March 28, 2006
Box Score
WACO, Texas -- Seth Fortenberry went 2-for-3 with a home run and a career-high four RBI as Baylor defeated Texas Southern 10-4 Tuesday night at Baylor Ballpark. With the win, Baylor (17-8) snapped a two-game losing streak; the Bears have not suffered three straight losses since late May, 2004, and have stopped eight two-game skids in that time.
Texas Southern (12-15) jumped out to a 2-0 lead with a run on a double, a fielder's choice and a wild pitch in the third and a double, a sacrifice and an RBI single in the fourth.
Fortenberry made the lead short-lived, though. After Matt Sodolak singled to lead off the bottom of the fourth, Fortenberry lifted a towering home run down the right-field line to knot the score.
Baylor captured the lead for good with four runs on three hits in the fifth. Beamer Weems doubled to lead off the frame, and Kevin Russo walked. Zach Dillon followed with an RBI double to the left-field corner, and Matt Sodolak plated Russo with a single through the right side. A Fortenberry sacrifice fly and a Tim Jackson RBI groundout capped the scoring in the inning.
Kevin Sevigny led off the sixth with a triple and scored on Ben Booker's sacrifice fly. The Bears tacked on two more runs in the inning as Fortenberry and Jake Rippee drew bases-loaded walks.
Texas Southern scratched for a pair of runs, one unearned in the top of the seventh, and Baylor added a run on a walk, a single, a fielder's choice and a wild pitch in the eighth.
Starter Randall Linebaugh (3-0) earned the victory, allowing two runs on four hits and three walks with four strikeouts over 5.0 innings. Linebaugh left the game during his sixth-inning warm-up pitches with soreness in his shoulder; he will be evaluated Wednesday.
Owen Reid allowed two runs, one earned, on four hits and a walk with three strikeouts over the next 3.0 innings. Kerr Foster worked a perfect ninth with two strikeouts.
TSU's third pitcher of the night, Chris Johnson (0-3), was saddled with the loss after alloweing two runs on two hits and a walk with one strikeout in 0.2 innings.
Fortenberry, Sevigny, Sodolak and Weems all had two-hit games for the Bears, while Jackson finished with two RBI.
Baylor returns to action Wednesday, hosting Sam Houston State in an added game at 6 p.m. CST. The game replaces one of the games from the weather-cancelled California series. Baylor sends right-hander Jake Weghorst (1-0, 6.14) to the mound.
NOTES: Baylor leads the all-time series 4-0. All meetings have taken place at Baylor Ballpark and during head coach Steve Smith's tenure at Baylor. ... The Bears improve to 6-1 this season in Tuesday games and have won 10 of their last 11 Tuesday games dating back to last season. ... Fortenberry (six games), Weems (four), Russo (three) and Sevigny (three) extended hitting streaks, while Booker saw his three-game streak end. ... Tuesday was the sixth game this season in which the Bears scored 10 or more runs; the Bears scored 10-plus runs only five times in 70 games last season. Baylor also reached double figures in runs for the second straight game for the first time since April 7 and 9, 2004.
