May 20, 2007
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WACO, Texas -- Ben Booker was 4-for-4 and Wade Mackey earned the victory in his first career Big 12 start as Baylor defeated Kansas State 9-3 in Sunday's Big 12 Conference series finale at Baylor Ballpark. With the win, Baylor (31-24, 12-15) swept the series against Kansas State (33-22, 10-16) and finished sixth in the Big 12 standings.
Baylor is in Pool Two as the sixth seed in the Big 12 Conference Championship at Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City later this week. The Bears face third-seeded Oklahoma State at 8 p.m. CDT Wednesday, second-seeded Missouri at 4:30 p.m. Friday and seventh-seeded Oklahoma at 8 p.m. Saturday. The team with the best record in pool play will advance to the championship game Sunday at 1 p.m.
The Bears earned their first sweep of a Big 12 series this season and their first of any three-game series since sweeping Stephen F. Austin in mid-February. Baylor has posted at least one Big 12 series sweep in each of the conference's 11 seasons. Kansas State suffered its sixth sweep in as many visits to Baylor since the inception of the Big 12; the Wildcats have not won a game in Waco since 1966.
Booker started the offense for the Bears with an RBI single in the second. The Bears stretched their lead to 3-0 in the third on Matt Czimskey's two-run single. However, Kansas State did not go quietly, posting single spots in the fourth and fifth innings to pull within one run at 3-2. Baylor responded with a two-run fifth on RBI singles from Matt Sodolak and Shaver Hansen.
Kansas State scratched for a run in the sixth, but the Bears pulled away with two runs in the bottom of the sixth and two more in the seventh. Booker led off the sixth with his conference-leading seventh triple of the season and scored on a wild pitch. Later in the inning, Czimskey had a sacrifice fly. Hansen led off the seventh with a double and later scored on an RBI double from Booker, who then scored on Raynor Campbell's RBI single.
Mackey (4-2) made the most of his first career Big 12 start. He earned the victory after allowing three runs on nine hits and three walks with two strikeouts over 5.0-plus innings, facing two batters in the sixth. Jake Weghorst recorded his most impressive outing of the season; he held Kansas State scoreless over the final 4.0 innings and allowed only a ninth-inning double to earn his first save of the season.
Kansas State starter Chase Bayuk (5-5) was saddled with the loss. He allowed three runs, two earned on five hits and two walks with no strikeouts over 3.1 innings. The Bears touched the Wildcats' three relievers for two runs each.
It was Booker's third career four-hit game, all of which have come this season. Campbell, Hansen and Sodolak had two hits each. Czimskey tied his career high with three RBI, while Booker had two RBI. Booker and Hansen scored twice each.
Czimskey pushed his career-long hitting streak to 16 games, tied for the 10th-longest streak in Baylor history and the second-longest by a Baylor catcher. It is the longest hitting streak by a Baylor player since Michael Griffin's 16-game run in 2004.
Czimskey also finished with the conference's highest batting in league play; his .386 mark edged the .384 mark posted by Oklahoma State's Ty Wright. It marks the second consecutive season Baylor's catcher has finished with the league's highest average in Big 12 play; Zach Dillon led last year with a school-record .421 mark in Big 12 play.
NOTES: Baylor leads the all-time series 27-9, including a 19-1 advantage in games played in Waco. The Bears are 26-8 against the Wildcats since the inception of the Big 12 Conference. ... Czimskey (16 games) and Campbell (13 games) both extended career-long hitting streaks; Campbell's is the longest by a Baylor freshman since Griffin's 16-game streak in 2002. ... Booker (13 games), Czimskey (12 games), Campbell (nine games) and Dickerson (eight games) all extended hitting streaks in Big 12 play. ... Campbell has reached safely in 26 straight games and in 31 of his last 32. ... Czimskey and Dickerson both have reached safely in 21 consecutive games. ... Baylor ended the regular season at 101,791 in total home attendance. That is a school record for regular-season attendance and is only the second time Baylor has eclipsed the 100,000 mark (Baylor had a total home attendance of 109,621 in 2005 with the benefit of six postseason games). ... Baylor's 32-date average home attendance for the season of 3,180 also is a school record, eclipsing the previous mark of 3,057 established in 2003. Baylor has averaged at least 3,000 fans per game in each of the past three seasons and in four of the past five seasons.
