AUSTIN – Baylor baseball claimed the series with a 3-1 win over Texas on Friday evening at Disch-Falk Field. The Bears (24-26, 10-13) used a three-run seventh inning to swipe a win away from the Longhorns (21-30, 9-14).
Trailing 1-0 after a third-inning unearned run for Texas, Baylor rallied in the seventh. Richard Cunningham started it with a one-out single. Following a two-out single by Justin Arrington, Matt Menard came through with a huge two-run double down the right field line to put BU on top. Kameron Esthay then added insurance with an RBI single on the next play for a 3-1 lead that stood.
BU reliever Nick Lewis (2-5) earned the win, allowing no runs on no hits and four walks in two innings with one strikeout. Troy Montemayor picked up his 14th save and second in as many days with a walk and three strikeouts in a scoreless ninth inning. Baylor starter Daniel Castano took a no-decision, allowing an unearned run on four hits and three walks with four strikeouts in five innings. UT reliever Eric Dunbar (0-3) took the loss, giving up three runs on three hits in 0.2 innings.
NOTES
*With Kansas’ loss at Oklahoma State today, Baylor qualified for the Big 12 Championship for a Big 12 record 20th straight season (tied with Oklahoma as each team has reached every single Big 12 Championship event since it started in 1997).
*Baylor is now locked in as the No. 6 seed in next week’s Big 12 Championship and will face No. 3 seed TCU.
*Baylor trails the all-time series against Texas 238-108-4 overall, 134-43-1 in Austin and has won two straight in the series after entering the series with a three-game losing streak to UT – BU has now won 10 of the 20 all-time Big 12 series against UT. Baylor won its first series over UT since a sweep in Waco on April 26-28, 2013.
*Baylor has won five of its 12 three-game series in 2016 and 26 of 56 since 2012.
*Baylor was won 10 or more game in Big 12 play for the 18th time in 20 seasons and first time since going 12-11 in 2013.
*Baylor has won four of its last five games.
*Baylor is 8-10 on the road in 2016.
*Matt Menard has a career-high 14-game on-base streak and five-game hitting streak as he posted his fifth multi-RBI game of the season.
*Steven McLean has an eight-game on-base streak.
*Justin Arrington has an eight-game on-base streak.
*Josh Bissonette has a six-game on-base streak.
*Aaron Dodson has a three-game on-base streak.
*Troy Montemayor has 14 saves in 15 tries this season and in his career – he’s the ninth player in BU history to record 10 or more saves in a season (first since Josh Michalec set the single-season Baylor and Big 12 records with 21 saves in 2014) and ranks tied for third on BU’s single-season saves list and took sole possession of eighth on BU’s career list – he’s had six straight scoreless appearances covering five innings.
*Montemayor tied a career-high with three strikeouts.
STAT OF THE GAME
3 – The amount of runs Baylor scored in the seventh inning and amount of strikeouts Troy Montemayor had in the ninth inning to finish the win.
QUOTE OF THE GAME
“[Texas reliever Eric Dunbar] was going slider, slider, slider to [Matt] Menard (in the seventh-inning at-bat where he had the game-winning two-run double). I was a little worried he would try to sneak a fastball by him but he fouled one off. Then he came back with another slider and came back with that fastball and he was able to hit it down the right field line. Because he has a great plane to the baseball he would’ve maybe been a little late on it but he did a great job of staying on that plane and being able to get to that ball.” – Head Coach Steve Rodriguez
WHAT’S NEXT
Baylor finishes its regular-season-ending series against Texas with a 2 p.m. CT finale Saturday on the Longhorn Network. The pitching matchup features BU RHP Kyle Hill (1-4, 5.40 ERA) vs. UT RHP Connor Mayes (0-4, 3.96 ERA).
