Baseball Completes Sweep with 10-4 Victory Over West Virginia

Sunday, March 24

Waco, Texas

12:05 p.m.

Baylor

16-6, 3-0

West Virginia

13-10, 0-3

West Virginia

Baylor

Baseball Completes Sweep with 10-4 Victory Over West Virginia

3/24/2019 4:37:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Other than maybe himself, there was no one Andy Thomas wanted at the plate with the game on the line than Shea Langeliers.
            "He's the No. 1 clutch dude we have on our team," the Baylor junior DH said.
            Hitless in his first three trips to the plate, Langeliers ripped a two-run double past diving third baseman Kevin Brophy into the left-field corner in the bottom of the seventh to give the Bears (16-6, 3-0) their first lead in Sunday's 10-4 victory over West Virginia (13-10, 0-3) that finished off a three-game sweep at Baylor Ballpark.
            "He was a little frustrated after the first couple of at-bats. I'm really happy, because he does a good job of erasing some of those and getting back up there – big situation, big player, he does a big job," said Baylor coach Steve Rodriguez.
            Langeliers' clutch two-out hit was part of a six-run seventh inning that completely turned around a game the Bears had trailed since Baylor starter Ryan Leckich gave up three runs and didn't make it out of the first inning.
            "Coach (Mike) Taylor talks about it all the time: Good teams find a way to score with two outs," Langeliers said. "We figured out how to do it today. So, if we keep doing that, I think we'll be classified as a good team in Coach Taylor's eyes."
            Baylor struggled to get anything going against West Virginia starter Kade Strowd, who gave up just one run on two hits and two walks through the first six innings and took a 4-1 lead into the seventh.
            "He was burying fastballs on our guys, both in and outside, and mixing in that slider." We were getting to the point where I was trying to become really creative once we got guys on base, just to see what we could do to score some runners. At the same time, those runners were valuable, because I didn't want to overdo it and put ourselves in a possible running-into-an-out situation."
            The seventh started innocently enough, with Davion Downey leading off with a walk and Josh Bissonette singling through the right side. But, Nick Loftin got things rolling with an RBI single up the middle on a two-out, 0-2 pitch that plated Downey.
            Cunningham followed with an RBI single to right, followed by an intentional walk to Davis Wendzel that loaded the bases. The first batter to face reliever Beau Lowery, Thomas drew a six-pitch walk to score the tying run.
            "Honestly, I was just keeping it the smallest I could keep it," Thomas said "Get a single, don't try and shoot a gap and pop it up and miss. I was really just trying to get my foot down as soon as I can and maybe shoot one down the right-field line and break it open a little bit. But, he didn't give me a pitch to do it with, so I took a walk instead."
            After Langeliers' hit, the Bears scored an insurance run on a wild pitch by reliever Tristen Hudson, who walked Cole Haring before retiring Bissonette on a grounder to short.
            "I was just really happy with how our guys approached it," Rodriguez said. "To be honest, up until that point, I thought we had good at-bats. We had one, maybe two strikeouts going into it, so I thought our guys did a great job of putting the ball in play. We actually hit a couple balls pretty hard, just right at people. Those are the unfortunate at-bats. But, at the same time, there's not much more you can do."
            Because of a travel curfew, the two teams couldn't start an inning after 3 p.m. And it was 2:58 when the Bears came to bat in the bottom of the eighth.
            "The awkward part is that after they didn't score in the eighth, we weren't going to go through our bottom half of the inning in two minutes," Rodriguez said. "They had a flight, so I was ready to be done, and they wanted to get some pitchers in the game to make sure they got some work. I'm completely fine with that. Regardless of how it happens, I can totally see (West Virginia coach Randy Mazey's) aspect of it."
            The Mountaineers used two more pitchers in the eighth, with Loftin doubling to the gap in left-center, Richard Cunningham being hit by a pitch and Thomas crushed a three-run shot over the right-field wall for his first homer of the season and third of his career.
            "It felt great," Thomas said. "I hit changeup high, and hit it, and I was like, 'Aw, please let the wind take this one out.' I was pretty fortunate for that one to go over the fence."
            Baylor dug an early hole, with WVU scoring three runs on two hits and three walks off Leckich. The junior lefty appeared to get out of the inning when Langeliers threw out Paul McIntosh at third base after a strikeout. But, when Mayze challenged the call, it was overturned on a video review.
            "He did a swim-move slide, and I guess he just got around it," Langeliers said.
            Blake Helton retired TJ Lake on a fly to right and tossed two shutout innings, part of an all-staff approach that saw the bullpen give up just one run on five hits and two walks with eight strikeouts. Luke Boyd (2-0) got the win, with Kyle Hill pitching a perfect eighth to pick up his fourth save of the year.
            Baylor caps off a five-game home stand with a pair of mid-week games against Texas Southern (6-16) on Tuesday and Wednesday before a three-game series next weekend at Kansas (13-10, 0-3).

THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas – The Bears completed the sweep of West Virginia with an eight-inning 10-4 come-from-behind victory over the Mountaineers on Sunday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark.

The Bears (16-6, 3-0 Big 12) trailed for the first six innings before coming through with a big seventh inning, plating six runs on four hits to take the lead and never looked back, adding three more on a three-run home run by Andy Thomas in the bottom of the eighth before the game was called due to travel curfew.

The Mountaineers (13-10, 0-3 Big 12) jumped on the Bears early, touching up starter Ryan Leckich for three runs on two hits before reliever Blake Helton entered to end the inning.

The Bears got one run back in the bottom of the second as Josh Bissonette singled home Davion Downey with two outs, making it a 3-1 Mountaineer lead.

In the sixth, the Mountaineers added one on a solo home run by Paul McIntosh off Baylor reliever Jacob Ashkinos, putting the Bears down, 4-1.

The Bears were able to break things open in the seventh inning, bringing 12 men to the plate and scoring all six runs with two outs. With two on and two out, Nick Loftin singled home the first run of the inning, bringing the Bears within two, 4-2. Richard Cunningham then followed with an RBI single of his own to pull within one, 4-3. Davis Wendzel was intentionally walked to load the bases and the Mountaineers went to the pen for reliever Beau Lowery, chasing starter Kade Strowd. Lowery walked in the game-tying run as Thomas drew the walk. Shea Langeliers then broke things open with a two-RBI double, giving the Bears their first lead of the day, 6-4. The Mountaineers went back to the pen one more time for reliever Tristen Hudson and a wild pitch plated the sixth run of the day for the Bears, giving them a 7-4 lead.

Closer Kyle Hill entered and pitched a 1-2-3 top of the eighth inning, solidifying his fourth save of the year.

The Bears got the bottom of the eighth started right inside West Virginia's travel curfew and Thomas launched his first home run of the year, a three-run shot to make the final score, 10-4 Bears.

Baylor reliever Luke Boyd earned the win, his second of the season, while Mountaineer starter Strowd took the loss to fall to 2-2 on the year.

NOTES

*Baylor has won seven of its last nine games.

*The Bears have swept three weekend series on the year.

*The Bears have won four of their five weekend home series this season.

*Andy Thomas blasted his first home run of the season, a three-run home run. It is his third homer of his career.

*Since inserting Nick Loftin in the leadoff spot, the Bears have scored 67 runs on 99 hits in their last nine games. Loftin is 13-for-35 with 3 HR, 7 RBI and 11 runs scored during the stretch. The Bears are 7-2 in such games.

*The sweep of West Virginia is the first sweep of a conference series since doing so at Kansas State, April 27-29, 2018. It is the first conference sweep at home since sweeping TCU, April 20-22, 2018.

*The Bears have recorded an extra base hit in 21 of 22 games this season.

*Shea Langeliers has caught 5 baserunners stealing this year, 4 of those coming this weekend.

*A. Thomas finished with 4 RBI, a new season-high, tying his career-high.

*Loftin and Bissonette had 2 hits apiece on the day.

*Nick Loftin has a nine-game on-base streak. He picked up his team-leading 14^thmulti-hit game of the year.

*Andy Thomas extended his on-base streak to nine games.

*Haring has a six-game on-base streak.

*Leckich made his first start of the season, fourth of his career. It was also his second appearance of the weekend after throwing 2.0 shutout innings on Friday.

*Helton made his fifth appearance of the year on the mound.

*Ashkinos made his eighth appearance of the year and second of the weekend. He tossed 0.2 innings on Friday vs. the Mountaineers.

*Boyd made his 10^thappearance of the year, third eighth out of the bullpen.

*First sweep of West Virginia in program history.

STAT OF THE DAY
6– The Bears plated 6 runs to take the lead in the seventh inning, all with 2 outs.

QUOTE OF THE DAY
On the six-run seventh inning…
"Strowd was doing a heck of a job for West Virginia, burying fastballs in on our guys and mixed in his slider. It was to the point where I was trying to get creative when we got guys on the base paths, but at the same time, those runners were valuable, so I didn't want to do that. Next thing you know, there was just hit after hit after hit, and I was really happy with how our guys approached it."
- Baylor head coach Steve Rodriguez

WHAT'S NEXT
The Bears remain at home and will host Texas Southern on Tuesday, March 25 at 6:35 p.m. CT.

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.