By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
ARLINGTON, Texas – Going toe-to-toe with eighth-ranked Oregon State, Baylor baseball (7-2) came within a home run-robbing catch of knocking off the Beavers (6-2) Friday night at Globe Life Field, falling 4-3 on the opening day of the Amegy Bank College Baseball Series.
 
"You make a mistake, they can hurt it and punish you," Baylor coach Mitch Thompson said. "I thought we played well, I thought we pitched well, I thought we competed really well at the plate. Those are their three best guys, two best guys out of the bullpen. And we took some pretty good swings at them. . . . I thought it was a good college baseball game today."
 
It was very clear, though, that playing close wasn't what the Bears wanted to do.
 
"I'm disappointed that we didn't get the win. That's what we came here to do," Thompson said. "We talked about that going into the ninth inning. How are we going to play it? But it is what it is. (Saturday), we'll show back up and we'll play a good Ohio State team. We need to come out and be ready to go."
 
Pretty much unhittable through his first two outings, Baylor junior left-hander Ethan Calder (2-1) had a tough first inning. Three of the first four batters reached base, with cleanup hitter Gavin Turley delivering a two-run single to center on a 1-2 pitch that opened up an early 2-0 lead for Oregon State.
 
But after that, Calder settled in and retired nine batters in a row and 15 of the last 17 he faced before exiting with one out in the sixth.
 
"Ethan's our Friday guy for a reason," senior outfielder Wesley Jordan said. "He's going to go out there, he's going to compete, he's going to give us outs. And we're confident when he's on the mound."
 
Jordan provided the Bears' offensive highlight of the night in the fourth, when he crushed a 1-1 delivery from OSU starter Nelson Keljo and deposited it into the second deck with a 445-foot home run that tied the game at 2-2.
 
"We knew (Keljo) was a fastball-heavy guy," said Jordan, who hit his second home run of the season, "and I was just going to try and get my best swing and not miss."
 
He didn't miss that one. Turley, the leftfielder, turned and took about two steps before watching the ball sail into the second deck.
 
"He got all of that one," Thompson said. "(Turley) was going to have to get some big springs to get it. Those two home runs that were hit, our guy and their guy, were touched pretty good."
 
Taking the lead right back in the bottom half of the fourth, the Beavers' Jacob Krieg blasted a solo shot off Calder to about the same spot.
 
After a ground-rule double to left-center field by Tyce Peterson ended Calder's night with one out in the sixth, Krieg came through again with a two-out RBI single through the left side that made it 4-2.
 
Freshman third baseman Pearson Riebock, who came in as a pinch-hitter in the fifth, crushed a first-pitch delivery by OSU reliever Eric Segura (2-0) leading off in the seventh. But rightfielder Easton Talt sprinted over to right-center and timed it just right, leaping over the outfield wall to rob Riebock of his first collegiate homer.
 
"Yeah, I wanted it for him," Thompson said of Riebock, "but it is what it is. It's a big boy game, and you're going to have to hang in there and show back up again tomorrow."
 
Jordan said "you're bummed out for a second, but then you've got to flush it, and it's next batter. Because any guy, 1 through 9, can leave the yard. When you know you have that, you can't dwell on it too long."
 
After taking one, the Beavers gave the Bears one as well. Tyriq Kemp reached with two outs, when third baseman Trent Carraway dropped a high pop fly near the pitcher's mound, with Jack Little driving him in with an RBI single to right that cut the deficit to 4-3.
 
But Little was the last Baylor hitter to reach base, with Segura and Matthew Morrell combining to retire the last seven batters in a row.
 
"I thought our guys battled hard," Thompson said. "They're running real stuff up there at you, and hitting is not easy when you're facing guys like that. So, I thought our approach was good. We walked some (four), we didn't punch out very many times (seven). They just weren't going to crack many doors for us."
 
The Bears will face Ohio State (1-6) at 2 p.m. Saturday and then close out the weekend with a matchup against 25^th-ranked Auburn (9-1) at 3 p.m. Sunday. In Friday's other game, the Tigers run-ruled the Buckeyes, 13-0, in seven innings.