ARLINGTON, Texas – Baylor baseball fell 6-3 to UT Arlington on Tuesday night at Gould Ballpark. The Bears (8-12) struggled to keep the Mavericks (11-11) off the bases in the early innings leaving too large a deficit to bounce back from.
A leadoff walk and double to start the game set up UTA’s first run on an RBI ground out by RJ Williams in the first inning. The biggest damage came in the second as another leadoff walk ignited a rally. After an error and out to move both runners into scoring position, Josh Minjarez hit a two-run triple and scored an out later on a single by Noah Vaughan for a 4-0 lead.
In the third with one out, the Mavericks singled twice and drew a walk to load the bases. Following a force out at home, Jerame Littell delivered a two-run single to left for a 6-0 lead.
Baylor cut into the lead in the sixth as Richard Cunningham started a rally with a leadoff walk. He moved to second on an out and scored on an RBI single by Kameron Esthay. Following a double by Darryn Sheppard and UTA pitching change, Aaron Dodson plated Esthay on a sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to 6-2.
The Bears got another run back in the ninth as T.J. Raguse led off with a double and scored on a ground out by Cameron Miller, but BU was unable to get any closer.
UTA reliever Dylan Schneider (1-1) earned the win, allowing two runs on three hits and one walk with four strikeouts in 3.2 innings. BU starter Austin Stone (0-1) took the loss, surrendering four runs (two earned) on three hits and two walks in 1.2 innings.
NOTES
*Baylor is 2-3 on the road in 2016.
*Baylor leads the all-time series vs. UTA 85-33 and 33-20 in Arlington, but the Mavericks won a 9-2 game earlier this season in Waco on Feb. 24 – the Bears are 0-2 against UTA under Steve Rodriguez.
*Kameron Esthay has a career-high nine-game hitting streak as he posted his fourth multi-hit game of the season.
*Aaron Dodson has a career-high six-game on-base streak.
*Steven McLean has a six-game on-base streak.
*Josh Bissonette has five-game on-base streak.
*Richard Cunningham has a four-game on-base streak.
*Darryn Sheppard has a three-game hitting streak.
*T.J. Raguse has a three-game hitting streak.
*After recovering from a right arm injury, Austin Stone made his first appearance and start of 2016 and first appearance and start since throwing 0.2 innings vs. West Virginia on March 21, 2015.
*Joe Heineman posted a career-high four strikeouts.
*Kyle Ott tied a career high with 1.2 innings pitched.
STAT OF THE GAME
6 – The amount of runs UT Arlington scored in the first three innings before Baylor knocked its first hit.
QUOTE OF THE GAME
“I was so happy to see Austin Stone back out there. We knew he’d be a little rusty but his stuff was actually decent. We didn’t play good defense behind him, made a few mistakes, which unfortunately cost us. At some point we need to stop getting aggressive in the sixth inning and start doing it in the first inning.” – Baylor Head Coach Steve Rodriguez
WHAT’S NEXT
Baylor begins a split series with Dallas Baptist this weekend starting with a 6:35 p.m. CT game Thursday in Waco, Texas. The final two games of the series will be played in Dallas at 6:30 p.m. on Friday and 2 p.m. on Saturday.
