Bears Fall to Aggies in NCAA Opener

A disastrous 6th inning did in the Baylor baseball team in their NCAA regional opener as they fell 8-5 to Texas A&M at Houston's Schroeder Park. The Bears will now have to play out of the loser's bracket in their first NCAA regional since 2012.

A&M jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the 1st, set up by a throwing error by Baylor CF Richard Cunningham who overthrew 3rd base trying to throw out a baserunner. Baylor would threaten in the 2nd inning with 2 outs but was unable to cash in. The game was then delayed for 42 minutes by a lightning delay.

The Bears would put another 2 out rally together in the bottom of the 3rd, loading the bases with a single, walk and hit by pitch. This time Baylor got the huge hit as Aaron Dodson hit an opposite field grand slam, his team leading 11th homer of the season, to turn the 2 run deficit into a 2 run Baylor lead. Montana Parsons would settle in with the lead and took the 4-2 advantage into the 6th.

But in the 6th inning, the wheels came off. Parsons walked the leadoff man and then gave up a 2 run bomb to Braden Shewmake to tie the game at 4. After another walk, Steve Rodriguez elected to go to Kyle Hill out of the bullpen. Perhaps the biggest play of the game came when the first batter Hill faced, Blake Kopetsky, squared around to sacrifice. Kopetsky got the bunt down but Hill uncorked the throw down the right field line to put runners at 2nd and 3rd. A wild pitch gave the Aggies the lead and they would go on to score 2 more after that for a 7-4 lead that they would not relinquish. In total, A&M scored 5 runs on 2 hits with an error and FIVE walks. Baylor would get a run back in the bottom of the 6th to make it 7-5 but would get no closer.

With the loss, the Bears are riding a five game losing streak and will now play on Saturday afternoon against the loser of tonight's game between Houston and Iowa. It's been a resurgent year for the Baylor baseball program, but it's now one loss away from being over.