NORMAN, Okla. – Baylor baseball fell 7-6 in 11 innings in a second heartbreaking walk-off loss to Oklahoma on Sunday afternoon at Mitchell Park in the series rubber match. The Bears (16-16, 4-5) blasted four home runs and had four leads but the Sooners (17-15-1, 4-5) also launched four long balls and had answers each time, eventually outlasting BU for the win.
The Bears took a 2-0 lead after a solo homers by Matt Menard and Kameron Esthay in the second and third innings, respectively. However, a two-run shot by OU’s Hunter Haley in the fourth tied the game, 2-2.
Baylor bounced back with runs in the fifth and sixth frames. Darryn Sheppard hit a two-out solo homer in the fifth to put BU back on top. In the sixth, Menard singled, T.J. Raguse walked, and after a sacrifice bunt by Josh Bissonette, Justin Arrington grounded out to plate Menard for a 4-2 lead.
The Sooners countered with solo homers from Austin O’Brien and Haley in the sixth to tie it, though.
In the seventh, Sheppard blasted another long ball to put the Bears ahead again but OU’s Cade Harris did the same in the bottom of the seventh to tie it, 5-5.
Both teams also scored in the eighth. BU got a run on a two-out walk by Bissonette, single by Arrington and pinch-hit RBI double by Cameron Miller. OU scored on a double, wild pitch and sac fly.
The teams then went scoreless until the bottom of the 11th. Harris and Ben Hollas hit two-out singles and Jack Flansburg followed with a third straight single to win the game.
BU reliever Andrew McInvale (2-2) took a tough loss, allowing two runs on five hits with two strikeouts in 4.1 innings. OU reliever Sheldon Neuse received the win, giving up two runs on five hits and one walk with one strikeout in 4.1 innings.
NOTES
*Baylor has won eight of its last 12 games.
*Baylor trails the all-time series vs. Oklahoma 44-42 and 25-10 in Norman – the Bears are 1-2 in the series under Steve Rodriguez.
*Baylor has won 11 of the 20 Big 12 series vs. Oklahoma, but had a three-series winning streak snapped.
*Baylor has won three of its seven three-game series in 2016 and 24 of 51 since 2012.
*Baylor is 4-6 on the road in 2016.
*Baylor dropped its first extra innings game of the 2016 season.
*Baylor hit multiple home runs (4) for the fourth time this season (April 9 at Oklahoma (2), Feb. 27 vs. Stony Brook (3) and March 26 at Dallas Baptist (3)) – and posted multiple homers in two straight games for the first time since April 14-15, 2012, at Kansas State (3, 5). It’s the first four-homer game for BU since hitting five on April 15, 2012, at K-State.
*Steven McLean has a career-high 18-game on-base streak and career-high 12-game hitting streak (both streaks are the longest of any Baylor player this year).
*Richard Cunningham’s career-high 15-game on-base streak and career-high-tying four-game hitting streak both ended.
*Matt Menard has a career-high 10-game on-base streak and career-high seven-game hitting streak as he hit his second home run of the season and of his career – he notched his fifth multi-hit game of the season.
*Kameron Esthay has an eight-game hitting streak as he hit his first home run of the season and sixth of his career – he posted his 10th multi-hit game of the season.
*Justin Arrington has a career-high nine-game hitting streak as he had his seventh multi-hit game with a career-high-tying three hits.
*Aaron Dodson has a three-game hitting streak.
*Darryn Sheppard hit his team-high and career-high fourth and fifth home runs of the season and 10th and 11th of his career – the two-homer game marked his second this season (Feb. 27 vs. Stony Brook) and third of his career. He posted his 11th multi-hit and ninth multi-RBI games of the season.
*T.J. Raguse registered his second multi-hit game of the season with a career-high-tying two hits.
*Andrew McInvale tossed a career-high 4.1 innings in relief.
STAT OF THE GAME
0 – The amount of leads Oklahoma held in the entire series but two walk-off wins gave OU the series victory.
QUOTE OF THE GAME
“Tip your hat to Oklahoma. They competed hard and so did we. We just ran out of weapons at the end there.” – Baylor Head Coach Steve Rodriguez
WHAT’S NEXT
Baylor begins a five-game home stand with a 4:05 p.m. CT game against Lamar on Wednesday at Baylor Ballpark.
