By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Baylor's oft-maligned bullpen has "taken some bumps along the way" this season, blowing save opportunities in each of the Bears' first three Big 12 Conference series. 
            But, on a day when coach Steve Rodriguez needed them the most, they came through with six solid innings of relief in a 6-5, series-clinching win over the Kansas Jayhawks Saturday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark. 
            "All of you know that we've kind of struggled, these guys have taken some bumps along the way," said Rodriguez, whose team improved to 18-17 overall and 4-8 in the Big 12 with its first conference series win. "Pitching is such a feel thing. I can see mechanics, but I don't know what it feels like. For them to go out there and continue to get better, that's a great sign for us as we continue the season."
            Matt Voelker (2-5), who had strung together a couple no-hit outings against West Virginia and two scoreless frames in Thursday's game against Kansas, followed that up with four strikeouts in 2.2 innings against the Jayhawks (14-20, 2-7) to pick up his second win of the year. 
            "It definitely (felt good)," said Voelker, who allowed one run on four hits. "I've been working on some stuff. Obviously, things haven't been going our way. . . . Blowing them out (Friday) and then coming back and winning today, that was huge."
            Trailing 4-2, the Bears cut the deficit in half with a run in the fifth. Tre Richardson walked, went to third on a Jared McKenzie single and scored on a sacrifice fly to shallow center by Kyle Nevin. 
            After Jake Jackson worked around a pair of singles for a scoreless sixth, Chase Wehsener led off the bottom of the inning with a double into the left-field corner and scored the tying run on Harrison Caley's two-out RBI single up the middle. 
            Twice coming back from two-run deficits, Baylor took its first lead when Jack Pineda led off the seventh with an opposite-field homer off Stone Hewlett (1-1) that hit the foul pole down the left-field line. 
            "Honestly, it didn't feel great," said Pineda, who hit his second home run of the weekend and fourth this season. "I've been working really hard on my swing. And I think that's when you know your swing is going well when you're missing balls and you're still having that much success."
            Rodriguez said it's a testament to Pineda that "he wants to hit, he wants to work, and you see the results."
            "For me, it doesn't surprise me one bit that he's having the success he's having."
            Three batters later, Nevin hit a bomb that cleared the wall in left-center field for his team-high sixth homer of the season and an insurance run that would come in handy. 
            "It's always fun to see when the hitters start doing their thing," Voelker said. "They've been really good the last couple of days for us."
            The Jayhawks got one run back in a hurry with three-straight one-out hits off Voelker in the top of the eighth, but he bounced back to strike out Chase Jans and get Tavian Josenberger to fly out to center. 
            Voelker said it was critical "not letting (the three-straight hits) affect the next pitches."
            "Just staying with the one-pitch mentality and attacking hitters," he said. 
            Trying to preserve the one-run lead, Voelker went back out for the ninth and struck out Dylan Ditzenberger and Maui Ahuna. The nation's leading hitter coming into the weekendwith a .453 batting average, Ahuna went 1-for-11 with six strikeouts in the three-game series. 
            "It was just off-speed pitches," Voelker said of the strategy against Ahuna. "Every guy that went out there, we spun him. He didn't prove that he could hit it, and it just kept working. It was a great job by the pitching staff as a whole."
            In a right-on-right matchup, Chandler Freeman picked up a one-out save, retiring cleanup hitter Nolan Metcalf on a pop-up to second base. 
            "We just wanted to make sure with the matchup with Chandler at the end, with the righty," Rodriguez said. "That was a big thing for us, making sure we have the right guy in the right spot."
            That seemed to be the case all day, starting with Brett Garcia retiring the side in the order in the first and second before giving up two runs on three hits in the third. Henry Cone and Jackson got through the next three innings, and then Voelker and Freeman combined to finish it out. 
            "In this conference, anybody can beat anybody," Pineda said. "You've seen it. We play two close games and blow them out yesterday. It's the same thing, we've played some close games and we've blown out some people in conference. It's just the way it is. I think anybody can beat any team on any certain day. It's just on us to play well."
            Finishing out a busy home schedule of five games in six days, Baylor hosts Lamar (22-13) at 6:30 p.m. Monday and Sam Houston (19-15) at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. 
            "Just like Chandler Freeman, who's going to come in and get an out for us when we need it?" Rodriguez said. "Who can get us through an inning? That's going to be the big thing, and that's what we're looking for out of these guys over the next couple of days."



THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas – Baylor baseball (18-17, 4-8) clinched the series over Kansas (14-20, 2-7) with a 6-5 win on Saturday at Baylor Ballpark.

Seventh-inning home runs from Jack Pineda and Kyle Nevin proved to be clutch and decisive as the Bears claimed the one-run victory over the Jayhawks.

KU jumped out to an early 2-0 lead behind a solo home run and an RBI single in the top of the third inning, but BU responded in the bottom half with a run-scoring single from Tre Richardson. Pineda also scored on a wild pitch to tie the tally at 2-2 entering the fourth.

An RBI knock in the fourth and sacrifice fly in the fifth gave Kansas a 4-2 lead through four and a half frames, but Nevin drove in Richardson with a sacrifice fly of his own in the bottom of the fifth to pull the Bears within one.

Then in the sixth, Harrison Caley came up with a clutch, two-out RBI single to score Chase Wehsener and knot the game at 4-4. Pineda poked a go-ahead homer off the left field foul pole in the bottom of the seventh, and two batters later Nevin blasted what wound up as the game-winning solo shot to left-center.

With a 6-4 lead, Matt Voelker was able to work out of trouble, only allowing one run in the top of the eighth as part of his 2.2 innings of solid relief. After striking out each of the first two Jayhawks in the ninth, the senior lefty turned the ball over to Chandler Freeman, who recorded his first-career save to seal the win.

NOTES
• Baylor claimed its first series win in Big 12 play of 2022.
• BU improves to 61-23 all-time against KU, including a 13-6 mark against the Jayhawks under seventh-year head coach Steve Rodriguez.
• Baylor didn't commit an error or walk a batter in the entire three-game series against Kansas.
• Baylor hit five home runs on the weekend, its most in a three-game series this year.
• BU recorded double-digit hits for the 14^th time this season with 10 on the day.
• With five extra-base hits, the Bears extended their streak to 14 games in a row with at least one XBH.
• The Bears have tallied two or more XBH in each of their last four games and five of their last six.
• All nine starters recorded a hit in back-to-back days.
• Tre Richardson extended his career-high on-base streak to 26 games.
• Jared McKenzie extended his career-high on-base streak to 22 games.
• Jack Pineda extended his on-base streak to 18 games
• Pineda has scored at least one run in each of his last 13 games.
• Chase Wehsener recorded his 10^th multi-hit game of 2022.
• Kyle Nevin collected his 12^th multi-RBI game of the year.
• Matt Voelker notched a season-high four strikeouts.
• Chandler Freeman picked up his first-career save.
 
STAT OF THE GAME
0 – Baylor finished off the series win with zero walks or errors over each of the three games against the Jayhawks.

TOP QUOTES
Head coach Steve Rodriguez
On turning things around with a series win…
"When you have the offense come out like it did, the pitching do what it did, you can't help but get excited. Now we have some confidence. I really do believe that we were lacking some of that confidence. Guys were showing up like, 'Oh my gosh, what's it going to be today?' Then we get great outings by Kobe Andrade, a great outing by Will Rigney. We couldn't get the win, but it was still a great outing. Same thing by our bullpen on Thursday. When you're able to get those things, you can't help but get excited to get playing again, because you're starting to see guys take care of their business. That's what we try to harp on – take care of your business, then pass it to the next guy and let him do his job. Then you pass it to the next guy and let him do his job. You don't need to do everybody's job, just do your own."

Junior INF Jack Pineda
On his go-ahead home run…
"It was huge. I really put a lot of, I don't want to say pressure, but I really took it upon myself to be a spark at the top of the lineup and just bring a lot of energy. I was really fortunate yesterday with a double to lead off the game; and tonight just the same thing. I think me and Tre really challenged each other to be that spark at the top of the lineup. It felt good to just produce."

WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor (18-17) gets back at it on Monday, April 18, against Lamar (22-13) for a 6:30 p.m. CT contest at Baylor Ballpark.
 
For the latest news on the Baylor baseball team all season long, follow its official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts: @BaylorBaseball.