No. 14/22 Baylor baseball shut out No. 15/25 Oklahoma 7-0 on Saturday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark. The Bears (18-5, 2-3) evened the series with the Sooners (22-5, 1-1) behind stellar pitching from starter Montana Parsons and reliever Kyle Ott.
With Parsons throwing well, the offense gave him runs to work with in the third and fourth innings. A T.J. Raguse RBI double and Matt Menard sacrifice fly in the third got the scoring started. Then in the fourth, an error pushed across a run and Raguse drove another in with a single.
A wild pitch in the seventh and an eighth-inning RBI walk by Josh Bissonette and RBI ground out by Raguse gave the Bears a 7-0 lead that stood.
BU starter Montana Parsons (2-1) earned the win, giving up just five hits and two walks with four strikeouts in seven innings. Ott finished the final two innings, allowing three hits with two strikeouts. OU starter Devon Perez (4-1) took the loss, surrendering four runs on six hits and two walks with nine strikeouts in five innings.
NOTES
*Baylor’s 18-5 start through 23 games is its best since 2000 (18-5).
*Baylor has five shutouts in its first 23 games for first time since 1995 (5) and five shutouts in a season for the first time since 2013 (5). Three of this season’s shutouts have come against ranked opponents (first time shutting out two Baseball America ranked opponents since 2014).
*Baylor is 7-4 as a ranked team this season and 5-3 against ranked teams.
*Baylor is 3-2 this season and 6-6 under Steve Rodriguez against Baseball America ranked team (Oklahoma ranked No. 24) and 200-294-1 all-time, including a 35-42 mark since 2011.
*Baylor has finished its home schedule with a .500 record or better (13-4 in 2017) in all 18 seasons at Baylor Ballpark (since 1999) and is 410-186 all-time at the park.
*Baylor is 3-3 on its current and season-long eight-game home stand.
*Baylor trails the all-time series to Oklahoma 45-43 but leads 27-18 in Waco.
*Sophomore outfielder T.J. Raguse has a three-game on-base streak as he posted his third multi-hit game of the season and second multi-RBI game as he tied career highs with two hits and three RBI.
*Junior RHP Kyle Ott has a career-high eight-appearance scoreless streak. Over 10.1 innings during the stretch he's allowed nine hits and three walks with nine strikeouts.
*Senior designated hitter Matt Menard has a 12-game on-base streak.
*Junior outfielder Levi Gilcrease has a career-high nine-game on-base streak.
*Junior third baseman Steven McLean has a seven-game on-base streak.
*Junior JUCO shortstop Tucker Cascadden has a seven-game on-base streak.
*Freshman catcher Shea Langeliers has a four-game hitting streak.
*Senior first baseman Aaron Dodson has a four-game hitting streak.
*Sophomore second baseman Josh Bissonette has a three-game on-base streak.
STAT OF THE GAME
2 – The amount of runs Baylor scored in the third, fourth and eighth innings and the amount of walks BU’s pitchers issued after walking 13 on Friday night.
QUOTE OF THE GAME
“Coming off of yesterday’s game, you can see the power that Oklahoma has. Watching what [Montana] Parsons did tonight, being able to handcuff them a little bit – it’s an impressive offense – seeing the numbers that they put up. To see what we did with that today on the mound was really impressive.” – Head Coach Steve Rodriguez
WHAT’S NEXT
Baylor finishes its series vs. Oklahoma with a 12:05 p.m. CT rubber match on Sunday.
