Baylor
Texas
Baseball Clinches Series vs. Texas with 4-0 Win
5/18/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
 4 BAYLOR (42-11, 20-3) Rank: #7 |
Box Score | Highlights Austin, Texas • Attendance: 6,645 |  0TEXAS (29-20, 13-10) Rank: NR |
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May 18, 2012
AUSTIN, Texas - Trent Blank and Crayton Bare combined on Baylor's first shutout at Texas since 1978, and the Bears clinched their first series win against the Longhorns since 2005 with a 4-0 win on Friday night at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
With the win, Blank (10-1) posted the 15th double-digit wins total in a single season in program history. He allowed only five singles, struck out five, walked one and threw 96 pitches in 7.0 shutout innings to lower his season ERA to 2.11.
"I thought he was pretty good," head coach Steve Smith said of his senior right-hander. "The thing that concerned me going into this game was all the lefts that he was going to see, because they do see it better, but I thought he pitched them so well today."
Baylor (42-11, 20-3 Big 12) clinched the second-best Big 12 record by any team in the league's 16-year history and clinched its seventh series win. The Bears will look to become the first team in the league ever to sweep seven series in a season when they take on Texas (29-20, 13-10 Big 12) in the series finale at 2 p.m. Sunday.
The game was a pitchers' duel through the first six innings, with Texas starter Corey Knebel (4-4) matching Blank with zeros until the Bears broke through for three runs in the seventh. Logan Vick drew a leadoff walk, Max Muncy's one-out single put runners on the corners, and Dan Evatt delivered what would prove to be a game-winning RBI single.
Cal Towey drew a walk to load the bases, and one out later Adam Toth worked the count to 3-2, allowing all three runners to take off on the pitch. That proved crucial, as Toth drove in two runs with a single that was kept on the infield on a diving play by Brooks Marlow.
Knebel allowed only one hit through his first six innings, but he ended up taking the loss after giving up three runs on three hits with four walks and four strikeouts in 6.2 innings. Reliever Hoby Milner allowed one run in 2.1 innings of relief.
Blank worked around a one-out single in the bottom half of the seventh, then turned the ball over to Bare, who worked around two singles in the final 2.0 innings to record his first career save. The Bears played errorless defense, including a highlight-reel play from Jake Miller when he ranged up the middle and spun to throw out Alex Silver to end the sixth inning.
Josh Ludy punctuated the Bears' win with a mammoth home run into the parking lot behind the left-field wall in the ninth inning, extending the Bears' lead to 4-0. It was Ludy's eighth home run in Big 12 play this season, three more than any other player in the conference.
Evatt finished 2-for-3 with one RBI and one run scored, while Toth had two RBI and Vick drew two walks and scored a run. Silver and Mark Payton had two hits apiece to account for four of Texas' seven hits - all singles. Silver led off the bottom of the ninth with a single, but Bare got a double-play grounder and another ground out to end the game.
Both teams wrap up the regular season with a 2 p.m. game on Saturday, which will be televised on the Longhorn Network. Following the Texas series, Baylor heads to Oklahoma City for the Big 12 Championship, which begins Wednesday when the Bears will face the No. 8 seed - either Kansas or Kansas State. Game times will be announced Saturday night.
