Saturday, February 17
Arlington, Texas
11 AM
Baylor
4
vs
7
Oregon
Greer Homers, McKinney Debuts in BSB's Loss to Oregon
2/17/2024 4:12:00 PM | Baseball
Fifth-year senior transfer hits BU’s first blast of season; freshman RHP looks sharp in 4.1 IP
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
ARLINGTON, Texas – Defending Pac-12 tournament champions and a 40-win team that was a win away from the College World Series last year, the Oregon Ducks would like nothing better than to get back there again.
And for the first five innings of Saturday's game at Globe Life Field, the Baylor Bears "went toe-to-toe" with them, even jumping out to a 4-0 lead on the second day of the Shriners' Children's College Showdown.
But for the second-straight day, the bullpen struggled, allowing two inherited runners to score and giving up four runs in a 7-4 loss that dropped the Bears to 0-2.
"There's no such things as a moral victory," second-year Baylor head coach Mitch Thompson said. "You either win or you don't win, and it's disappointing to lose. . . . That was a team that was in Game 3 of a Super Regional to go to Omaha last year. And we went toe-to-toe with them for a long point in that game. I think good things are happening. I think we're learning."
One of those "good things" happening was redshirt freshman pitcher Collin McKinney, who took a no-hitter into the fourth in his collegiate debut and led 4-1 when he left with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning.
"I thought he was good, first time out," Thompson said. "I think he showed a lot of promise, a lot of hope for us there. That was great for us and great for him. . . . We were at about an 80-pich limit with him, and he threw 82. So, we got him out when we had to get him out."
After Oregon starter Kevin Seitter set the Bears down in order in the first, Baylor's bats came alive in the next inning. Hunter Simmons led off with a hit that got past rightfielder Jeffery Heard for a triple and scored on Gavin Brzozowski's RBI groundout to second.
Mason Greer delivered the big blow when he deposited a 1-1 curveball just out of the reach of Heard into the seats in right field for a 2-0 lead and Baylor's first home run of the season.
"I saw a curveball up, just swung and hit it out," said Greer, a Missouri State transfer who was playing in the home of the World Series champion Texas Rangers, the club that his dad, Rusty, played with for nine seasons. "I thought it was going out, and then it looked like he was about to catch it, so I had to start sprinting again. But luckily, it snuck over the wall."
The Bears padded their lead with a run in the third on back-to-back singles by Ty Johnson and Hunter Teplanszky and then made it 4-0 in the top of the fourth, when Cortlan Castle reached on a two-out error and came around on Enzo Apodaca's triple to center.
"We've shown a lot of promising things," said Greer, who is hitting .375 (3-for-8) through the first two games. "We just have to carry it to the later parts of the game. We started off hot, but the sixth, seventh, eighth innings and on, you've got to keep it going."
After getting just two baserunners on base through the first three innings, both on walks, the Ducks (2-0) broke through with a run in the fourth on a two-out RBI single by Bennett Thompson through the left side of the infield.
The floodgates opened in the fifth, when Oregon jumped on reliever Grant Golomb with RBI hits by Jacob Walsh, Justin Cassella and Heard to tie it up at 4-4.
And then in the sixth, freshman reliever Jackson Elizondo gave up three runs on four-straight hits before inducing Walsh to hit into a 4-6-3 double play and striking out Cassella. Baylor had a chance to answer in the seventh when reliever Jaxon Jordan gave up a single and hit two batters to load the bases, but Castle struck out swinging.
Baylor hit just .167 (2-for-12) with runners in scoring position and left 11 runners stranded.
"We didn't pitch extremely well out of the bullpen," Thompson said. "We will expect a little bit better out of those two guys. But at the same time, I don't think they pitched bad. They gave up some two-hits, two-strike hits. Oregon squared some balls up, that's a really good ballclub. They've got power, they've got speed, they're sound defensively. Another competitive ballgame, and we're disappointed that we didn't come out on top."
Senior righthander Jared Matheson will get the start for the Bears in Sunday's 6:30 p.m. game against fifth-ranked Tennessee (2-1).
ARLINGTON, Texas – Baylor baseball (0-2) fell to Oregon (2-0) 7-4 on Saturday at Globe Life Field in Arlington.
The Bears led 4-0 through the first three and a half innings, but couldn't keep the Ducks from scoring seven unanswered to take the win. Fifth-year senior infielder Mason Greer provided a solo home run in the second inning, while senior outfielder Hunter Simmons posted two hits, including a triple, in the loss.
Redshirt freshman right-handed pitcher Collin McKinney made his collegiate debut and struck out five batters in 4.1 frames on his 20th birthday. Though he exited with a lead, the Bears bullpen was unable to hold down a talented Ducks offense that was one game away from reaching the College World Series a season ago.
THE RUNDOWN
Baylor opened the scoring in the top of the second as redshirt sophomore outfielder Gavin Brzozowski drove in Simmons with an RBI groundout. Greer was the next batter to the plate and he promptly left the yard to put BU ahead 2-0 through two frames.
In the third, redshirt junior outfielder Enzo Apodaca and junior outfielder Ty Johnson set the table by reaching on a hit-by-pitch and singling through the right side, allowing junior infielder Hunter Teplanszky to drive in a run with an RBI single, extending the Bears' lead to 3-0.
Then in the fourth, Apodaca tripled in a run, chasing junior Cortlan Castle around from first to swell the advantage to 4-0. All the while, McKinney was powering through the UO lineup without allowing a hit, working around a pair of walks and punching out four.
The Ducks got on the board in the bottom of the fourth after a pair of singles, then chased McKinney from the mound in the fifth and scored another three runs on four hits and a BU error.
From there, Oregon's bullpen kept the Baylor bats at bay and the Ducks put up another three-spot in the sixth to gain some distance, leading 7-4.
Freshman southpaw Jackson Elizondo pitched a strong seventh inning after making his debut in the sixth, and handed the ball off to redshirt junior RHP Andrew Petrowski who threw a clean eighth. The Bears were unable to get to UO's Logan Mercado, as he struck out the side in the ninth as part of a six-out save.
HIGHLIGHTS
• This was the first meeting between Baylor and Oregon in program history.
• Baylor now owns an 8-6 record all-time at tournaments sponsored by Shriners Children's.
• BU eclipsed double digits in strikeouts for the second time this season and 22nd time in the Mitch Thompson era.
• Redshirt freshman RHP Collin McKinney and freshman LHP Jackson Elizondo made their collegiate debuts.
• Fifth-year senior INF Mason Greer hit his first home run as a Bear, the 13th of his career.
• Redshirt junior OF Enzo Apodaca recorded his first hit, an RBI triple, as a Bear.
• Senior OF Hunter Simmons hit the second triple of his career.
• Simmons also became the third Bear to post a multi-hit game in 2024.
• Junior INF Hunter Teplanszky extended his team-leading on-base streak to eight games, dating back to last season.
• Redshirt sophomore OF Gavin Brzozowski reached base for the sixth-straight game, dating back to last season.
STAT OF THE DAY
5 – Redshirt freshman RHP Collin McKinney struck out five in his collegiate debut.
QUOTABLE
Head Coach Mitch Thompson
On today's game…
"I was glad to see our offense get off to a good start. We had some big hits and scored four runs, got a lead and it was nice to play with a lead. I thought it was good for Collin McKinney to come in and he was good for his first time out. I thought he showed a lot of promise and that was great for us. Oregon squared some balls up. That's a really good ballclub. They've got power, they've got speed, they're sound defensively and obviously they've got good pitching. It was another competitive ballgame and we're disappointed we didn't come out on top."
Senior INF Mason Greer
On the offensive potential of this team…
"We've showed a lot of promising things (offensively), we just have to carry it through the later parts of the game. We started off hot, but we've got to keep it going late. We just have to be ourselves and play hard. This team has a chance to be really good. I don't think we need to try too hard, it's just baseball."
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor (0-2) closes out the 2024 Shriners Children's College Showdown on Sunday evening against No. 5 Tennessee (1-0), with a 6:30 p.m. first pitch at Globe Life Field in Arlington.
To stay up to date on all things Baylor baseball, follow the team on its official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts: @BaylorBaseball.
Baylor Bear Insider
ARLINGTON, Texas – Defending Pac-12 tournament champions and a 40-win team that was a win away from the College World Series last year, the Oregon Ducks would like nothing better than to get back there again.
And for the first five innings of Saturday's game at Globe Life Field, the Baylor Bears "went toe-to-toe" with them, even jumping out to a 4-0 lead on the second day of the Shriners' Children's College Showdown.
But for the second-straight day, the bullpen struggled, allowing two inherited runners to score and giving up four runs in a 7-4 loss that dropped the Bears to 0-2.
"There's no such things as a moral victory," second-year Baylor head coach Mitch Thompson said. "You either win or you don't win, and it's disappointing to lose. . . . That was a team that was in Game 3 of a Super Regional to go to Omaha last year. And we went toe-to-toe with them for a long point in that game. I think good things are happening. I think we're learning."
One of those "good things" happening was redshirt freshman pitcher Collin McKinney, who took a no-hitter into the fourth in his collegiate debut and led 4-1 when he left with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning.
"I thought he was good, first time out," Thompson said. "I think he showed a lot of promise, a lot of hope for us there. That was great for us and great for him. . . . We were at about an 80-pich limit with him, and he threw 82. So, we got him out when we had to get him out."
After Oregon starter Kevin Seitter set the Bears down in order in the first, Baylor's bats came alive in the next inning. Hunter Simmons led off with a hit that got past rightfielder Jeffery Heard for a triple and scored on Gavin Brzozowski's RBI groundout to second.
Mason Greer delivered the big blow when he deposited a 1-1 curveball just out of the reach of Heard into the seats in right field for a 2-0 lead and Baylor's first home run of the season.
"I saw a curveball up, just swung and hit it out," said Greer, a Missouri State transfer who was playing in the home of the World Series champion Texas Rangers, the club that his dad, Rusty, played with for nine seasons. "I thought it was going out, and then it looked like he was about to catch it, so I had to start sprinting again. But luckily, it snuck over the wall."
The Bears padded their lead with a run in the third on back-to-back singles by Ty Johnson and Hunter Teplanszky and then made it 4-0 in the top of the fourth, when Cortlan Castle reached on a two-out error and came around on Enzo Apodaca's triple to center.
"We've shown a lot of promising things," said Greer, who is hitting .375 (3-for-8) through the first two games. "We just have to carry it to the later parts of the game. We started off hot, but the sixth, seventh, eighth innings and on, you've got to keep it going."
After getting just two baserunners on base through the first three innings, both on walks, the Ducks (2-0) broke through with a run in the fourth on a two-out RBI single by Bennett Thompson through the left side of the infield.
The floodgates opened in the fifth, when Oregon jumped on reliever Grant Golomb with RBI hits by Jacob Walsh, Justin Cassella and Heard to tie it up at 4-4.
And then in the sixth, freshman reliever Jackson Elizondo gave up three runs on four-straight hits before inducing Walsh to hit into a 4-6-3 double play and striking out Cassella. Baylor had a chance to answer in the seventh when reliever Jaxon Jordan gave up a single and hit two batters to load the bases, but Castle struck out swinging.
Baylor hit just .167 (2-for-12) with runners in scoring position and left 11 runners stranded.
"We didn't pitch extremely well out of the bullpen," Thompson said. "We will expect a little bit better out of those two guys. But at the same time, I don't think they pitched bad. They gave up some two-hits, two-strike hits. Oregon squared some balls up, that's a really good ballclub. They've got power, they've got speed, they're sound defensively. Another competitive ballgame, and we're disappointed that we didn't come out on top."
Senior righthander Jared Matheson will get the start for the Bears in Sunday's 6:30 p.m. game against fifth-ranked Tennessee (2-1).
ARLINGTON, Texas – Baylor baseball (0-2) fell to Oregon (2-0) 7-4 on Saturday at Globe Life Field in Arlington.
The Bears led 4-0 through the first three and a half innings, but couldn't keep the Ducks from scoring seven unanswered to take the win. Fifth-year senior infielder Mason Greer provided a solo home run in the second inning, while senior outfielder Hunter Simmons posted two hits, including a triple, in the loss.
Redshirt freshman right-handed pitcher Collin McKinney made his collegiate debut and struck out five batters in 4.1 frames on his 20th birthday. Though he exited with a lead, the Bears bullpen was unable to hold down a talented Ducks offense that was one game away from reaching the College World Series a season ago.
THE RUNDOWN
Baylor opened the scoring in the top of the second as redshirt sophomore outfielder Gavin Brzozowski drove in Simmons with an RBI groundout. Greer was the next batter to the plate and he promptly left the yard to put BU ahead 2-0 through two frames.
In the third, redshirt junior outfielder Enzo Apodaca and junior outfielder Ty Johnson set the table by reaching on a hit-by-pitch and singling through the right side, allowing junior infielder Hunter Teplanszky to drive in a run with an RBI single, extending the Bears' lead to 3-0.
Then in the fourth, Apodaca tripled in a run, chasing junior Cortlan Castle around from first to swell the advantage to 4-0. All the while, McKinney was powering through the UO lineup without allowing a hit, working around a pair of walks and punching out four.
The Ducks got on the board in the bottom of the fourth after a pair of singles, then chased McKinney from the mound in the fifth and scored another three runs on four hits and a BU error.
From there, Oregon's bullpen kept the Baylor bats at bay and the Ducks put up another three-spot in the sixth to gain some distance, leading 7-4.
Freshman southpaw Jackson Elizondo pitched a strong seventh inning after making his debut in the sixth, and handed the ball off to redshirt junior RHP Andrew Petrowski who threw a clean eighth. The Bears were unable to get to UO's Logan Mercado, as he struck out the side in the ninth as part of a six-out save.
HIGHLIGHTS
• This was the first meeting between Baylor and Oregon in program history.
• Baylor now owns an 8-6 record all-time at tournaments sponsored by Shriners Children's.
• BU eclipsed double digits in strikeouts for the second time this season and 22nd time in the Mitch Thompson era.
• Redshirt freshman RHP Collin McKinney and freshman LHP Jackson Elizondo made their collegiate debuts.
• Fifth-year senior INF Mason Greer hit his first home run as a Bear, the 13th of his career.
• Redshirt junior OF Enzo Apodaca recorded his first hit, an RBI triple, as a Bear.
• Senior OF Hunter Simmons hit the second triple of his career.
• Simmons also became the third Bear to post a multi-hit game in 2024.
• Junior INF Hunter Teplanszky extended his team-leading on-base streak to eight games, dating back to last season.
• Redshirt sophomore OF Gavin Brzozowski reached base for the sixth-straight game, dating back to last season.
STAT OF THE DAY
5 – Redshirt freshman RHP Collin McKinney struck out five in his collegiate debut.
QUOTABLE
Head Coach Mitch Thompson
On today's game…
"I was glad to see our offense get off to a good start. We had some big hits and scored four runs, got a lead and it was nice to play with a lead. I thought it was good for Collin McKinney to come in and he was good for his first time out. I thought he showed a lot of promise and that was great for us. Oregon squared some balls up. That's a really good ballclub. They've got power, they've got speed, they're sound defensively and obviously they've got good pitching. It was another competitive ballgame and we're disappointed we didn't come out on top."
Senior INF Mason Greer
On the offensive potential of this team…
"We've showed a lot of promising things (offensively), we just have to carry it through the later parts of the game. We started off hot, but we've got to keep it going late. We just have to be ourselves and play hard. This team has a chance to be really good. I don't think we need to try too hard, it's just baseball."
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor (0-2) closes out the 2024 Shriners Children's College Showdown on Sunday evening against No. 5 Tennessee (1-0), with a 6:30 p.m. first pitch at Globe Life Field in Arlington.
To stay up to date on all things Baylor baseball, follow the team on its official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts: @BaylorBaseball.
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