Baseball Loses Series Rubber Match to Kansas

Sunday, March 25

Waco, Texas

1:05 PM

Baylor

12-9, 3-3

Kansas

15-9, 2-4

Kansas

Baylor

Baseball Loses Series Rubber Match to Kansas

3/25/2018 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

March 25, 2018

Final Stats

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation

ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ ¹Steve Rodriguez wants freshman pitcher Tyler Thomas to understand just "how much we have faith in him to continue to put him out here on the weekends."

ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ ¹That faith is being tested.

ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ ¹After walking five, hitting a batter and throwing two wild pitches in an 11-4 loss to Texas Tech the week before, Thomas (0-2) gave up two first-inning runs on three walks, a hit batter and a throwing error as Baylor baseball (12-9, 3-3) dropped Sunday's rubber-match finale against Kansas, 8-5.

ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ ¹"The biggest thing is we just can't walk as many guys as we have been," Rodriguez said, "but we've got a freshman out there who's trying to figure it out. He's really talented, and I'm really excited about him and the stuff. It's just like everybody, you want them to get it quicker than later. . . . We're going to evaluate him, but at the same time we need to make sure we give our team the best opportunity to win."

ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ ¹Thomas actually had a chance to get out of the first inning unscathed, even after putting the first two batters on base. Second baseman Josh Bissonette caught Jaxx Groshans' liner and tossed to shortstop Tucker Cascadden for the force at second, but Cascadden dropped the ball trying to transfer it to his throwing hand for what would have been an easy triple play.

ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ ¹"Tucker was just trying to be too quick and dropped the ball," said Rodriguez, who started a 5-4-3 triple play when he was playing Triple-A ball, "but that's just part of it."

ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ ¹The Jayhawks (15-9, 2-4) took advantage of that reprieve, with the next two batters walking, the first run scoring on an infield single by Devin Foyle and another one coming across on a Cascadden throwing error. Thomas struck out the next batter to avoid any further damage, but he lasted just one inning and has seen his ERA go from 0.68 to 3.12 with his last two outings.

ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ ¹Baylor got a run back just two pitches into the bottom half of the frame, when leadoff hitter Nick Loftin crushed a 1-0 fastball over the left-field wall for his second home run of the weekend.

ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ ¹Richard Cunningham, who has handled leadoff duties in the past, told Loftin "you don't change your mentality."

ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ ¹"Early in an at-bat like that, you've got to treat it like it's a 3-1 pitch," said Loftin, who was 3-for-5 with two RBI. "So, I was looking middle in, and I got a ball middle in, and I was able to take care of it." ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ ¹KU starter Ryan Zeferjahn (4-1) gave up just two runs on five hits and three walks with six strikeouts in six innings to pick up the win.

ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ ¹"He was a little bit of everywhere," Rodriguez said of Zeferjahn, "and then all of a sudden he would throw three great sliders in a row, just out of nowhere. I thought our guys did a good job being patient and getting pitches to hit. It's just we fouled some balls off that we needed to put it in play, and that was probably the difference."

ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ ¹Jacob Ashkinos gave up two unearned runs on two hits, a walk and two errors in the second, then Foyle blasted a two-run homer in the fifth to make it 6-1. The Bears got a run back in the bottom of the fifth, when Shea Langeliers drew a two-out walk, went to third on Davis Wendzel's hit-and-run single up the middle and scored on a wild pitch.

ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ ¹After two scoreless innings by Baylor reliever Kyle Hill, the Jayhawks struck again with four straight two-out hits off Drew Robertson in the eighth. ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ ¹Those runs proved particularly costly when the Bears' ninth-inning rally came up short.

ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ ¹Baylor started the rally with four straight hits off closer Zack Leban, including a run-scoring single by Loftin and Cunningham's RBI double to left-center field.

ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ ¹"We didn't want to go down without a fight," Loftin said. "We just went out there and strung some hits together and tried to do our best to come back." ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ ¹With the tying run on deck and nobody out, "I know they were scared," Rodriguez said, "because we had some guys coming up who could lose the baseball out of the ballpark."

ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ ¹"That's one of the things I'm really happy about, because regardless of what happened throughout the whole game, they came out and started putting some damage on one of the best closers in our conference. Being able to do that to him, and all of a sudden you see their dugout stirring and their bullpen stirring, you know they were a little bit panicked."

ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ ¹The rally fizzled out, though, when Langeliers popped up to shallow right field on a 2-0 count, Wendzel flied out to center to score another run and Andy Thomas struck out looking.

ÃƒÆ'Ã†'Ãƒ € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ'Ã†' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ ¹"They need to remember that every one of these games count," Rodriguez said. "It's conference now, so every one of these games is going to be a big deal come the end of the season. You never want to look back at this game or the Friday game and go, `We should have done this or we should have done that.' That's the thing, you want to make sure you take advantage of the opportunities when you have them."

THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas -- Baylor baseball lost an 8-5 series rubber match to Kansas on Sunday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark. The Bears (12-9, 3-3) were playing from behind all game, and threatened late, but the Jayhawks (15-9, 2-4) were able to finish off the series win.

A sloppy first two innings for Baylor led to four Kansas runs. BU had three walks, a hit batter, two errors and single in the first inning that allowed KU to score two runs. Then in the second inning, the Bears had a leadoff error, two singles, walk and another error that pushed two more runs across the plate.

Nick Loftin led off the game for BU with a home run, but the Bears didn't score again until the fifth inning. BU got a run back in the fifth after KU hit a two-run homer as Shea Langeliers walked with two outs, Davis Wendzel singled and Langeliers scored on a wild pitch.

The Jayhawks countered with two runs in the eighth on a walk and four singles.

The Bears had a chance in the ninth. Davion Downey led off with a single, Hunter Seay followed with a single, Loftin scored Downey on a single and Cunningham scored Seay on a double. An out later, Wendzel had a sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to 8-5 with two outs but that was all the closer the Bears could get.

KU starter Ryan Zeferjahn (4-1) earned the win, giving up two runs on five hits and three walks with six strikeouts in six innings. BU starter Tyler Thomas (0-2) took the loss, allowing two runs (one earned) on one hit and three walks with one strikeout in one inning.

NOTES
*Baylor has won nine of its last 13 games.

*Baylor has hit a home run in five straight games (seven total homers). BU had a streak of six straight games last season from May 13-19, 2017 (15 total homers).

*Baylor is 3-2 in three-game series this season (0-1 on road, 3-1 at home) and has a combined record of 8-5.

*Baylor has hit 100 home runs in 131 games under third-year head coach Steve Rodriguez. BU hit 51 in 2017 for its most homers since 2010 (57). BU has 15 in 2018.

*Baylor has finished its home schedule with a .500 record or better (8-5 in 2018) in all 19 seasons at Baylor Ballpark (since 1999) and is 424-198 all-time at the park.

*Davis Wendzel has reached base in 10 straight games and has a three-game hitting streak.

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

*Josh Bissonette has reached base in six straight games.

*Freshman Nick Loftin has a four-game hitting streak and hit his second career home run. His leadoff shot was Baylor's first leadoff homer since Nate Orf at Missouri on April 6, 2012. He tied a career high with three hits for his fourth multi-hit game of the season and posted his third multi-RBI game (2).

*Shea Langeliers has a three-game on-base streak.

*Hunter Seay has reached base in three straight games.

*Cole Haring had his fifth multi-hit game of the season (2).

*Troy Montemayor has a nine-appearance scoreless streak over 7.2 innings to begin the season.

*Jacob Ashkinos tied a career high with four innings pitched.

STAT OF THE GAME
4 -- The amount of outs recorded in as many pitches as for Troy Montemayor after his first pitch of the game in the ninth inning as he entered the game off of back-to-back one-pitch saves.

QUOTE OF THE GAME
"I knew [in the ninth Kansas] was scared because we had some guys coming up who can move the ball out of the park. One of the things I'm really happy about is that regardless of what happened throughout the whole game, our guys came out against one of the best closers in the conference and started putting some damage on him. You could look over at their dugout and see they were beginning to panic. I give credit to our guys for coming out and thinking we just need to get some hits." -- Baylor Head Coach Steve Rodriguez

WHAT'S NEXT
The Bears return to action Monday at 6:35 p.m. CT vs. Prairie View A&M at Baylor Ballpark. 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-