Final Stats

THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" Baylor baseball earned a 4-2 win over No. 21 Houston to begin a three-game series on Friday evening at Schroeder Park. The Bears (6-3) received another stellar start from Daniel Castano and used timely offense to take down the Cougars (4-5).

A pitcher's duel was in full action until Baylor finally got to UH starter Andrew Lantrip in the fourth inning. Richard Cunningham roped a leadoff triple to the right-center gap and scored on a wild pitch to give BU an early 1-0 lead.

In the sixth, Matt Menard launched a one-out, 0-2 pitch way over the left field wall for a solo homer and 2-0 lead. Two innings later, BU scratched a run off the Cougars bullpen as Steven McLean led off with an eight-inning walk. Following a sacrifice bunt by Levi Gilcrease, pitching change and two straight errors to load the bases, Darryn Sheppard scored McLean on a sac fly to center for a 3-0 edge.

BU reliever Blake Allen took over for Castano after his seven shutout innings, and put up a zero in the bottom of the eighth.

In the ninth, Baylor added another important insurance run without a hit. Josh Bissonette drew a one-out walk, stole second and moved to third on Justin Arrington's ground out. Then another wild pitch allowed Bissonette to score with two outs, giving BU a 4-0 lead.

Following a two-run homer by Connor Wong, the Bears brought in Troy Montemayor to close out the game. And that he did, as he walked his first hitter but induced a pair of fly outs to seal the win.

Castano (2-1) earned his second straight win, giving up five hits and two walks with six strikeouts in seven scoreless frames. Montemayor picked up his second save, tossing 0.2 innings while only allowing a walk. Lantrip (1-2) took the loss, allowing two runs on five hits with seven strikeouts in seven innings.

NOTES
*Baylor has won five straight games for the first time since April 23-30, 2013.

*Baylor leads the all-time series against Houston 88-65 and 41-28 in Houston but BU had lost five straight in the series as the Bears' last win in the series came March 27, 2012, (14-5) in Houston.

*Baylor is 195-288-1 all-time against opponents ranked by Baseball America, 30-36 since 2011 and 1-0 this season.

*Steve Rodriguez is 4-1 all-time against Houston as a head coach and 1-0 at Baylor.

*Baylor is 2-0 on its four-game road trip.

*Matt Menard hit his first career home run.

*Richard Cunningham has a nine-game on-base streak as he posted his second career triple.

*Josh Bissonette has an eight-game on-base streak and stole his first collegiate base.

*Levi Gilcrease has a three-game hitting streak.

*Daniel Castano tied a career high with six strikeouts and posted a season-high seven innings pitched.

*Troy Montemayor earned his second save of the season and career in as many attempts.

STAT OF THE GAME
2 ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" The amount of innings Baylor scored a run in the game without having a hit in that inning (8th and 9th innings) and the amount of runs the Bears won by.

QUOTE OF THE GAME
"I thought our guys did a good job of making adjustments and hitting later in the game because Andrew Lantrip was pitching well tonight, showing why he's one of the best pitchers in the country. I'm proud of the way we competed. We were able to get some guys in scoring position and take advantage of some wild pitches ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" that actually proved to be the deciding factor in the game." ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" Baylor head coach Steve Rodriguez

WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor continues its three-game series at Houston this weekend with games at 6:30 p.m. CT Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. Houston's remaining pitchers have yet to be announced but BU will throw RHP Drew Tolson (1-0, 3.00 ERA) in the second game and RHP Nick Lewis (0-1, 2.38 ERA) in the finale.