Baylor
Texas
Baseball Wins Series Opener vs. Texas 6-2
4/13/2017 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 13, 2017
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation
Steve Rodriguez was hoping to see his Baylor baseball team get back to the form that saw the Bears get off to a program-best-tying 15-2 start.
If Thursday night's series opener against Texas was any indication, the form is back.
Nick Lewis (4-3) pitched six strong innings, giving up an unearned run on four hits and three walks, and Baylor scored as many runs in five innings as UT starter Nolan Kingham had given up in his last four starts combined.
Tucker Cascadden had a two-run double in a four-run second inning and freshman catcher Shea Langeliers belted a two-run homer in the fifth as the Bears (21-13, 4-6) defeated the Longhorns, 6-2, in the opener of a three-game series at Baylor Ballpark.
"The past couple weeks, we've been actually hitting the ball hard off of some really good pitchers," Rodriguez said. "The key for me was being able to get the two-out RBI. When you're able to do that, it's such a motivating, such a momentum-shifting action. We've been doing a good job getting guys on base and then we'd hit into a double play or we'd just miss a ball or they'd make a diving play. It was like, `Man, when is that hit going to come?'''
It came in the bottom of the second inning.
Freshman Davis Wendzel started out a two-out rally with a walk, followed by Richard Cunningham's single to center and a two-run double by Cascadden just inside the third-base bag.
"It's been a while since I've been in that position," said Cascadden, who's had a team-best 22 RBI despite hitting out of the 9-hole most of the season. "I was just more focused than I've ever been. I saw that ball up, still didn't hit it like I wanted, but I hit it in the perfect spot. I looked in the dugout after that, and everybody was super-pumped. I think right there, everybody knew we were playing our baseball again."
The Bears scored another two-out run on a passed ball, and then T.J. Raguse capped the four-run inning with an RBI single up the middle that plated Cascadden from third.
Lewis, who hadn't won since shutting out then-No. 9 Ole Miss, 4-0, on March 3 in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Collegiate Classic at Minute Maid Park, breezed through the first four innings. He had another 4-0 shutout going before the Longhorns finally got on the board when Parker Mathis drew a walk and scored on Kody Clemens' two-out double.
Baylor answered right back in the bottom half of the frame, when Raguse led off with a single and scored on Langeliers' two-run bomb that easily cleared the left-field wall, just to the left of the video board.
Texas loaded the bases in the sixth with a pair of walks and a hit batter. But, Lewis wiggled out of the jam when Cunningham tracked down Mathis deep fly ball to the warning track in center, leaving the runners stranded.
"My walks are a little high this year, so I'm trying hard to pound the zone," Lewis said. "Got squeezed a little bit, just tried to keep making good pitches. Especially in that last inning, I got a little tired and it got away from me. I just tried to keep battling, just tried to get out of it."
It was Baylor's first series-opening win since beating Houston, 2-1, on March 10, when Lewis got a no-decision in a 6.2-inning stint.
"It's a confidence thing," Rodriguez said. "When we haven't done it in the past three weeks, you go, `Man, here we go again.' But being able to do it, the key was Nick Lewis throwing really well and trying to do his thing."
Reliever Joe Heineman worked around a walk and two-out double in the seventh, followed by a 1-2-3 inning by Kyle Ott in the eighth.
The Longhorns threatened again in the ninth, getting back-to-back hits by Mathis and David Hamilton. Kody Clemens' grounded out to first, driving in a run, but Ott struck out Tate Shaw and retired Travis Jones on a fly to center.
Raguse was 3-for-4 to lead a 10-hit attack for the Bears, while Hamilton and Jones combined for four of Texas' seven hits.
"We can't be satisfied with just winning the opening game," Rodriguez said. "We've got to come out and do the same thing (Friday)."
The series continues with another 6:35 p.m. start Friday, with Baylor's Montana Parsons (3-2, 3.02) opposed by Texas' Morgan Cooper (4-2, 1.79) in a battle of junior right-handers.
THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas -- Baylor baseball earned a 6-2 win in the series opener vs. Texas on Thursday evening at Baylor Ballpark. The Bears (21-13, 4-6) scored four runs in the second and received stellar pitching to topple the Longhorns (23-14, 6-7).
The big second inning started with a two-out walk by Davis Wendzel, single by Richard Cunningham and walk by Josh Bissonette to load the bases. Then Tucker Cascadden roped a two-run double down the left field line, Bissonette scored on a passed ball and T.J. Raguse had an RBI single up the middle.
Texas answered with one run in the fifth, but Shea Langeliers blasted a two-run home run for BU in the bottom of the frame to give the Bears a 6-1 lead. The Longhorns added a run in the ninth but the rally was short lived.
BU starter Nick Lewis (4-3) earned the win, allowing an unearned run on four hits and three walks with four strikeouts in six innings. UT starter Nolan Kingham (5-3) took the loss, giving up six runs on nine hits and two walks with five strikeouts in five innings.
NOTES
*Baylor's 21-13 record through 34 games is its best since going 27-7 in 2012.
*Baylor trails the all-time series vs. Texas 240-109-4 and 92-62-2 in Waco, but the Bears are 3-2 under head coach Steve Rodriguez.
*Baylor has finished its home schedule with a .500 record or better (13-8 in 2017) in all 18 seasons at Baylor Ballpark (since 1999) and is 410-190 all-time at the park.
*Senior RHP Nick Lewis has had at least five innings pitched with six hits or less, three earned runs or less and two or more strikeouts in seven of his nine starts this season.
*Lewis tied a career high with his fourth win on the season.
*Sophomore outfielder T.J. Raguse has a career-high 14-game on-base streak and a career-high-tying five-game hitting streak a career-high-tying three hits for his ninth multi-hit game.
*Freshman catcher Shea Langeliers hit his team-high sixth home run for his team-high-tying fifth multi-RBI game.
*Junior right fielder Kameron Esthay has a seven-game hitting streak.
*Sophomore second baseman Josh Bissonette has a four-game on-base streak.
*Junior JUCO shortstop Tucker Cascadden has a four-game hitting streak as he notched his fourth multi-RBI game.
*Senior first baseman Aaron Dodson has a four-game hitting streak as he registered his seventh multi-hit game.
*Freshman infielder/outfielder Davis Wendzel has a three-game hitting streak.
STAT OF THE GAME
5 -- The amount of consecutive Baylor batters that reached base with two outs in the second inning for a four-run rally.
QUOTE OF THE GAME
"In the past couple of weeks we've actually been hitting the ball pretty hard off of some really good pitchers. The key for me was being able to get the two-out RBI. When you're able to do that, it's such a momentum shifting action. For us, it's been pretty illusive these past couple of weeks. We've been doing a good job getting guys on base, but then we'd hit into a double play or just miss a ball or they'd make a double play. It's like, `man, when's that hit going to come?' So it was awesome that Tucker [Cascadden] was able to get that for us. But like I told our guys, we can't be satisfied with just winning the opening game -- we have to come out and win tomorrow." -- Head Coach Steve Rodriguez
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor continues its series vs. Texas with games at 6:35 p.m. CT Friday on FOX Sports Plus and 3:05 p.m. Saturday on FOX Sports Southwest.
