By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
WACO, Texas – Nothing the Baylor baseball bullpen does should surprise anyone anymore.
 
All the BU relievers did Tuesday night was combine to throw the last six innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on six hits and one walk with four strikeouts in helping the Bears (20-8) pull out a 3-2 win over Houston Christian (17-9) on Travis Sanders' walk-off home run in the ninth.
 
"The bullpen is special," said Sanders, a Texas Tech transfer who hit his second-career home run. "We all have trust that whoever's coming out there is going to throw strikes and get after it. . . . We're bringing guys in almost every inning, and all of them are filling up the strike zone and competing and getting outs. It's special."
 
Sixth-year senior left-hander Bryson Bales had a quality start, throwing three shutout innings and giving up just two hits and a walk with two strikeouts.
 
Tossing two innings apiece, Andrew Petrowski and Patrick Hail each faced just one batter over the minimum, giving up one hit and a walk while striking out two and walking one to get the game to the back end of the pen.
 
"I can come out of the game after two innings and know that we have (Caleb) Bunch and (Will) Glatch coming after me and know that the game is basically over," Hail said. "It's just a lot of fun to trust those guys like that."
 
After Bunch gave up an unearned run in the eighth that tied it at 1-1, Glatch (3-0) gave up a run on four hits, in 1 1/3 innings to close out the Bears' 12^th-consecutive midweek victory, and "three of them were pretty much seeing-eye hits," Baylor coach Mitch Thompson said.
 
"Bales and Hail gave us really good innings, four of them by the way," Thompson said. "And I don't think Bunch and Glatch were bad. Glatch gave up four hits, but my goodness, three of them were pretty much seeing-eye hits. I'm just glad to get the win."
 
Winning five of its last six in getting to a season-best 12 games over .500, Baylor took a lead in the fourth inning on back-to-back hits by Tyriq Kemp and Hunter Simmons and a squeeze bunt by Jack Little.
 
"That was just a deal where we were like, 'Hey, it's first and third, it's 0-0, let's get one in,''' Thompson said. "And it was a big deal at the time. You could question, 'The wind's blowing out, let Jack hit.' But we wanted to guarantee we got one in."
 
Held to three hits and no runs in seven innings by three different pitchers, the Huskies scored the tying run in the top of the eighth. Aided by a throwing error, HCU plated the tying run on singles by Tevis Payne, Parker Edwards and Katcher Halligan.
 
"I'll be honest, I was worried about it. I was worried about us.," Thompson said. "Getting in so late (4:30 a.m. Monday), and then not having any practice time yesterday, it was like, 'How's this going to happen?' I know how bad I still feel physically. I can only imagine what they're feeling like. I thought we pitched the ball really. That's how we ended up winning."
 
The Bears went back ahead in the bottom half of the eighth, when Little had a two-out RBI single through the left that scored Enzo Apodaca.
 
"When they went out to visit, with (freshman Pearson) Riebock coming up, I knew they were going to walk him," Thompson said. "I went to Jack and go, 'They're walking him. They think they can beat you with the slider.' And Jack said, 'Well, I'm going to sit on that fastball.' It's kind of like (radio play-by-play announcer Derek Smith) said, 'Does that light Jack's pilot light?' And I told him, 'Jack's pilot light is running full board at that point in time.' He's going to compete. You don't have to worry about that."
 
Down to its last strike, HCU stayed alive with Kenneth Dutka's two-out RBI single that drove in pinch-runner Luke Campbell with the tying run in the top of the ninth.
 
But once again, the Bears answered immediately, Sanders hitting his walk-off blast over the wall in right-center field.
 
"I just let it get deep and put a good swing on it," Sanders said. "And the baseball gods came through. It was a good time."
 
After giving up one earned run in six innings in Tuesday's game, Baylor's bullpen lowered its ERA to 3.26 with 50 earned runs in 138 innings.
 
"It's unlike anything I've ever been a part of," Hail said. "(Pitching coach Sean Snedeker) and I always talk about how weird it is. It's usually seven or eight guys throwing all the innings. But it's halfway through the year, and we're all in the same bucket of everybody's throwing and everybody's throwing well. I think in part it goes to Sned, and I think in part it goes to those guys in the pen that are just working so hard and trusting what's going on."
 
The Bears (20-8, 4-5) host Houston (15-12, 3-6) for a three-game weekend series, starting with Friday's 6:30 p.m. game at Baylor Ballpark.