
BSB Walks Off No. 8 OSU, 13-11
5/20/2022 12:04:00 AM | Baseball
Bears erase eight-run deficit for largest comeback win in five years
Baylor Bear Insider
Years from now, this will be remembered as another "Miracle on the Brazos."
Baylor baseball rallied from an 11-3 deficit with an eight-run seventh inning and then completed a comeback for the ages when Antonio Valdez hit a walk-off two-run homer in the ninth to lift the Bears to a wild 13-11 win over Oklahoma State in Thursday's series opener at Baylor Ballpark.
"That was one of the craziest days of my life," said Valdez, a .190 hitter when he came off the bench as a pinch-hitter in the seventh. "I've been a part of a couple (walk-off wins), but I've never done it. It's still the same feeling, your team getting the last hit to win. But, never anything like that in my life."
With its third win over a top-10 team this season, the Bears (26-24, 7-15) punched their ticket to the Big 12 Championship for the 25th-consecutive time. As the probable No. 8 seed, they would face top-seeded and 15th-ranked TCU (33-18, 16-8) in the first round of the tournament next Wednesday at Globe Life Field in Arlington.
"I don't know what happened with Kansas," Baylor coach Rodriguez said of the ninth-place Jayhawks (20-33, 4-18), who were eliminated by Texas, 12-4, earlier in the day. "But, it was nice to know that we got in the way we should have got in."
Trailing 9-2 after five innings and 11-3 going into the bottom of the seventh, Baylor looked like it might have to get some help from Texas. But in the end, no help was needed.
OSU starter Victor Mederos effectively shut down the Bears through the first six innings, giving up just three runs (two earned) on three hits and no walks with three strikeouts. Despite throwing just 75 pitches, Mederos came out after giving up a solo homer to Jared McKenzie in the sixth, exiting with a seemingly safe 11-3 lead.
On the flip side, the Cowboys (34-18, 13-9) knocked reigning Big 12 Pitcher of the Week Jake Jackson out early. After working around a pair of one-out hits in the first, Jackson gave up nine runs (seven earned) on 12 hits and one walk with seven strikeouts in 4.2 innings.
Even with the odds stacked against them, McKenzie said the Bears had to "get up there and have that attitude of, 'Hey, I'm better than you on the mound.' If you're able to do that, you're able to see good results. If you hit the ball hard or you strike out, you're going to get another opportunity, so go make the most of it."
Those opportunities came in bunches in the bottom of the seventh, when the Bears brought 13 batters to the plate against four OSU relievers. Going to his bench, Rodriguez used pinch-hitters Beau Wimpee and Valdez, who combined for three hits, a pair of walks and four runs in six plate appearances.
"You're just trying to find something different," Rodriguez said. "Those guys do a really good job of taking pitches and getting on base, and they have some speed. So, I can do some things with them. You have guys who might have a little more power or play better defense, but sometimes I'm just looking for baserunners. And luckily, it made me look like a decent coach tonight."
Wimpee led off the seventh with a walk off reliever Roman Phansalkar, then Harrison Caley and Jacob Shoenvogel followed with one-out hits to score a pair of runs. The comeback seemed to grow legs when Esteban Cardoza-Oquendo reached on a throwing error by shortstop Marcus Brown.
After Baylor loaded the bases with a Jack Pineda double to left and a Tre Richardson walk, McKenzie deposited a full-count fastball by reliever Dillon Marsh well over the wall in right-center for a grand-slam homer that made it a one-run ballgame, 11-10.
"In warmups, he kept dropping his shoulder down with the lower-arm slot, and he also had the breaking ball from the low-arm slot," McKenzie said of Marsh. "I was waiting for him to come over top. Sure enough, he did, the fastball was coming, and I was able to hit it."
Rodriguez called McKenzie's second homer in as many at-bats a "monster grand slam to put us within one." The third-year sophomore centerfielder went 3-for-4 with a career-high five RBIs and also scored three runs.
"I'm just proud and happy that these guys had the tenacity that they had all throughout the game," he said. "It would have been easy to fold it up when it was (11-3). But, they didn't, they kept pounding."
The Bears were able to scratch across the tying run, when Wimpee drew a two-out walk, went to second on a wild pitch and scored the tying run on Caley's single up the middle.
"We know, with this team and this offense . . . we're never out of anything," Valdez said. "Together, we've just got to stay poised as a group and go up there and have quality at-bats. That's the whole thing, we know we can get back in any game."
A beleaguered Baylor bullpen that blew a 5-1 lead in Sunday's series finale at Kansas State last weekend came through in a big way. Matt Voelker worked around a pair of walks in the eighth, then induced a double-play grounder in the ninth, before Adam Muirhead (1-0) struck out dangerous hitter Nolan McLean swinging on a 3-2 fastball.
"At some point, those guys came out and said, 'Hey, we're just going to power it with our best stuff, and whatever happens, happens,''' Rodriguez said. "Sometimes, you've got to have the character to go out there and do different things, because obviously the other stuff wasn't working at times. Those guys did exactly what we wanted them to do."
After Schoenvogel led off the bottom of the ninth with a flare single to center, Valdez tried and failed twice to get a sacrifice bunt down and found himself in an 0-2 hole in a hurry. But, he stayed alive in a seven-pitch at-bat and made reliever Hueston Morrill (1-2) pay when he blasted a shot that bounced off and over the wall in right-center field.
"I had no idea (it was going out)," said Valdez, who hit his fourth career homer and first of the 2022 season. "I was just hoping that Beau could get to second base, because that was my job going in. That's all I was trying to do. I was really scared when I saw it hit the top of the wall, and I saw (OSU rightfielder Jaxson Crull) keep looking at it. I really had no idea."
Baylor goes for the series win with Friday's 6:30 p.m. Game 2, with the series finale scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday. Rodriguez said he's still undecided on his starter for Friday's game.
"Hopefully, we can come out here and win this weekend," McKenzie said, "and take that momentum into the Big 12 tournament."
Thanks to a "Miracle on the Brazos," the Bears at least know they'll be in next week's Big 12 tournament.
THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas – Baylor baseball (26-24, 7-15) erased an eight-run deficit to come from behind and walk off No. 8 Oklahoma State (34-18, 13-9) Thursday night at Baylor Ballpark, 13-11.
Antonio Valdez delivered the walk-off two-run blast that hit the top of the wall before going over. Jared McKenzie hit two home runs and drove in five, including a grand slam in BU's eight-run seventh inning. Beau Wimpee reached base three times after pinch-hitting in the seventh and scored the game-winning run on Valdez's homer.
The Bears opened the scoring off an OSU error in the bottom of the first, but quickly found themselves in a hole as the Cowboys scored two runs in each of the next three innings. Kyle Nevin's fourth-inning sacrifice fly cut the OSU lead to 6-2, but a three-run top of the fifth swayed it back to 9-2.
In the bottom of the sixth, McKenzie crushed his first long ball of the night, a solo shot to get one back at 9-3. However, OSU responded again with two more in the top of the seventh to go ahead 11-3.
That's when the magic happened, as 13 Bears came to the plate in the eight-run frame. Jacob Schoenvogel drove in two with a single, then Esteban Cardoza-Oquendo reached on a run-scoring error. After a Jack Pineda double and a Tre Richardson walk to load the bases, McKenzie came through again with his 11th home run of the season to bring BU within one.
Then with two outs in the inning, Wimpee singled and Valdez walked to set up Harrison Caley's game-tying RBI single which sent the Bears to the eighth all knotted at 11-11. Things were quiet until the bottom of the ninth, when Wimpee led things off with another single ahead of Valdez's game-winning long ball.
With its third win over a top-10 team in 2022, Baylor also punched its ticket to the 2022 Big 12 Championship and will await its final seeding after this weekend's results.
NOTES
• Baylor improved to 44-51 all-time against Oklahoma State, including a 7-9 mark under seventh-year head coach Steve Rodriguez.
• BU collected its third win over a top-10 team with the 13-11 victory.
• Baylor overcame a deficit of eight runs for its largest comeback victory since May 19, 2017.
• Four Baylor pitchers combined to strikeout 10 batters for BU's 14th double-digit punchout performance of the season.
• Baylor extended its streak to 29 games in a row with an extra-base hit.
• The Bears have tallied two or more XBH in 18 of their last 19 games.
• BU continues to lead the nation with 59 double plays turned in 2022.
• Antonio Valdez delivered BU's first walk-off home run since Ryan Bertelsman did so against Holy Cross on Feb. 16, 2019.
• Jared McKenzie hit Baylor's first grand slam since March 30, 2019 (Cole Haring vs. Kansas).
• McKenzie became the first Bear to drive in five runs this season, and first since Andy Thomas knocked in six on May 9, 2021 against K-State.
• Five RBIs is a career-high for McKenzie.
• McKenzie tallied his 17th multi-hit and 13th multi-RBI game of the year.
• Harrison Caley recorded his seventh multi-hit game of the season.
• Jacob Schoenvogel collected his third multi-RBI outing of 2022.
• Schoenvogel also extended his team-leading on-base streak to 11 games.
• Beau Wimpee produced his first multi-hit performance of the season.
• Jake Jackson tied his season high with seven strikeouts.
STATS OF THE GAME
8 – Baylor erased an eight-run deficit for its largest comeback victory in the last five years.
5 – Jared McKenzie drove in a team-high five runs to set a new career high.
1 – Antonio Valdez hit his first home run of the season, a two-run walk-off blast to seal the win.
TOP QUOTES
Head coach Steve Rodriguez
On tonight's win…
"I tell you what, it's definitely not how you design it up but, I told our guys at the end of this game - they absolutely won this game. There's nothing they were given. They did everything that they possibly could, fight, scratch and crawl. Jake [Jackson] just battled, he battled to get us deeper into the game. Then [Matt] Voelker and [Adam] Muirhead and [Hambleton] Oliver came in. Muirhead coming in and getting that last out was huge. Giving our offense an opportunity to get a guy on and then get a guy over and get them in. Then Antonio [Valdez] obviously just a dramatic home run, you know it hits the top of the wall and then is it going out, is it not going out. It was pretty dramatic. Hats off to Jaren McKenzie, comes up with two humongous homeruns to get us within one and then next thing you know we scratch and crawl to get a base hit and tie the game up."
Sophomore OF Jared McKenzie
On the team's approach in the seventh inning…
"You look at the score and you can either sit there and give up, or you know what, it becomes an individual sport at that point. How are you going to take it personally? Come up there and grind at-bats. When everybody on your team is showing that it mattered to them, no matter what the score was, their at-bat mattered. When everybody's at-bats matter and they start to click, you have good results."
Junior INF Antonio Valdez
On the walk-off home run…
"I've never done anything like that in my life and as soon as I didn't get those bunts down, you know, I had to do whatever I could to get Beau [Wimpee] to second base. And Beau getting on base three times is part of that comeback, we don't win without Beau getting on base again and the pitchers and everybody who contributed. It was everybody tonight and I just can't believe I did it."
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor (26-24, 7-15) looks to clinch the series over No. 8 Oklahoma State (34-18, 13-9) on Friday, May 20, 2022 with first pitch set for 6:30 p.m. CT.
For the latest news on the Baylor baseball team all season long, follow its official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts: @BaylorBaseball.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Muirhead, Adam (1-0)
L: Morrill, Hueston (1-2)
Batting:
2B: Ehrhard, Zach 2 ; Mendham, David 1 ; Brown, Marcus 1 ; Daugherty, Ian 1
HR: Doersching, Griffin 1 ; McLean, Nolan 1 ; Trenkle, Caeden 1
RBI: Riggio, Roc 2 ; Doersching, Griffin 3 ; Mendham, David 2 ; McLean, Nolan 1 ; Trenkle, Caeden 2
SF: Doersching, Griffin 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Ehrhard, Zach 2 ; Riggio, Roc 1 ; Thompson, Jake 2 ; Doersching, Griffin 1 ; McLean, Nolan 1 ; Brown, Marcus 1 ; Trenkle, Caeden 2 ; Daugherty, Ian 1
SB: McLean, Nolan 1 ; Trenkle, Caeden 1

Batting:
2B: Pineda, Jack 1 ; McKenzie, Jared 1
HR: McKenzie, Jared 2 ; Valdez, Antonio 1
RBI: McKenzie, Jared 5 ; Nevin, Kyle 1 ; Valdez, Antonio 2 ; Caley, Harrison 1 ; Schoenvogel, Jacob 2
SF: Nevin, Kyle 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Pineda, Jack 1 ; Richardson, Tre 2 ; McKenzie, Jared 3 ; Wimpee, Beau 3 ; Valdez, Antonio 1 ; Caley, Harrison 1 ; Schoenvogel, Jacob 1 ; Cardoza-Oquendo, Esteban 1
SB: Wimpee, Beau 1






























