Saturday, April 29
Waco, Texas
2 PM
Baylor
15-28, 6-14
0
vs
10
West Virginia
32-11, 10-4
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
West Virginia
0
1
0
0
0
0
1
3
5
10
8
0
Baylor
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
6
2
BSB Shut Out By No. 17 West Virginia, 10-0
4/29/2023 6:23:00 PM | Baseball
Bears held scoreless for the first time this year
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Unable to figure out the puzzle that is West Virginia pitcher Blaine Traxel, Baylor baseball managed just six hits and was shut out for the first time all season, falling to the Mountaineers, 10-0, Saturday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark.
The Bears (15-28, 6-14) trailed just 2-0 through the first seven innings, the second run coming on a massive solo shot by J.J. Wetherholt, but gave up three in the eighth and five more in the ninth as the game quickly unraveled.
"The shame of it is, it's a ballgame through seven innings, it's 2-0," Baylor coach Mitch Thompson said. "We're a bloop and a blast away from being in it. And then, all of a sudden, we're not. We've got to show up tomorrow and put this behind us and try to salvage a win. For me, this is gut-check time."
Will Rigney (3-2), making his first start in two weeks, struggled through some wildness with seven walks and a 30-pitch first inning. But he made it through four-plus innings and 92 pitches, giving up just one run on three hits with five strikeouts.
After leaving the bases loaded in the first inning, the league-leading Mountaineers (32-11, 10-4) plated a run in the second. Rigney gave up an infield single and back-to-back walks before Wetherholt drove in the first run of the game with a groundout back to the mound.
MCC transfer Danny Altman, who went 3-for-3 to record half of the Bears' six hits, got Baylor's first hit of the day in the third inning on an infield single to second base that was reviewed and upheld by the officials.
Grant Golomb had one of his better outings, retiring the first six batters he faced, before Wetherholt led off the seventh with a blast that cleared the right-field wall and kept on going.
"Obviously, the wind is carrying balls out basically from about the right-field light pole to the line. That's where the balls went out," Thompson said of homers by Wetherholt and Grant Hussey. "And if you hit it anywhere else, it's not going out."
With Jared Matheson an out away from getting out of the eighth inning unscathed, West Virginia scored a pair of runs on a bases-loaded walk and hit by pitch to make it 4-0. And then, reliever Ethan Calder was called for a balk when Landon Wallace tried to steal home plate.
Leading 5-0, West Virginia tried to steal another run, but Caleb McNeely was thrown out at the plate on a play that looked like a carbon copy of the previous one.
Things went from bad to worse in the ninth, when Hussey led off with a homer to right field. Another run came home when Wallace was hit by a pitch for the third time in the game and fifth time in two days.
The last three runs scored when leftfielder Gavin Brzozowski dropped a pop-up in shallow left field that was blown back toward the infield, making it 10-0.
"When you're walking them and hitting them and having to get vie outs in an inning, usually somebody's going to put a 5-spot or something you," Thompson said. "And that's what happened."
Baylor's pitchers walked 10, hit another four and had the run-scoring balk. On the flip side, Traxel (6-3) tossed a complete-game six-hit shutout with no free bases.
"We never really threatened, but that's the way that guy pitches," Thompson said. "It's not that he goes out there and dominates people with great stuff. But he can pitch, and he's not going to beat himself. . . . I feel like he's out there playing a video game with you. That's kind of his mentality. And he loves it, he eats it up."
The final game of the three-game series is set for 11 a.m. Sunday and will be streamed by ESPN+, with junior left-hander Cam Caley (0-4, 8.12 ERA) scheduled to start for the Bears.
WACO, Texas – Baylor baseball (15-28, 6-14) was held scoreless by No. 17 West Virginia (32-11, 10-4) Saturday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark, as the Mountaineers defeated the Bears 10-0 to clinch the series.
Junior RHP Will Rigney struck out five batters in four innings, but threw 92 pitches and allowed seven walks as WVU broke it open late. Baylor trailed just 2-0 through the first seven frames, but surrendered eight runs in the final two innings in the loss.
Junior INF/OF Daniel Altman tied a career-high three hits in the contest, while junior INF/OF Cole Posey, freshman OF Caleb Bergman and redshirt freshman OF Gavin Brzozowski accounted for the rest of BU's hits on the day.
THE RUNDOWN
After loading the bases to open the ballgame, Rigney came back to strikeout the side in the top of the first, but was tagged for a run in the second inning as WVU plated the game's first run.
Things were quiet over the next four frames until a solo home run extended the Mountaineer lead to 2-0 in the top of the seventh.
In the eighth, a two-out hit-by-pitch loaded the bases, then another HBP and a walk forced in two more runs for West Virginia. After a pitching change, WVU tacked on one more via a bases-loaded balk, then was caught attempting to steal home on the very next play to end the inning.
A five-spot in the top of the ninth that included a solo home run, bases-loaded hit-by-pitch, and bases-clearing error would account for the rest of WVU's runs on the afternoon.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Baylor fell to 14-16 all-time against West Virginia and 2-10 against ranked opponents this season.
• This is the first time BU has been shut out all season.
• The Bears struck out 11 batters, reaching double figures for the 19th time this year.
• Junior INF/OF Daniel Altman tallied his first three-hit day as a Bear and first multi-hit outing of the season.
STAT OF THE DAY
3 – Daniel Altman logged three hits to match his career high.
QUOTABLE
Head Coach Mitch Thompson
On today's game…
"The shame of it is that it was a ballgame through seven innings. Their guy pitched his tail off and didn't give us anything. In a 2-0 game, we couldn't match them on the mound and couldn't make any adjustments offensively. We were a bloop and a blast away from getting in it, then all of a sudden we weren't. We have to show up tomorrow, put this behind us and try to salvage a win."
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor (15-28, 6-14) looks to salvage the series against No. 17 West Virginia (32-11, 10-4) on Sunday, April 30, with an 11 a.m. first pitch at Baylor Ballpark in Waco.
To stay up to date on all things Baylor baseball, follow the team on its official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts: @BaylorBaseball.
-BaylorBears.com-
Baylor Bear Insider
Unable to figure out the puzzle that is West Virginia pitcher Blaine Traxel, Baylor baseball managed just six hits and was shut out for the first time all season, falling to the Mountaineers, 10-0, Saturday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark.
The Bears (15-28, 6-14) trailed just 2-0 through the first seven innings, the second run coming on a massive solo shot by J.J. Wetherholt, but gave up three in the eighth and five more in the ninth as the game quickly unraveled.
"The shame of it is, it's a ballgame through seven innings, it's 2-0," Baylor coach Mitch Thompson said. "We're a bloop and a blast away from being in it. And then, all of a sudden, we're not. We've got to show up tomorrow and put this behind us and try to salvage a win. For me, this is gut-check time."
Will Rigney (3-2), making his first start in two weeks, struggled through some wildness with seven walks and a 30-pitch first inning. But he made it through four-plus innings and 92 pitches, giving up just one run on three hits with five strikeouts.
After leaving the bases loaded in the first inning, the league-leading Mountaineers (32-11, 10-4) plated a run in the second. Rigney gave up an infield single and back-to-back walks before Wetherholt drove in the first run of the game with a groundout back to the mound.
MCC transfer Danny Altman, who went 3-for-3 to record half of the Bears' six hits, got Baylor's first hit of the day in the third inning on an infield single to second base that was reviewed and upheld by the officials.
Grant Golomb had one of his better outings, retiring the first six batters he faced, before Wetherholt led off the seventh with a blast that cleared the right-field wall and kept on going.
"Obviously, the wind is carrying balls out basically from about the right-field light pole to the line. That's where the balls went out," Thompson said of homers by Wetherholt and Grant Hussey. "And if you hit it anywhere else, it's not going out."
With Jared Matheson an out away from getting out of the eighth inning unscathed, West Virginia scored a pair of runs on a bases-loaded walk and hit by pitch to make it 4-0. And then, reliever Ethan Calder was called for a balk when Landon Wallace tried to steal home plate.
Leading 5-0, West Virginia tried to steal another run, but Caleb McNeely was thrown out at the plate on a play that looked like a carbon copy of the previous one.
Things went from bad to worse in the ninth, when Hussey led off with a homer to right field. Another run came home when Wallace was hit by a pitch for the third time in the game and fifth time in two days.
The last three runs scored when leftfielder Gavin Brzozowski dropped a pop-up in shallow left field that was blown back toward the infield, making it 10-0.
"When you're walking them and hitting them and having to get vie outs in an inning, usually somebody's going to put a 5-spot or something you," Thompson said. "And that's what happened."
Baylor's pitchers walked 10, hit another four and had the run-scoring balk. On the flip side, Traxel (6-3) tossed a complete-game six-hit shutout with no free bases.
"We never really threatened, but that's the way that guy pitches," Thompson said. "It's not that he goes out there and dominates people with great stuff. But he can pitch, and he's not going to beat himself. . . . I feel like he's out there playing a video game with you. That's kind of his mentality. And he loves it, he eats it up."
The final game of the three-game series is set for 11 a.m. Sunday and will be streamed by ESPN+, with junior left-hander Cam Caley (0-4, 8.12 ERA) scheduled to start for the Bears.
WACO, Texas – Baylor baseball (15-28, 6-14) was held scoreless by No. 17 West Virginia (32-11, 10-4) Saturday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark, as the Mountaineers defeated the Bears 10-0 to clinch the series.
Junior RHP Will Rigney struck out five batters in four innings, but threw 92 pitches and allowed seven walks as WVU broke it open late. Baylor trailed just 2-0 through the first seven frames, but surrendered eight runs in the final two innings in the loss.
Junior INF/OF Daniel Altman tied a career-high three hits in the contest, while junior INF/OF Cole Posey, freshman OF Caleb Bergman and redshirt freshman OF Gavin Brzozowski accounted for the rest of BU's hits on the day.
THE RUNDOWN
After loading the bases to open the ballgame, Rigney came back to strikeout the side in the top of the first, but was tagged for a run in the second inning as WVU plated the game's first run.
Things were quiet over the next four frames until a solo home run extended the Mountaineer lead to 2-0 in the top of the seventh.
In the eighth, a two-out hit-by-pitch loaded the bases, then another HBP and a walk forced in two more runs for West Virginia. After a pitching change, WVU tacked on one more via a bases-loaded balk, then was caught attempting to steal home on the very next play to end the inning.
A five-spot in the top of the ninth that included a solo home run, bases-loaded hit-by-pitch, and bases-clearing error would account for the rest of WVU's runs on the afternoon.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Baylor fell to 14-16 all-time against West Virginia and 2-10 against ranked opponents this season.
• This is the first time BU has been shut out all season.
• The Bears struck out 11 batters, reaching double figures for the 19th time this year.
• Junior INF/OF Daniel Altman tallied his first three-hit day as a Bear and first multi-hit outing of the season.
STAT OF THE DAY
3 – Daniel Altman logged three hits to match his career high.
QUOTABLE
Head Coach Mitch Thompson
On today's game…
"The shame of it is that it was a ballgame through seven innings. Their guy pitched his tail off and didn't give us anything. In a 2-0 game, we couldn't match them on the mound and couldn't make any adjustments offensively. We were a bloop and a blast away from getting in it, then all of a sudden we weren't. We have to show up tomorrow, put this behind us and try to salvage a win."
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor (15-28, 6-14) looks to salvage the series against No. 17 West Virginia (32-11, 10-4) on Sunday, April 30, with an 11 a.m. first pitch at Baylor Ballpark in Waco.
To stay up to date on all things Baylor baseball, follow the team on its official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts: @BaylorBaseball.
-BaylorBears.com-
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Traxel, Blaine (6-3)
L: Rigney, Will (3-2)
Batting:
2B: Barry, Braden 1
HR: Wetherholt, J.J. 1 ; Hussey, Grant 1
RBI: Wetherholt, J.J. 2 ; Wallace, Landon 1 ; McNeely, Caleb 1 ; Leonard, Dayne 1 ; Hussey, Grant 1
SH: Leonard, Dayne 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Tucker, Tevin 2 ; Wetherholt, J.J. 2 ; Wallace, Landon 1 ; Cox, Tyler 1 ; Hussey, Grant 1 ; Barry, Braden 2 ; Sauve, Logan 1
SB: Tucker, Tevin 1 ; Wetherholt, J.J. 1 ; Barry, Braden 1
CS: McNeely, Caleb 1
HBP: Wallace, Landon 3 ; Leonard, Dayne 1
Base Running:
CS: Caley, Harrison 1
Game Leaders
lf/cf
AB
3
R
0
H
3
RBI
0
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
2
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
ph/lf
AB
1
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
INF/OF
/ BaseballOF
/ BaseballOF
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
RHP
/ BaseballINF/OF
/ Baseball
RHP
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