May 23, 2002
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ARLINGTON, Texas - Kansas State pulled out the team's first Big 12 Tournament win and knocked Baylor out of the tournament Thursday, beating the 25th-ranked Bears 6-2 at The Ballpark in Arlington.
Justin Taylor (8-2) gutted out 6 1/3 innings for the Bears (34-24), but allowed 10 hits and six runs (four earned) while taking just his second loss of the season. The defeat snapped a five-game winning streak for the senior.
Kansas State (29-24), meanwhile, picked up its first conference tournament win since the start of the Big 12 in just the team's second tournament game. The Wildcats advance to play Friday at 4 p.m. against the winner of Thursday's late Texas Tech-Nebraska game.
In contrast to Kansas State, Baylor is one of just five Big 12 teams to have appeared in all six Big 12 Tournaments. In those six tournaments, the Bears have reached the tourney finals twice and gone 0-2 three times, making the Big 12 Tournament a definite "feast or famine" event for Baylor.
The Bears' only threat in the first four innings came in the first, when Trey Webb led off the game with a single and Chris Durbin followed one batter later with a base knock of his own. The Wildcats, however, pitched out of it when KSU starter Brock Smith (6-6) struck out Jared Clements and catched Ryan Baldwin completed the strike 'em out, throw 'em out double play by gunning down Webb at third.
A lead-off single, wild pitch, ground out and sacrifice fly led to Kansas State's first run in the second inning. Then in the fourth, the Wildcats put together three hits and took advantage of a walk and a hit batsman to score three times. Center fielder Nick Sorensen's slicing drive down the right field line eluded David Murphy's sliding attempt at a catch and drove in two runs to put KSU on top 4-0.
The Bears again put together two singles in the fifth, but Webb grounded into a 1-6-3 double play as Smith again escaped the inning. Two walks in the sixth were also stranded as Baylor couldn't captitalize.
A pair of errors by Michael Griffin led to unearned runs in the sixth and seventh innings as Kansas State pushed its lead to 6-0.
Kyle Edens relieved Taylor in the seventh with two men on and two outs struck out the final batter of the inning. The Bears pushed across a run in the eighth when Durbin drew a bases-loaded, two-out walk that forced in Griffin from third. Jared Clements followed Durbin with a ground-out to shortstop to end the inning and leave the bases jammed, trailing 6-1.
A one-out triple by David Murphy to straightaway center and a sacrifice fly by Griffin accounted for Baylor's second run, which came in the bottom of the eighth. Josh Ford later doubled in the inning, knocking Smith out of the game after 7 2/3 innings and a career-best seven strikeouts.
Reliever James Brazeal took over for Smith and gave up a pinch-hit single to Ross Bennett, moving Ford to third, but got Webb to fly out deep to right to end the inning.
Edens, appearing in his team-record 32nd game of the season, closed out the game with one of his best performances of the season, throwing the final 2 1/3 innings and retiring all seven hitters he faced, including five strikeouts.
The Bears now await word from the NCAA selection committee as to whether their season will continue or not. NCAA Tournament host sites and the entire field of 64 teams will be announced Monday at 11:30 a.m. CT in a live broadcast airing on ESPN2.
