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Let's Talk About Baseball!

Brace yourselves, the recaps are coming.

By KimboSmash
Logan Brown does ballet. I mean, catches a fly ball in deep center?
Logan Brown does ballet. I mean, catches a fly ball in deep center?
BaylorBears.com

So, it's been a really long time since I've been able to write recaps.  I am so sorry.  School has been absolutely insane recently, but now it's (sort of) not and whoohoo!  Let's dive on in.  (Also, there were recaps on the Tech series and the Incarnate Word game, but those never ended up getting published...so yeah.  At the risk of not making this the next great American novel, we'll start recapping with the OSU series.)

Since mid-April, the Bears have played 3 full series and 3 midweek games, most of which have been hampered by rain.  Buckle up, y'all.  This is gonna be a long one.

OSU Series

Game 1

Pitching was the real chink in the armor here.  No Baylor pitcher was able to escape the mound without allowing a run, although the staff scraped together a total of 6 strikeouts.  There were 3 wild pitches, allowing OSU hitter advancement, and pitching was altogether a bit of a mess.

Hitting, however, was fairly prolific.  The Bears out-hit the Cowpokes, but were unable to capitalize on those hits because of inconsistency within the timing of those hits.  This, combined with fielding errors and pitching bobbles left the Bears unable to catch up to a potent OSU team.

Final Line: OSU 10, Baylor 4

Game 2

This game was particularly strange because it came a gully-washer (TGCAB probably says "gully-washer" too) and the second portion of the game was suspended and played the next day.  There's really a marked difference between the first half of the game and the second, particularly with hitting.

Hitting, for the first half of the game, was spotty, but decent.  The Bears scored two runs in the fourth and were kept scoreless for the remainder of the game, although outhitting the Pokes 6 to 4.  8 were left on base, further evidence of the inconsistency with hitting.

Pitching, for the most part, was good this game.  Tolson started, and allowed 1 run, 2 hits, 4 walks, and got 2 strikeouts during his 5.1 innings on the mound.  Kuntz had similar numbers, and prevented the Pokes from tying this one up by pitching 3 strikeouts.

Final Line: Baylor 2, OSU 1

Game 3

After playing a third of a game due to a rain suspension, the rubber match against OSU began.  After looking at the stats from this game and the first two-thirds of the prior game, it's clear that the guys were exhausted at this point, and this final game in the series was an off day.  Hitting and pitching, likewise, suffered.

There wasn't a whole lot the Bears could coax out of the OSU pitching staff.  Hitting was pretty scattered.  After loading the bases in the 9th, Ben Carl scored, but Ducoff ended the game with an out at 2nd.  Altogether, the Bears tallied 6 hits.

Pitching was equally scattered.  Nick Lewis started, but allowed 3 runs, 5 hits, 3 walks, hit 1 with a pitch, and got 2 strikeouts.  Next, Troy Montemayor took the mound, and allowed a run.  Sean Spicer went in, and had an atypical day, allowing 3 runs to extend the OSU lead.  Kyle Ott closed out the last 1.2 innings before the Jack of All Trades Ben Carl went in to pitch the last out.  (Yes, that's the same Ben Carl who scored a run in the next inning.)

Final Line: OSU 7, Baylor 1

Lamar

This game was an interesting one, because it wasn't anywhere near as close as the score suggests.  The Bears were clearly better than Lamar, but major pitching issues led to a late Lamar rally.  In fact, had it not been for Joe Kirkland throwing the last two outs with the bases loaded, this game could have easily slipped through the Bears' fingers (paws?).

Hitting was much better this game.  Granted, Lamar let 90% of their pitching staff take the mound (the 90% is a made up stat, but Lamar had 10 pitchers take the mound in total.  That's ridiculous.), and most of those guys had an ERA closer to 8 than 3, but still.  On 10 hits, the Bears scored 8 runs, including 1 Kameron Esthay homer.  With 7 left on base, the inconsistency with hitting was still an issue.

Pitching was fine until it was not.  Kody Hessemer started, and allowed 2 runs, 5 hits, and 2 walks during his 5 innings.  This was not a good night for Troy Montemayor, who allowed 4 runs and 7 hits, but issued 3 strikeouts in 3.1 innings on the mound.  He left a pickle for Joe Kirkland, who handled it and earned the save for his efforts.  He allowed 3 hits to Lamar batters swinging for the fences with gusto, but issued 2 strikeouts in his .2 innings with the bases loaded, and had a pitch/strike ratio of 15/11.  He earned his first career save for his efforts.

Final Line: Baylor 8, Lamar 6

K-State Series

Game 1

Again, rain suspension interrupted this game nigh halfway through.  It came a FLOOD in Waco, and there was little hope for restarting the game after the tarp blew off the infield.  And a BaylorVision camera took one for the team:

The rest of the game was played on Saturday, prior to Game 2.

Hitting in this game was decent, as the Bears nabbed 11 hits and 4 runs over 8 innings.  8 were left on base (that's 1 per inning of game), so hitting was slightly inconsistent as usual.  There were several big hits with 3 doubles and a Matt Menard triple.

Pitching was strong.  Tolson started, allowing a solitary run, one hit, walked 2 and got a strikeout.  He took his third win of the season and left the rest of the game for Spicer to close, who allowed no hits and threw 3 strikeouts.

Final Line: Baylor 4, KSU 1

Game 2

Hitting, after seeming to find its groove in the last part of the first game after a rain delay, lost the groove during the field prep between games.  Between pitching/fielding problems and inconsistency with hits, the Bears were unable to answer the 5 KSU runs but scored 3.  Only 6 were left on base, which was much improved over previous games.  It just wasn't a good afternoon at the plate, and that happens sometimes.

Pitching was topsy-turvy.  The pitching staff allowed 15 hits, 5 of which were doubles, and it is a miracle that this wasn't a blowout.  No pitcher escaped without a run, and in sum, threw 7 strikeouts.  It was a rough afternoon on the mound, to say the least.

Final Line: KSU 5, Baylor 3

Game 3

Hitting, as seems to be the trend this season, was inconsistent.  Though there were 10 hits, only 3 runs were scored, and 11 were left on base.  Again, hitting couldn't quite keep up with the numerous fielding errors.

Pitching wasn't particularly good, with no pitcher escaping the mound without allowing a run.  However, the number of hits allowed wasn't the main issue defensively, as Baylor out-hit KSU.  The true issue defensively was in the infield, responsible for 3 of the 5 errors.  4 out of those 5 came from fielding (1 outfield, 3 infield), and the last came from pitching.  Fielding was the hottest of messes, and that'll lose you the ballgame.

Final Line: KSU 6, Baylor 3

UTSA

Hitting in this game was sparse.  The Bears, while able to score in multiple innings, were never able to truly capitalize on hitting sprees.  There were a total of 9 hits, and 10 were left on base.  Hitting efficacy wasn't optimal, but the pitching debacle in the 5th proved to be a significant hurdle the Bears couldn't quite clear.

Pitching wasn't as terrible as the score suggests.  Although the 5th was abysmal, that was the only inning in which UTSA was able to score.  Theron Kay started and did quite well.  He allowed 2 runs at the end of his time on the mound, and was replaced by Kody Hessemer, who allowed another 4 runs, though only 2 were earned.  Spicer came in to close and had a much better evening than his previous outing, allowing a solitary hit and no runs.

Final Line: UTSA 6, Baylor 3

Kansas Series

Game 1

Pitching was good this game.  Drew Tolson pitched the entire 8 innings and held KU to 2 runs and 7 hits while walking 1 and getting 1 strikeout.  Furthermore, he pitched the whole game in less than 100 pitches (84), which averages to a little over 10 pitches per inning.  He threw effectively, with very few extraneous pitches.

Hitting just couldn't find a groove.  There were a total of 4 hits in the game, and 8 runners were left on base.  The inability to capitalize on men aboard killed this game.  It simply wasn't a good night at the plate, and that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.

Final Line: KU 2, Baylor 0

Game 2

Hitting was way better than the previous night.  On 12 hits, the Bears scored 6 runs, leaving 6 on base.  The efficacy and consistency with hitting improved and the score rose.  Though the scoring was still scattered across innings, there were multi-run innings towards the end, which shows great improvement overnight.

Pitching was decent as well.  Nick Lewis had a good outing, pitching 6.2 innings and allowing 1 run on 4 hits and a walk.  Both Brad Kuntz and Sean Spicer, succeeding Lewis, allowed a run, 2 hits and a walk.  Defense was pretty solid, with the only error of the evening coming from fielding in the 6th inning.

Final Line: Baylor 6, KU 3

Game 3

Oh my MERCY was hitting out of this world.  Home runs for EVERYONE.  There were 14 hits.  9 were left on base.  There were 3 home runs, 2 of which came from Darryn Sheppard, who had an unusually good night at the plate.  I really don't have words to describe the hitting during this game except: where has this been all season?

Pitching was equally successful.  Castano started, allowing 3 runs, 6 hits, 2 walks, 2 wild pitches, and striking out 1.  He threw 85 pitches over the course of 7 innings, 51 of which were strikes.  Joe Kirkland succeeded him on the mound and basically threw straight up fireballs.  He allowed 1 run on a solo homer, but what's most impressive is his pitch/strike ratio.  He threw 14 pitches in 2 innings, and only 3 of those were balls.  You do the math.  Wow.

Final Line: Baylor 14, KU 4

Coming Up...

On May 9th, the Bears will host Shriners Little League teams.

Is it getting a little dusty in here?  No?  Just me?  Okay...

Seriously though, I love that this team gives back to the community so much.  Baylor Baseball might not be a traditional powerhouse on the field, but you cannot say that these guys don't genuinely care about those who struggle with everything from cancer to CP.  That is admirable, and I'm proud that they represent our university with such love and joy for all.

The Bears return to play on May 12th, hosting UTSA, before hosting the season finale against Texas next weekend.  Sic 'em!

--XOXO, KimboSmash

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