Baylor
Oklahoma
Baseball Walks Off with Series Win vs. OU, 3-2
5/21/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 21, 2011
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WACO, Texas - Josh Ludy's walk-off single scored Steve DalPorto to give Baylor a 3-2 series-clinching win over No. 13 Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark. With the win, Baylor (29-24, 13-14 Big 12) claimed its first series win over a top-15 ranked opponent since 2006. The Bears have won three consecutive three-game sets by taking the series finales.
"It is always gratifying when you win and it's always gratifying when you beat a good club," head coach Steve Smith said. "Oklahoma is a good team. They have got a lot of options over there. They ran a bunch of different guys at us. We had a bunch of guys through the course of the weekend do some things they haven't been doing this year."
Ludy's single was Baylor's sixth walk-off hit this season and its first since March 25. DalPorto led off the bottom of the ninth with a double to the gap in left-center field, and pinch hitter Josh Turley moved him to third with a well-placed sacrifice bunt. After Max Muncy was intentionally walked, Ludy hit a 0-1 pitch through the left side of the infield to plate the winning run.
Trent Blank (5-2) picked up the win by holding Oklahoma (40-15, 14-11 Big 12) to two hits in 4.0 shutout innings of relief. Brooks Pinckard started on the mound for the Bears and allowed only two runs on four hits with five strikeouts in 5.0 innings.
Dan Evatt gave Baylor an early lead when he followed Logan Vick's leadoff single with a two-run homer over the left-field wall in the second inning. Joey Hainsfurther then drew a walk, and one out later, Landis Ware delivered a double to chase Oklahoma starting pitcher Jordan John.
Josh lasted only 1.1 innings and gave up two runs on three hits. Reliever Dillon Overton got two popouts to escape the second-inning jam and put up zeroes in each of the next four frames.
Pinckard allowed only two hits through the first five innings and escaped a bases-loaded pinch in the fourth, but his day ended after back-to-back doubles leading off the sixth gave the Sooners two runners in scoring position.
Blank came on and gave up a two-run single to Garrett Buechele to tie the game at 2-2, but he allowed only one more hit the rest of the way. That hit was a two-out single from Ricky Eisenberg in the seventh, but lightning struck and sent the game into a 57-minute delay.
Blank came back out and went to work, getting Tyler Ogle to ground out to end the inning. The delay ended Overton's day, as Anthony Collazo worked 0.2 inning and Ryan Duke pitched the final 1.2 innings for Oklahoma. Duke (2-1) took the loss, giving up one run on two hits.
"He handled the delay well," Smith said of Blank. "He had to deal with that at TCU a couple of weeks ago, so I was really comfortable with sending him back out there."
DalPorto went 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles, one walk and one run scored, while Ludy had the Bears' only other multi-hit game with a 2-for-5 effort. Ogle and Cameron Seitzer led the Sooners with two hits apiece.
Baylor has clinched the No. 5 seed in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Conference Baseball Championship. The Bears will face either Oklahoma or Oklahoma State in Wednesday's opening round, but game times will not be determined until all Big 12 games are completed on Sunday.
