move from first to second. Overmyer advanced to third on a ground out, and Haveman followed with an RBI single to right.
Booker and Miller were both 2-for-4 on the day for the Bears, who struck out only twice in 32 trips to the plate.
Baylor returns to action Tuesday, hosting Texas Southern for a 6:30 p.m. first pitch at Baylor Ballpark. The Bears send right-hander Wade Mackey (4-3, 3.18 ERA in 2007) to the mound for his first appearance of the season.
NOTES: Baylor leads the all-time series 3-0. The Bears improve to 15-4-1 all-time against teams from the Big Ten Conference and have won six consecutive games against Big Ten opponents. ... The Bears snapped a streak of nine consecutive games with a home run, dating back to last season. ... Baylor pitchers allowed 22 hits with 30 strikeouts over 29.0 innings in the series. Purdue had just one extra-base hit, a first-inning triple Saturday. ... The three-game series drew a total attendance of 9,495. It was the 12th-largest, three-game series total in Baylor history. That ranks fourth all-time for a non-Big 12 series and second all-time among regular-season, non-Big 12 series.
