Baseball Tops Louisiana Tech, 6-1, at Frisco Classic

Sunday, March 4

Frisco, Texas

3:00 PM

Baylor

4-5

Louisiana Tech

7-5

Louisiana Tech

Baylor

Baseball Tops Louisiana Tech, 6-1, at Frisco Classic

3/4/2018 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

March 4, 2018

Final Stats

By Jerry Hil
l Baylor Bear Foundation

After two frustrating days at the Frisco College Baseball Classic, Baylor coach Steve Rodriguez said the Bears (4-5) had the kind of game on Sunday "that I really do believe (can) propel you into a lot of wins."

Putting together its most complete game of the young season, Baylor got some timely hits and outstanding pitching from Tyler Thomas, Kyle Hill, Drew Robertson and Troy Montemayor to end the tournament with a 6-1 win over Louisiana Tech (7-5).

"I think it was really good for our guys to get a win," Rodriguez said. "Cole (Haring) gets a hit to kind of break the seal a little bit, and the next thing you know we find ourselves on the winning end of a game against a really good team. I think we're definitely going in the right direction, and it's games like this that I really do believe propel you into a lot of wins."

Smith, a freshman from Keller, Texas, making his first start, got through 3.2 innings without giving up a run. He allowed five hits and three walks with five strikeouts, but left three runners stranded in the first and two in the third and picked off two others.

When the Bulldogs got a pair of two-out walks in the fourth, Hill (1-1) came on to strike out Hunter Wells.

Louisiana Tech, which had opened the tournament with wins over ninth-ranked Texas A&M and Cal, broke through for an unearned run in the fifth. Dalton Skelton had a leadoff single, moved to second on a Hill error off an errant pickoff attempt and scored on Tanner Huddleston's RBI single to center.

The Bears broke through in the bottom half of the fifth when Josh Bissonette led off with a single through the left side. Back-to-back errors on sac bunts by Richard Cunningham and Tucker Cascadden scored the tying run, then Haring came through with a two-run, opposite-field single to right.

"I was talking to Coach (Rodriguez) before that at-bat, and he just told me to keep the ball in the middle of the field, try to take it the other way," said Haring, who was 2-for-4 with three RBI. "I had two strikes, just kind of saw the ball late and hit it the other way."

Baylor tacked on two more runs in the sixth on Nick Loftin's leadoff walk, an RBI double down the right-field line by Cunningham and another RBI single up the middle by Haring.

The Bears had a chance to break it open in the seventh when the first three batters reached base on back-to-back walks and an Andy Thomas single. But, they had to settle for just one insurance run on Bissonette's sac fly to right that scored Shea Langeliers.

Hill picked up the win in relief, giving up no earned runs on two hits and two walks with two strikeouts in 3.1 innings, while Robertson and Montemayor each tossed a hitless inning and retired six of the last eight batters.

Rodriguez said the pitchers have done a "phenomenal job keeping us in ballgames . . . it's more the offense that has kind of scuffled a little bit."

"I'm very proud of our pitchers for being able to go out and do what they're doing," he said. "Are they going to make mistakes? Are they going to walk guys and still upset me? Absolutely. That's coaching. If it was easy, you would just recruit guys and let them go play and not worry about them. Coaching is making sure they get better each and every at-bat, each and every pitch, everything they do."

Langeliers, who has a three-game hitting streak, was Baylor's lone choice on the all-tournament team.

The Bears face UTA at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Texas Rangers' Globe Life Park in Arlington before hosting George Washington in a three-game series next weekend at Baylor Ballpark.

THE RUNDOWN
FRISCO, Texas - Baylor baseball took down Louisiana Tech, 6-1, on Sunday afternoon at Dr. Pepper Ballpark in the finale of the 2018 Frisco College Baseball Classic. The Bears (4-5) scored in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to defeat the hottest team of the tournament in the Bulldogs (7-5).

The game was scoreless through four innings until Louisiana Tech used a single, error and single with two outs in the fifth for a 1-0 lead. However, Baylor quickly countered in the bottom half. Josh Bissonette led off with a single and back-to-back sacrifice bunt errors off the bats of Richard Cunningham and Tucker Cascadden scored a run and put two runners in scoring position. Cole Haring capitalized on the chance with a two-run single to give the Bears a 3-1 lead.

BU added to the lead with runs in the sixth and seventh frames. Nick Loftin walked and scored on a Cunningham double and Haring drove in Cunningham with a single in the sixth. Bissonette hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the seventh after walks by Shea Langeliers and Davis Wendzel and a single by Andy Thomas.

The Bears received 3.2 scoreless innings by starter Tyler Thomas but Kyle Hill (1-0) came on in relief to earn the win, giving up an unearned run on two hits and two walks with two strikeouts in 3.1 innings. Bulldogs starter Logan Bailey (1-1) took the loss, allowing three runs (one earned) on four hits and two walks with three strikeouts in five innings.

NOTES
*Baylor is 3-3 in regular season tournament play under third-year head coach Steve Rodriguez. BU went 2-1 at the 2017 Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic at Minute Maid Park in Houston with wins over No. 9 Ole Miss and No. 11 Texas A&M and a loss to No. 3 LSU.

*Tyler Thomas made his first career start and posted career highs of 3.2 innings pitched and five strikeouts.

*Andy Thomas has a career-high nine-game hitting streak to begin the season.

*Richard Cunningham has a five-game hitting streak.

*Shea Langeliers has a three-game hitting streak and was named to the 2018 Frisco College Baseball Classic all-tournament team at the catcher position.

*Cole Haring has a three-game hitting streak as he posted his third multi-hit game of the season (2) with a career-high three RBI.

*Troy Montemayor has four straight scoreless appearances to begin the season over four innings.

STAT OF THE GAME
3 - The amount consecutive innings that Baylor scored in (fifth-seventh) and number of RBI by Cole Haring.

QUOTE OF THE GAME
"It was really good for our guys to get a win. We finally had some consistency with our play after Friday and Saturday's games. Like I've said before, I like the direction this team is headed. It's games like this that I believe can propel you into more wins." Baylor Head Coach Steve Rodriguez

WHAT'S NEXT
The Bears face UT Arlington at 7 p.m. CT on Tuesday at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas. For tickets to home games, visit: http://www.baylorbears.com/tickets/. For updates on the program follow @baylorbaseball on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.

-BU-