By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Hayden Kettler knows who he is, a veteran pitcher who's not going to light up the radar guns and relies mainly on his off-speed stuff. The Xavier Musketeers never figured him out. 
            Making just his second start of the season, the fifth-year senior tossed seven shutout innings and allowed two hits with seven strikeouts in helping Baylor baseball (10-4) knock off Xavier, 10-0, Sunday afternoon to complete a three-game sweep and win its eighth game in a row. 
            "Understanding who you are as a person is what really works for him," Baylor coach Steve Rodriguez said of Kettler, who lowered his ERA to 1.54. "He has the ability to move pitchers in and out, be really consistent with what he's throwing. When you have an aggressive team like Xavier, you can nibble in and out and have some success. He did a great job of getting deep into the game, keeping his pitch count down and allowing the offense to get rolling."
            Not that it took that long to get the bats going. The Bears plated two runs in the bottom of the first on singles by Jared McKenzie and Antonio Valdez, a four-pitch walk by Jack Pineda and Tre Richardson's RBI groundout. 
             Davion Downey doubled that lead with a two-run blast over the right-field wall in the fourth, his first homer of the season and 11^th of his career.
            "I thought it was going to be off the wall, just based on how the wind was pushing everything today," Downey said. "Anything in the air was getting hung up in the wind, so I was like, 'That's a double today.' Then, when I got closer to first, I was like, 'That's sneaking out.'''
            Andy Thomas led off the sixth with a solo homer, and then freshman Cam Caley hit a towering three-run shot to right in the eighth to cap the scoring on just his fifth collegiate at-bat. 
            "We recruited him because we thought he has a chance to be really, really good, and we still feel that way," Rodriguez said of Caley, a two-way player who has also made three pitching appearances. "He's just a really talented kid. . . . Hopefully that gives him some confidence and us a little more depth in the outfield to be able to use him in certain situations when he's not going to pitch."
            While Baylor was rapping out 15 hits and scoring double-digit runs for the fifth time this season, Kettler mowed through Xavier's lineup time and time again. He retired nine in a row after stranding a pair of runners in the first and then sat down eight in a row to finish out his day. 
            "I'm not an overpowering pitcher by any means," said Kettler (1-0), who picked up his 17^th career win and first since March 8, 2020. "I always focus on getting ahead of guys, and then I'm not a guy that likes to waste pitches. There were a couple 0-2 sliders that I threw today that I would like to expand a little bit more outside of the zone, but they ended up turning into outs. I'm never upset with a three-pitch out, even if it could have been a better pitch."
            Logan Freeman and Jacob Ashkinos each worked a shutout inning to finish out the game, facing just one batter over the minimum and combining for three strikeouts. 
            McKenzie and Valdez had three hits apiece, while Pineda, Thomas and Downey each collected two hits, accounting for 12 of the team's 15 hits. Eight of Baylor's nine starters had at least one hit, with Chase Wehsener going 0-for-4 to end a four-game hitting streak. 
            The Bears will play midweek games against UTSA (5-6) on Tuesday and Prairie View A&M (2-10) on Wednesday before opening Big 12 play with a three-game series next weekend at Baylor Ballpark against 19^th-ranked Texas (11-5). 
            "We obviously didn't start the season the way we wanted to," Kettler said, "but to bounce back and get eight-straight wins and put us in this position going into conference, it's really exciting. I'm looking forward to what conference has to test us with, and I think our guys are going to come in with a lot of confidence."


WACO, Texas – The Baylor baseball team extended its win streak to eight games and completed the sweep after shutting out Xavier, 10-0, on Sunday at Baylor Ballpark. The Bears (10-4) swept their second-consecutive weekend series with today's victory over the Musketeers (3-7).
 
The Bears started off strong, taking an early 2-0 lead in the first inning after second-year freshman Tre Richardson used an RBI-groundout to score one and newcomer Antonio Valdez slapped an RBI-single through the right side.
 
Later in the fourth, fourth-year junior Davion Downey crushed his first home run of the season to right field for a two-run shot which doubled the Baylor lead to 4-0. In the sixth, fifth-year senior Andy Thomas hit a solo homer to right, stretching the BU advantage to 5-0. Downey followed with a sacrifice fly to score Valdez who doubled earlier in the frame.
 
In the seventh, second baseman Jack Pineda had an RBI single to score second-year freshman Jared McKenzie to push the lead to 7-0. The Bears put the game away in the eighth after true freshman Cam Caley smashed his first-career home run, a three-run shot, to make it 10-0.
 
Fifth-year senior Hayden Kettler (1-0) was near-perfect on the mound after only allowing two hits, no walks, while striking out seven in a career-tying seven innings of scoreless baseball. Baylor relievers Logan Freeman and Jacob Askinos closed out the game to keep it a two-hit shutout. Xavier's Ethan Bosacker (1-1) was tabbed with the loss. 
 
NOTES
• Baylor is 8-0 in 2021 at Baylor Ballpark.
• BU tied its longest win streak since opening the 2019 season 8-0 (Feb. 15-26).
• During the eight-game streak, BU is outscoring its opponents, 74-22.
• The shutout was the third of the season for the Bears.
• Kettler tied his career-long after throwing seven innings for the fifth time in his career.
• In his first start as a position player, Caley smacked his first career home run.
• Downey hit his first home run of the season and 11^th of his career.
• Thomas hit his third homer of the year and 11^th of his career.
• McKenzie and Valdez finished with three hits apiece. The three base knocks for Valdez is a career high.

QUOTE FROM COACH ROD
"It's really hard to sweep somebody, but tip of the hat to Xavier, they've had some COVID issues and they rolled out some really good pitchers again. I was just really happy with how our guys went about our business and continued to execute a lot better. We're really happy with what we're seeing. Pitching was really good today –– being able to manipulate the ball, going in and out with fastballs and being able to get the breaking balls with chase pitches. I was really happy with the overall performance from the defensive standpoint, the pitching, and offensively. We did a really good job today." 

WHAT'S NEXT
The Bears continue their homestand this week when they take on UTSA on Tuesday, March 16 at 6:30 p.m. at Baylor Ballpark.

To stay up to date throughout the season on all things Baylor baseball, follow the team on Facebook (Baylor Baseball), Twitter (@BaylorBaseball) and Instagram (@BaylorBaseball).