Baseball Loses Opener to Kansas, 6-5

Friday, March 23

Waco, Texas

6:35 PM

Baylor

11-8, 2-2

Kansas

14-8, 1-3

Kansas

Baylor

Baseball Loses Opener to Kansas, 6-5

3/23/2018 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

March 23, 2018

Final Stats

THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € 'ÃƒÆ'Ã¢ ‚¬ ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢' ¬" Baylor baseball lost a 6-5 game to Kansas on Friday night at Baylor Ballpark in the series opener. The Bears (11-8, 2-2) rallied from an early deficit but the Jayhawks (14-8, 1-3) kept the pressure on.

Down 4-0 in the first, the Bears responded with a two-out rally. Shea Langeliers singled, Davis Wendzel doubled, Andy Thomas walked and Nick Loftin launched a grand slam to tie the score.

KU answered with runs in the third and fourth to regain the lead.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Bears got a run back on a Loftin leadoff bunt single, balk, wild pitch and RBI groundout by Davion Downey.

The Bears had chances in the last two innings. Langeliers (HBP) and Wendzel (single) reached with two outs but to no avail in the eighth. In the ninth, Loftin led off with a single but nothing more came of it.

KU reliever Gabriel Sotomayor (1-0) earned the win, tossing two perfect innings with one strikeouts. Zack Leban earned his 10th save with 1.1 scoreless innings. BU starter Cody Bradford (3-2) was tagged with the loss, allowing six runs on 13 hits and two walks with five strikeouts in 6.1 innings.

NOTES
*Baylor has won eight of its last 11 games.

*Baylor is 3-1 in three-game series this season (0-1 on road, 3-0 at home) and has a combined record of 8-4.

*Baylor has hit 97 home runs in 129 games under third-year head coach Steve Rodriguez. BU hit 51 in 2017 for its most homers since 2010 (57). BU has 12 in 2018.

*Baylor has finished its home schedule with a .500 record or better (7-4 in 2018) in all 19 seasons at Baylor Ballpark (since 1999) and is 423-197 all-time at the park.

*Davis Wendzel has reached base in eight straight games and notched his sixth multi-hit game of the season (2).

*Andy Thomas has a four-game on-base streak.

*Josh Bissonette has reached base in four straight games.

*Nick Loftin hit his first career home run with a grand slam in the first inning, marking Baylor's first grand slam since Aaron Dodson vs. Texas A&M on June 2, 2017 at the Houston Regional. He also tied a career high with three hits for his third multi-hit game of the season and set a career high with four RBI.

STAT OF THE GAME
8 ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € 'ÃƒÆ'Ã¢ ‚¬ ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢' ¬" The amount of runs scored in the first inning of the game.

QUOTE OF THE GAME
"It was really nice to see our offense come out. You know, we gave up four and you're just like, 'oh man,' because we know the wind is blowing out about 30 miles per hour, and you just don't know what you're going to get. Then all of a sudden we come back and score four and it's a new ball game. Very proud of how our guys responded in the first inning." ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € 'ÃƒÆ'Ã¢ ‚¬ ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢' ¬" Baylor Head Coach Steve Rodriguez

WHAT'S NEXT
The Bears finish their weekend series with Kansas at 2:05 p.m. CT Saturday and 1:05 p.m. Sunday. For tickets to home games, visit: http://www.baylorbears.com/tickets/. For updates on the program follow @baylorbaseball on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.

-BU-