WACO, Texas – Baylor (20-29, 8-14) lost a 6-5 heartbreaker to Texas (25-24, 10-12) Saturday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark. The Longhorns hit back-to-back homers to start the ninth and take the final lead.
Kameron Esthay erased an early 1-0 deficit for Baylor with a solo homer in the second, but Texas answered with back-to-back blasts by Collin Shaw and C.J. Hinojosa in the next frame to reclaim the lead, 3-1.
The Bears countered in the fifth with what felt like the winning inning. Justin Arrington led off with a bunt single, Jonathan Ducoff reached on error and Logan Brown dropped down a bunt single to load the bases with no outs. Adam Toth delivered the big hit that scored two runs and a third run came in on the play as an error at shortstop on the relay throw was dropped.
BU then upped its lead to 5-3 in the sixth with help from two Texas errors. Darryn Sheppard drew a one-out walk and as he was trying to steal second he stopped midway. Before anything else happened, though, UT's second baseman dropped the ball and it went into centerfield where it was booted again. Sheppard moved to third on the play and scored on an Arrington single.
Texas chipped away at the Baylor lead in the eighth with an RBI single by Joe Baker and then brought thunder in the ninth to take the lead as Hinojosa and Tres Barrera hit back-to-back homers to start the inning.
Baylor had a chance in the bottom half with Adam Toth leading off with a double. Unfortunately, he stayed put as Duncan Wendel grounded back to the pitcher and Esthay and Aaron Dodson struck out swinging to end it.
UT reliever Kirby Bellow (3-1) earned the win with 1.2 scoreless frames while giving up a hit and walk with two strikeouts. BU reliever Sean Spicer (1-2) took the loss, giving up two runs on three hits and a walk in 0.2 innings.
NOTES
*Baylor trails the all-time series vs. Texas 105-235-4, and 59-92-3 in Waco, but is 33-42 under Steve Smith and 28-39 in the Big 12 era. BU had won each of the last two series before Texas swept the Bears in Austin on April 4-6, 2014, last season. Baylor has won nine series vs. UT in 18 seasons of Big 12 play. Baylor won the first six series from 1997 through 2002 and took a series sweep in 2005. Texas won the series in 2003 and 2004 and had taken each of the last six series before the Bears won 2012's series 2-1. The Bears swept Texas in 2013 in Waco on April 26-28 for their third sweep of UT in Big 12 play (1998, 2005, 2013).
*Baylor is 381-165 all-time at Baylor Ballpark, 15-11 this season and has won 16 of its 23 home series since 2012, including four of six thus far in 2015 (No. 13 Cal Poly, 3-0 | Kent State, 2-1 | West Virginia, 2-1 | Oklahoma, 2-1 | Texas State, 0-3 | Kansas State, 1-2).
*Baylor has won four of its 11 three-game series in 2015 and 22 of 44 since 2012.
*Baylor is 496-563-4 against current members of the Big 12 Conference and 276-223 all-time in regular season play.
*Baylor is 140-130 in May/June under Steve Smith and 3-2 this year.
*Kameron Esthay has a hit in his last four games as he hit his team-leading fourth homer of his freshman season, posted his 10th multi-hit game and second three-hit game.
*Adam Toth has reached base in his last 11 games and has a hit in his last four as he notched his ninth multi-hit game and sixth multi-RBI game.
*Logan Brown has reached base in his last six games with his team-high 19th multi-hit game.
*Justin Arrington has a hit in his last four games as he posted his fourth multi-hit game.
*Jonathan Ducoff has a hit in his last four games.
*Mitch Price has reached base in his last five games.
*Darryn Sheppard has a three-game hitting streak.
STAT OF THE GAME
5 – The amount of home runs – all solo – hit by both teams in the game (four by Texas, one by Baylor).
QUOTE OF THE GAME
“Normally, you are not going to get beat a team on solo home runs and we gave up four today. We walked enough of them to turn the lineup over a few times, but I thought Texas was really locked in. This was as much about them being really locked in offensively as it was us making a mistake or two, and the park playing the way it did.” – Baylor head coach Steve Smith
WHAT'S NEXT
The teams finish the series tomorrow with a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. CT. Both games will air on FOX Sports Plus.
