By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            OKLAHOMA CITY – Slow and steady might win the race, but it's hard to overcome a slow start in baseball, especially when you're facing the fifth-ranked team in the country. 
            Falling behind 8-0 in the first four innings, Baylor baseball (31-19) couldn't dig out of that early hole and fell to third-seeded and No. 5 Texas Tech, 11-4, Wednesday morning in the first game of the Big 12 Championship at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. 
            Drew Baker had a four-hit day and put the Red Raiders (36-13) up early with a leadoff home run off freshman starter Cam Caley (2-2). Nate Rombach added a two-run blast off reliever Hambleton Oliver in the fourth, but the Bears hurt themselves with 13 free passes. 
            "Just right from the start, when Baker goes deep with two strikes, it puts them ahead," said sophomore shortstop Jack Pineda, who had two of Baylor's seven hits out of the leadoff spot. "They're a really good team. Even when we were playing at their place, their offense is so explosive, they score runs in bunches so many times, that no lead is safe. You always feel like you're climbing uphill."
            Baylor drops into the loser's bracket in the double-elimination tournament and will face seventh-seeded Kansas State (31-23) at 9 a.m. Thursday. The Wildcats had an early 6-3 lead, but gave up four unanswered runs in a 7-6 loss to second-seeded and seventh-ranked TCU. 
            "The biggest thing is we've got to start fast, it's just that simple," Baylor coach Steve Rodriguez said. "You start slow and they start fast, and next thing you know you're going with that uphill battle. We've just got to come out swinging tomorrow, getting guys on base and execute. Just be aggressive, like we were toward the middle and end of the game today."
            Tech starter Mason Montgomery (4-3), who gave up three homers in a 13-3, series-clinching loss to the Bears last month in Lubbock, threw five shutout innings and gave up just two hits while striking out 11. 
            "You've got to give Montgomery credit, he did a great job of being effectively wild in the zone with all of his pitches, kind of had our guys on their heels," Rodriguez said. "It was strike one, foul ball, next thing you know you're in an 0-2 hole. At that point, now you're in a defensive mode. By the time we got guys on second base, we just couldn't get the hit."
            After Montgomery "dominated us with fastballs," striking out eight in 5.2 innings in the first game, Pineda said "his off-speed stuff was so much better than it was in Lubbock."
            "Today, you kind of saw him pitch a little bit. The off-speed stuff was good, but he was able to locate, too," Pineda said. "He was going in and out, brushing us off the plate, and then striking us out away. I know a lot of guys, he would set them up away and then come hard in at the end. He did a really good job."
            Caley, who was 2-0 with a 1.40 ERA over his last eight appearances on the mound, struggled with his control and walked four in a three-run first inning. 
            Digging deep into the bullpen, the Bears had freshman relievers Chandler Freeman, Oliver, Adam Muirhead, Zac Childers and Drew Leach go the rest of the way. Other than Oliver, a second-year freshman with 27 games under his belt, the other four had no more than a handful of previous appearances this season. 
            "We want them to have postseason experience," Rodriguez said of the freshmen. "They're not going to get it unless they get thrown out there. We kind of knew it could get out of hand, just not knowing how they may react. But, I tell you what, I thought they did a really good job of coming in there. I was actually pretty proud of them the way they came in there and competed. It gave me some really good ideas of what we're going to have in the future."
            Leach finished it off with a 1-2-3 eighth inning, becoming the first pitcher to retire Baker, getting him out on a grounder to short. 
            With Montgomery exiting after the fifth, Baylor's bats came alive, starting with back-to-back singles by Pineda and Jared McKenzie off Andrew Devine in the sixth. With both runners advancing on a double steal, Pineda scored the Bears' first run on a throwing error by the catcher. 
            Tech answered with an RBI single by Baker off Zac Childers in the sixth, but the Bears put together their best threat in the seventh with three runs off relievers Chase Webster and Eli Riechmann. 
            Baylor's bottom third of the order loaded the bases with singles by Davion Downey and pinch-hitter Jacob Shoenvogel and a walk by Chase Wehsener. After Pineda popped up in foul territory for the first out, McKenzie delivered a big two-run double to the gap in left-center, then Tre Richardson drove in a run with a grounder to second that made it 9-4. 
            "This team doesn't quit," Pineda said. "Back-to-back hits in that situation, just huge momentum. I'll take responsibility there, popped up with the bases loaded. But even in the ninth, we always kind of say, just give us a chance. Get (Luke) Boyd in the game, tie it up, and we like our chances when we have a chance to put him in the game."
            Battling down to their final out, the Bears loaded the bases again in the ninth when Derek Bridges hit Pineda, McKenzie and Andy Thomas. But, pinch-hitter Alex Gonzales struck out looking and Kyle Nevin popped out to shallow center field to end the game. 
            Baylor hit just 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position and 3-for-19 with runners on base, while the Red Raiders had six two-out hits and got the leadoff batter on five times. 


OKLAHOMA CITY – Baylor baseball fell in its opening game against No. 5 Texas Tech 11-4 in the 2021 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship on Wednesday inside Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City. The Bears (31-19) fell behind the Red Raiders (36-13), 8-0 early and could not climb back into the game.
 
Texas Tech scored in the first four innings and took control of the game early. The Bears got on the board in the top of the sixth with a double steal and throwing error to make it 8-1.
 
The Red Raiders tacked on another run in the home-half of the sixth to push the lead back to eight runs. Baylor trimmed the deficit in the top of the seventh after the first three batters reached to load the bases. Two batters later, second-year freshman Jared McKenzie doubled to left center to score two runs. Second-year freshman Tre Richardson followed with a ground out to score another and make it 9-4.
 
TTU added two insurance runs to make the eventual final, 11-4.
 
Cam Caley (2-2) was tabbed with the loss after throwing one inning, while Texas Tech's Mason Montgomery (4-3) earned his fourth win of the season.
 
NOTES
• With the loss Baylor will play Kansas State in an elimination game on Thursday at 9 a.m. on ESPNU.
• Baylor is now 37-40 all-time in the Big 12 Championship and 33-32 inside Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.
• Texas Tech even the season series at 2-2.
• Pineda and McKenzie each finished 2-for-4 with a double on the day.
• McKenzie had a team-high two RBI.
 
QUOTE FROM COACH ROD
"I think the big things were the walks and the free bases that we gave them. Obviously, they lead the game off with a home run and then we walk a couple more guys and we just couldn't get our bearings underneath us. By the time we got guys on second base it was tough to score them, so we tried to be aggressive, tried to get guys in scoring position and we were able to get a couple of runs across but we just didn't have the fire power early on."
 
WHAT'S NEXT
The Bears will have another morning game with a 9 a.m. CT start time tomorrow versus Kansas State. Baylor won the series against the Wildcats (31-22) on May 7-9 in Waco.
 
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