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Big XII Baseball Tourney: Day 1

In which Baylor beat TCU 6-5.

By KimboSmash
Adam Toth stretches out for the catch.
Adam Toth stretches out for the catch.
Big12Sports.com

Wow.  Those are honestly the only words I have for the Baylor Bears right now.  Wow.  I am still mostly speechless.  What.  A.  Game.

Here were the scores across the board:

Texas 2, Texas Tech 1

Baylor 6, TCU 5

K-State 7, OU 3

OSU 3, WVU 0

Tomorrow (Thursday):

Texas Tech vs. TCU, 9 am

OU vs. WVU, 12:30 pm

Baylor vs. Texas, 4 pm

KSU vs. OSU, 7:30 pm

Recap: Baylor vs. TCU

Phew.

I think my heart is still pounding from this game and it ended hours ago.  Then again, that could just be from all the coffee I've had today, but who knows?

Wow. Hitting this game was much like the second game of the Texas series this past weekend: strong.  Of the 6 runs scored by the Bears, 4 were scored on homers.  In the 1st, Esthay homered to right field, batting in Wendel.  The Bears struck again in the 5th on a Ducoff solo homer, before beginning their late-game rally.  In the 7th, a Brown homer brought the game to 1 run, then a wild pitch with the bases loaded tied the game in the 8th.  Adam Toth hit a sac fly in the 9th to bring home Lane Kelly with the winning run.  The Horned Frogs actually out-hit the Bears 11-9, but the on-base efficacy (only 6 men were left on base) and solid pitching gave the Bears the win.

Pitching was solid.  Daniel Castano had a wobbly beginning, allowing 4 runs on 7 hits, and issuing 4 walks and a strikeout in his 3.2 innings before being replaced by Spicer.  Spicer then allowed 1 run (albeit an unearned one) and 4 hits during his 2.1 innings.  Kirkland pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, and Brad Kuntz finished out the game with 1.2 perfect innings and 2 strikeouts.  Kuntz earned the win for his efforts.

Final Line: Baylor 6, TCU 5

Tweets

Highlights

Are located here. (These are straight off the Big 12 Website.)

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/q0Skjt5jSdI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

(These are from BaylorBears.com.)

Texas Preview

At bat, Texas is tied Baylor with a team average of .260, though the on base percentage is .353 and the slugging percentage is .393 over 1749 at bats.  They have hit 39 homers this season, and batted in 224 runners.  Pitching-wise, they are in third with an average ERA of 3.26 to Baylor's 4.82.

Look out for Ben Johnson during at bats, who leads the team with a .353 average over 50 games.  he has had 76 hits in those 50 games, averaging 1.52 hits per game.  Tres Barrera and CJ Hinojosa are big sluggers, on the leaderboard for the conference with 8 and 7 homers, respectively, this season.  Their pitching studs are Parker French and Connor Mayes, with 2.40 and 2.67 ERAs, respectively.  They are third in the big 12 with a .976 fielding percentage, compared with Baylor's .960 in dead last.

Overall, expect this game to be all about the hitting.  From what I remember of the Texas series (which was only last weekend, so it's still relatively fresh), this team is good at hitting and somewhat unpredictable when it comes to pitching.  The first game of the series was a close game and was lost on back-to-back UT homers.  The next was a Baylor hitting festival, and the last was a UT hitting parade.  This team seems to be surging right now, and it should be a great game tomorrow.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: this Baylor team is full of surprises.  Don't count them out.  But don't count your chickens before they hatch, either.  This will likely be a tight ballgame and could honestly go either way.  I'm excited to see how it all goes down.

Sic 'em.

--XOXO, KimboSmash

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