No. 12/15 Baylor baseball team remained undefeated Saturday, defeating visiting Cornell, 10-3, at Baylor Ballpark.
For the second-straight night, the Baylor offense was clicking, putting up double-digit run totals with 10 runs coming on 13 hits.
On the mound, sophomore left-handed starter Tyler Thomas went 3.2 innings of work, giving up three runs (two earned) on 3 hits with 5 walks and 5 strikeouts.
Junior lefty Paul Dickens entered with the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth innings, getting a flyout to get the Bears out of the jam.
Dickens would go on to earn his first Baylor victory as he went 3.1 innings of scoreless baseball, holding the Big Red to just 2 hits with 1 walk and 3 strikeouts. The bullpen shut things down over the last 5.1 frames, as Luke Boyd and Daniel Caruso combined with Dickens, putting up back-to-back shutout innings in the eighth and ninth, respectively. Boyd picked up right where Dickens left off, striking out the side, while Caruso finished things up in the ninth.
At the plate, the Bears scored early and often, putting up one run in the first as they took advantage of a Cornell error, the first of three on the day.
The floodgates really opened up in the second as the Bears plated five runs on five hits and batted around. Josh Bissonette plated one on his first double of the day, while Kyle Harper drove in two more on a single. Nick Loftin drove in one more on an RBI groundout, while Davis Wendzel brought home the fifth run of the inning on a double.
In the third the Bears tacked on two more during a two-out rally, as heads up base running put two in scoring position and Loftin drove in two more runs on the day, making it a 8-1 game.
Leading 8-3 in the bottom of the fourth, the Bears answered Cornell’s two runs in the top of the inning with one more of their own, as Davion Downey started off the inning with a leadoff double and advanced to third on a fielding error by Cornell’s right fielder. Cole Haring delivered a sac fly to make it 7-3, Baylor.
As the bullpen shut down Cornell’s offense the rest of the way, the Bears added one more in the bottom of the eighth as Downey connected on a sac fly to push the lead to 10-3.
Cornell starter John Natoli took the loss, allowing 6 runs on 6 hits in 1.1 innings of work, while Dickens earned his first win as a Bear.
NOTES
*Baylor improved to 3-0 all-time against Cornell. The Bears won the only previous matchup 6-5 on March 19, 1997.
*The Bears have won the first six games of the season for the first time since 2017, when the team won its first 10 games, and fifth time since 1993 (’93, ’08, ’12, ’17, ’19).
*The Bears have scored 61 runs over the first 6 games, the most since scoring 63 over the first 6 in 1991 (The Bears went 5-1 over those games).
*Redshirt freshman Chase Wehsener recorded his first-career multi-RBI game with five.
*For the second-straight game, Loftin had a multi-RBI game.
*Loftin has had at least 2 hits in 5-of-6 games on the season.
*Harper drove in two runs, his first multi-RBI day of his career.
*So far against Cornell, Wehsener is 5-for-8 with 5 RBI, 1 BB and 3 runs scored.
*Bissonette tied his career high mark with 2 doubles.
*Wendzel tied his career-high mark with 2 doubles.
*Nick Loftin extended his on-base streak to 13 games.
*Bissonette extended his on-base streak to 13 games.
*Davion Downey has a nine-game on-base streak and a team-leading eight-game hitting streak.
*Davis Wendzel has a six-game hitting streak.
STAT OF THE DAY
5.1 – The number of frames the Baylor bullpen of Dickens, Boyd and Caruso held Cornell scoreless to close out the game.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
On the lights-out pitching of the bullpen…
“I was really happy with the way that they [Dickens, Boyd, Caruso] came out. You know we had based loaded and Dickens came in and shut it down, and then allowed the offense to go out there and get some more runs. Then having Boyd and Caruso put up scoreless frames, with Boyd striking out the side, it is going to be nice to have those guys going forward.”
- Baylor Head Coach Steve Rodriguez [baylorbears.com]
WHAT'S NEXT
The Bears will go for the series sweep at 12:05 p.m. CT at Baylor Ballpark
For tickets, visit: https://baylorbears.com/sports/2018/9/11/tickets.aspx [baylorbears.com]. For updates on the program follow @baylorbaseball on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
