March 18, 2009
Box Score
SAN MARCOS, Texas - For the second consecutive year, Baylor and Texas State combined for at least 38 runs Wednesday night. This time, the Bears out-scored the Bobcats 5-1 over the final three innings and held on for a 22-17 victory at Bobcat Stadium. Baylor (12-4) improved to 4-0 this season in midweek games.
Last season, Baylor established a school record for runs in a road game with a 25-13 victory at Texas State. In that game, the Bears overcame an early 5-0 deficit and pulled away with an eight-run eighth inning.
Wednesday night, Baylor nearly saw a 16-run lead completely evaporate. A five-run second and a nine-run third gave Baylor a 14-0 lead. After Tyler Sibley's solo homer in the bottom of the third, the Bears scored three runs in the top of the fourth to take a 17-1 lead.
That is when things got interesting. Texas State (10-7) scored 11 runs on six hits, four walks and three Baylor errors in the bottom of the fourth to make it a game again. The Bobcats scored two runs on a walk and three hits in the fifth, and Jason Martinson's two-run homer in the sixth cut Baylor's lead to one run at 17-16.
However, that was as close as Texas State would get as Brooks Pinckard (3-0) held the Bobcats to one run on four hits and a walk with one strikeout over the game's final 3.2 innings to earn the win. Meanwhile, the Bears got a two-run Brooks Kimmey homer in the top of the seventh and three runs on five hits in the top of the eighth to end the slugfest.
Baylor tallied 26 hits on the night, its best single-game total since a 26-hit night against TCU in 2003. Kimmey, Dustin Dickerson, Lucas Hileman led the way, all turning in four-hit nights. Pinckard and Hainsfurther both had three-hit outings, while Shaver Hansen, Aaron Miller and Ben Booker - who did not enter the game until the bottom of the sixth inning - had two hits each.
Hainsfurther led the Bears with five RBI, including the first home run of his career - a three-run shot to left in the Bears' nine-run third. Adam Hornung also had a two-run homer. Kimmey and Hileman had three RBI each, while Pinckard had two RBI. Kimmey, Dickerson, Pinckard and Miller scored three times each, while Booker, Hainsfurther, Hansen, and Hileman each scored twice. Don Lambert added an RBI triple in the eighth.
Baylor returns to action this weekend, hosting Texas Tech for a three-game Big 12 Conference series at Baylor Ballpark. The Bears and Red Raiders meet Friday at 6:30 p.m. CDT, Saturday at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
NOTES: Baylor leads the all-time series 42-14, including a 10-3 advantage in games played at San Marcos. The Bears have won eight consecutive meetings, including four straight at San Marcos. ... Baylor is 28-9 against Texas State during head coach Steve Smith's tenure. ... Baylor is 294-126-1 all-time against programs currently playing as Southland Conference members. Baylor has played more games against current Southland members than any conference other than the Big 12. ... Miller extended his career-long hitting streak to 12 games; it is the longest streak by a Baylor player since Matt Czimskey's 19-game run in 2007.
