Final Stats

THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas - Baylor (8-13, 1-3) claimed a 5-4 victory over West Virginia (9-9, 1-3) in its Big 12 home opening series Friday evening at Baylor Ballpark. The Bears received solid relief efforts from Joe Kirkland and Sean Spicer to help secure the win.

BU started off with a 4-0 lead after an RBI single by Aaron Dodson in the first inning and a three-run second inning. The second started with a leadoff double by Darryn Sheppard. After an HBP by Kameron Esthay and sac bunt by Steven McLean, Logan Brown roped a two-run single up the middle. Following a bunt single by Justin Arrington to get Brown to third, Duncan Wendel flied out to center to bring in Brown.

Bears starter Daniel Castano had an easy first two frames but gave up an RBI single to Brad Johnson in the third. Then in the sixth with two on and one out, Ray Guerrini hit a routine double play ball to short stop but it was booted by Arrington to load the bases. After a sac fly that should have ended the inning, WVU knocked back-to-back singles off Castano to tie the game before Kirkland came on in relief to get the final out on a head's up double steal attempt as second baseman McLean threw to third to get the final out of the inning.

Baylor responded right away in the bottom half with some small ball. Sheppard led off with a bunt single. Esthay moved him over on a grounder. McLean scored him with a ground out to third in which WVU first baseman Jackson Cramer threw wild trying to get Sheppard at third base after the out at first.

From there, Kirkland nailed down the seventh and eighth without much of a threat. Then Spicer came on in the ninth and worked around a leadoff single to end the game. Kirkland (3-1) earned the win with 2.1 scoreless innings while allowing two hits with two strikeouts. Spicer picked up his third save with two strikeouts in his lone frame. WVU starter Conner Dotson (0-2) took the loss, giving up five runs on eight hits and two walks with four strikeouts in five innings.

NOTES
*Baylor is 373-157 all-time at Baylor Ballpark, 7-3 this season and has won 14 of its 19 home series since 2012, including both this season (No. 13 Cal Poly, 3-0 | Kent State, 2-1).

*Baylor is 11-7 in Big 12 home opening games with its last win coming on March 16, 2012, vs. Texas Tech, and the Bears are 12-5 in Big 12 home opening series with wins in their last two.

*Baylor owns a 489-552-4 record against current members of the Big 12 Conference and a 269-212 all-time record in regular season play.

*Baylor tied the all-time series against WVU 3-3 overall and under Steve Smith and leads 3-1 in Waco.

*Baylor is 222-148 in March under Steve Smith and 2-8 this season.

*The game had a delayed start due to weather - it was supposed to start at 3:30 p.m. CT and did not start until 7:45 p.m.

*Justin Arrington has reached base in his last three games and had his second multi-hit game of the season.

*Duncan Wendel has reached base in his last seven games and has a hit in his last three.

*Aaron Dodson has reached base in his last four games.

*West Tunnell has a hit in his last four games for a career-high hitting streak.

*Logan Brown has a hit in his last three games, posted his team-high eighth multi-hit game and is now tied with Adam Toth for the team lead with three multi-RBI games.

*Darryn Sheppard has a hit in his last three games and had his fourth multi-hit game.

*Sean Spicer extended his scoreless appearance streak to a career-high-tying four appearances, which was first set from Feb. 18-March 7, 2014.

STAT OF THE GAME
3 - The amount of innings Baylor scored in, the amount of runs score by BU in the second, and the amount of scoreless relief innings by Kirkland and Spicer.

QUOTE OF THE GAME
"A lot of good things tonight. I felt [Daniel] Castano competed really well. His pitch count got up there, and that put us in a bit of a spot, but hat's off to Joe [Kirkland] and [Sean] Spicer, particularly Joe, who got better the longer he was out there. He really seemed to dial it up after we had to get [Darryn] Sheppard out of the game. That can really be a big undoing right there when you see your guy go down, but Kirkland really got it together and made some good pitches. Duncan [Wendel] also made a great play at third making the tag that same inning, so a lot of good things tonight." - Baylor head coach Steve Smith

WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor continues its series vs. West Virginia tomorrow at 3 p.m. CT on FOX College Sports and 1 p.m. Sunday on FOX Sports Southwest. The scheduled pitching matchups are BU RHP Austin Stone (0-2, 9.20 ERA) vs. WVU LHP Ross Vance (2-1, 1.78 ERA) Saturday and BU RHP Drew Tolson (0-4, 4.45 ERA) vs. WVU RHP Chad Donato (2-3, 1.74 ERA) Sunday.