WACO, Texas – With a seven-run explosion in the seventh inning, Baylor secured its seventh-consecutive win after defeating Xavier 11-4 on Saturday at Baylor Ballpark. The Bears (9-4) have secured the series win over the Musketeers (3-6) and will go for the series sweep tomorrow afternoon.

After a slow first inning, the Bears got on the board in the second inning after first-year sophomore Antonia Valdez's base hit brought in two runs, putting Baylor up 2-0. Xavier came back in the third inning tying the game 2-2.  

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Baylor took the lead 3-2 after true freshman Alex Gonzales grounded out to bring first baseman Chase Wehsener home. 

Xavier takes a brief lead in the top of the sixth inning and led Baylor 4-3.  

The Bears responded with a big seventh inning as fifth-year senior Andy Thomas hit an RBI-single followed by second-year freshman Cade Currington smacking an RBI-double to put Baylor in the lead, 5-4. Later in the inning, second-year freshman Jared McKenzie hit a triple down the left field line that brought home two. During the seventh inning, Baylor scored a total of seven runs, to blow the game open at 10-4.  
I
n the eighth inning, second-year freshman Nolan Rodriguez had his first-career pulling a triple down the left field line and was brought home by an sacrifice fly from Wehsener, putting Baylor up 11-4. 

Fifth-year senior Jimmy Winston (2-1) earned the victory after throwing 4.2 innings in relief, while only allowing one earned run and striking out five. Xavier's Jonathan Kelly (0-1) picked up the loss. Baylor starter Blake Helton hurled 3.1 innings with allowing two runs on three hits and fanning three.

NOTES
• Baylor is 7-0 in 2021 at Baylor Ballpark.
• The Bears are on their longest win streak since March 22-30, 2019, when the Bears won seven-straight. BU started the 2019 season on an eight-game win streak.
• Every player in the Bears starting lineup had a hit, while five finished with two hits in the game. All 10 players that came to the plate, finished the game with a hit and run scored.
• Gonzales had a career-day in his first career start as a true freshman. The leftfielder finished the game 2-for-4 with two RBI.
• Second-year freshman Nolan Rodriguez came up with his first career hit with a triple in the eighth inning.
• Winston picked up his second win of the year in a career-high 4.2 relief innings.
 
QUOTE FROM COACH ROD
"I think the big thing is that there's some resiliency. They're doing a good job holding down what we haveand then allowing the offense to get going — being able to execute, run the bases correctly and being able to score the runs when they need to. I'm going to tip my hat to their (Xavier's) pitchers, the past two starters have been really good. (Nick) Zwack today was really good. He's a really impressive left-handed pitcher. Obviously, he came in with two starts and a zero ERA. I was just happy we were able to get to hm and push his pitch count and get him out of the game and get into their bullpen. I was really happy with how our guys are maintaining the energy in our dugouts and watching all the people in the stands going crazy has been pretty awesome."
 
 
WHAT'S NEXT
The teams will finish the series tomorrow with first pitch set for 1 p.m. at Baylor Ballpark.
 
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