By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Facing its stiffest test to date, the 12^th-ranked Baylor baseball team overcame 2-0 and 3-2 deficits to defeat a 2018 NCAA region finalist Dallas Baptist team, 10-4, Tuesday night at Baylor Ballpark. 
            Davis Wendzel and Davion Downey both homered twice and combined to drive in five runs to lead a 14-hit attack as the Bears (8-0) scored double-digit runs for the fifth time this season and fourth game in a row for the first time in seven years. 
            "I'm just seeing the ball well right now, and I hope that carries over," said Downey, who had his first multiple-home run game of his career and improved his batting average to .481. "The first home run, he threw a fastball up, and I just got a hold of it and it went. And then the second home run was a slider down. Honestly, I was just trying to do contact baseball. He hung a slider, and it went."
            After sweeping weekend series against Holy Cross and Cornell, Baylor found itself down 2-0 in the first inning when Evan Sandmann tripled to right to drive in Blayne Jones and then scored when Jimmy Glowenke reached on a throwing error by pitcher Paul Dickens. 
            In four of the first eight games, the Bears have rallied from a deficit, including an 8-5, 10-inning win over Holy Cross when they trailed 4-0 in the sixth inning. 
            "That's huge," Wendzel said of Baylor's ability to rally from behind. "They took the early lead and had some momentum. But, Paul came back, shut them out and we started rolling from there and getting some momentum of our own."
            The Bears tied it in the bottom of the fourth, when Downey was hit by a pitch, followed by back-to-back singles by Cole Haring and Chase Wehsener and a sac fly by Andy Thomas in his 2019 debut. 
            DBU (5-3) regained the lead in the top of the sixth on consecutive hits by Glowenke, Jackson Glenn and Bryce Ball. But, with runners at second and third and nobody out, Luke Bandy lined into a double play at second and reliever Ryan Leckich retired Hunter Vansau on a grounder to third to limit the damage. 
            Downey tied it back up with one swing of the bat, a solo leadoff homer to right in the bottom half of the inning. The go-ahead run came across on Kyle Harper's two-out RBI single to put the Bears on top, 4-3. 
            Baylor coach Steve Rodriguez said the Bears "hit the ball hard from the first inning on, and I'm really proud that they continued their tough at-bats that our guys were taking, really focused on execution and finding a way to make sure they did their job in the box."
            Wendzel hit his first homer of the night and the season when he crushed a towering shot over the left-field wall on a hanging slider that "I saw it up and just put the barrel on it," he said. 
            After striking out three and retiring the first five batters he faced, sophomore reliever Luke Boyd ran into trouble in the eighth when the Patriots scored a run on a pair of hits and a walk before getting Vansau on a grounder to first. 
            "Luke did a phenomenal job tonight. That's what we've been hoping for from him," Rodriguez said "When you started seeing it click, you kind of go, 'Man, there it is!' You just want to see him continue that and hopefully gain the confidence that we see in him and keep it rolling."
            Facing hard-throwing lefty reliever Burl Callaway, who was hitting 95 mph on the radar gun, Baylor scratched across some insurance on three straight singles by Josh Bissonette, Harper and Richard Cunningham. 
            Capping off the night, Wendzel and Downey hit back-to-back homers off reliever MacGregor Hines, extending the lead to 10-4. 
            Senior closer Kyle Hill worked a clean ninth, registering a pair of strikeouts and giving up a two-out walk before retiring Sandmann on a foul pop-up to Harper just in front of the Baylor dugout. 
            Leckich (2-0) got the win in relief, with the bullpen giving up just two runs in six innings of work behind starter Paul Dickens. 
            "Our bullpen is phenomenal," said Downey, who is tied for the national lead with eight hit by pitches after getting plunked twice Tuesday night. "They've been doing an amazing job. I'm really impressed with how they've all stepped up and done what they had to do."
            After an 8-0 home stand, the Bears go on the road for the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic at Minute Maid Park in Houston. They play Texas A&M (8-1) at 7 p.m. Friday, Rice (2-6) at 3 p.m. Saturday and Texas State (5-2) at 11 a.m. Sunday. 
 


THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas – The No. 12 ranked Baylor baseball team flexed its muscles Tuesday night at Baylor Ballpark, defeating DBU 10-4.
 
Davis Wendzel and Davion Downey combined to go 5-for-7 with four home runs and five runs scored to lead the offensive showcase for the Bears (8-0).
 
Junior LHP Paul Dickens made his first career start for Baylor and gave up two runs in the top of the first inning before settling in with clean innings in the second and third. He made use of consecutive 1-2-3 innings and struck out four.
 
Baylor knotted the score at 2-2 in the fourth inning thanks to an RBI single from Chase Wehsener and a sacrifice fly by Andy Thomas.
 
Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth, Downey kick-started the offense with a solo shot to right field. Kyle Harper scored Weshener with an RBI base hit later in the inning to give the Bears their first lead of the ballgame.
 
In the seventh, Wendzel hit his first of two homers on the night, a solo blast to left field that gave Baylor a 5-3 lead.
 
Richard Cunningham drove home two runs in the bottom of the eighth as part of a five-run inning. Wendzel and Downey hit back-to-back jacks to account for the remaining runs.
 
The bullpen combination of Jimmy Winston, Ryan Leckich, Luke Boyd, and Kyle Hill kept the DBU (5-3) bats quiet, allowing just two runs and scattering seven hits through six innings of work. 
 
Hill worked his fourth scoreless inning of the season, a three-up-three-down ninth, to seal the win.

NOTES
*The Bears have won their first eight games of the season for the third time in program history (1984, 2017).
 
*Baylor has scored double-digit runs in five of eight games this season, including the last four in a row for the first time since 2012 (April 14-18).
 
*The Bears pitching staff has punched out at least 11 batters in all eight games this season.
 
*Baylor has at least nine hits in all eight games this season.
 
*Baylor is 6-1 vs. DBU under fourth-year head coach Steve Rodriguez and has won each of the last five against the Patriots.
 
*Baylor is 1-0 in midweek games this season. The Bears are 28-10 in midweek matchups under Rodriguez, including a 19-9 mark at home.
 
*Davion Downey tallied his first-career two-home run game. He leads the team with three homers this season.
 
*Davis Wendzel recorded his second-career two-home run game (at TCU, April 22, 2017).
 
*The Bears have hit 11 home runs in 2019, moving the team's total to 149 blasts in 175 games under Rodriguez.
 
*Junior JUCO transfer LHP Paul Dickens made his first career start as a Bear, going three innings and allowing two runs on two hits, striking out four.
 
*Jimmy Winston recorded his third scoreless appearance of the season.
 
*Ryan Leckich earned his second win of the season, tying him for the team lead (Hayden Kettler).
 
*Downey was plunked twice in the game. He's been hit eight times this season, tying him for most HBP in the nation.
 
*Six Bears had at least two hits (Cunningham, Wendzel, Downey, Haring, Wehsener, Harper). Wendzel led the way with his third three-hit performance of the year. 
 
*Chase Wehsener picked up his team-leading 12^th RBI of the season.
 
*Josh Bissonette extended his on-base streak to 15 games and has a five-game hitting streak.
 
*Downey has an 11-game on-base streak and team-leading 10-game hitting streak.
 
*Wendzel has hit safely in all eight games this season.
 
*Kyle Harper has a five-game hitting streak.
 
*Andy Thomas tallied his first RBI of the season with a sacrifice fly in the fourth.
 
*DBU challenged a play in the bottom of the sixth, the first ever challenge at Baylor Ballpark.

STAT OF THE DAY
4 – Combined total of home runs hit by Davis Wendzel and Davion Downey.

QUOTE OF THE DAY
On the four homeruns and being that type of day, while discussing the overall batting by the team…
"Actually, I don't think it was that kind of day the way this fog and this kind of humidity kind of set in. The part that I really liked is that they were amazing at-bats. Davion [Downey], with that last home run, he first took a breaking ball that he kind of swung and missed at and then he got it again and he didn't miss it. Davis [Wendzel] did a really good job on a pretty tough pitcher and he got that one out. I'm just really happy with what we have done, working on their swings with a lot of new technology and I think it's paying off."
- Baylor head coach Steve Rodriguez

WHAT'S NEXT
The Bears will travel to Houston to take part in the 2019 Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic with games against Texas A&M, Rice, and Texas State. Baylor will open the weekend against the Aggies Friday night at 7 p.m.
 
For tickets to home games, visit: https://baylorbears.com/sports/2018/9/11/tickets.aspx. For updates on the program follow @baylorbaseball on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.


-baylorbears.com-