OKLAHOMA CITY – No. 6 seed Baylor baseball fell 12-5 to No. 3 seed TCU (ranked 14th in country) on Wednesday evening at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark at the 2016 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship. The Bears (24-28) took two early leads but the Horned Frogs (39-14) separated with heavy offense.
Baylor jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the second. Kameron Esthay launched a solo home run to get the scoring started. Following a walk to Darryn Sheppard and balk, Josh Bissonette hit a two-out RBI single to give the Bears the start they needed.
However, the lead was short lived as TCU answered with a two-run homer by Josh Watson in the bottom of the second. BU countered in the third to take another lead as Justin Arrington led off with a double and scored on a Sheppard double, but it would mark the last time the Bears led in the contest.
In the bottom of the third the Horned Frogs scored three runs on four hits for a 5-3 lead and then dropped in two more in the fourth on a walk, triple and wild pitch for a 7-3 lead.
BU chipped away in the sixth after a one-out walk by Richard Cunningham led to a two-run homer by Steven McLean. However, they were the last runs Baylor scored and TCU answered with three runs in the sixth and two solo homers by Evan Skoug and Luken Baker in the eighth to put the game out of reach.
TCU reliever Sean Wymer (3-0) earned the win, giving up three runs on seven hits and three walks with five strikeouts in 3.1 innings. BU starter Daniel Castano (4-5) took the loss, surrendering seven runs on nine hits and two walks with one strikeout in four innings.
NOTES
*Baylor is 44-46 all-time at conference tournaments, 32-34 in the Big 12 Championship, 34-36 in conference tournament format, 12-8 in Big 12 Championship opening games, 8-10 in Big 12 Championship eliminations games and 0-6 in Big 12 Championship title games.
*No. 6 seeds in the Big 12 Championship are 35-29 overall and have won the event twice (Kansas in 2006 and Missouri in 2012) – Baylor has been a No. 6 seed four times and is 9-7 as a No. 6 seed in the event, reaching the title game in 2007 and 2010.
*Baylor and Oklahoma are the only two teams to qualify for all 20 Big 12 Championship events.
*Baylor is 1-5 all-time against TCU in conference tournaments and 1-3 in the Big 12 Championship after No. 8 BU topped No. 1 TCU in last year's event.
*Baylor leads the all-time series against TCU 142-121 overall but is 4-8 in neutral site games, and won its first Big 12 Conference series over TCU (2-1) on May 13-15 in Waco after losing the first three – the win was BU’s first three-game series over TCU since a sweep on Feb. 18-20, 2000, in a split series with two games in Waco.
*Baylor is 197-292-1 all-time against opponents ranked by Baseball America, 32-40 since 2011 and 3-4 in 2016.
*Baylor has won four of its last seven games.
*Baylor has 33 home runs in 52 games in 2016, which are 16 more than the team had in 55 games in 2015 – BU has 30 or more homers for the first time since blasting 46 in 2012.
*Justin Arrington has a career-high 10-game on-base streak and four-game hitting streak as he posted his 12th multi-hit game of the season.
*Steven McLean has a nine-game on-base streak as he notched his fifth multi-RBI game and hit his second home run of the season and his career.
*Josh Bissonette has an eight-game on-base streak and four-game hitting streak as he registered his eighth multi-hit game of the season.
*Kameron Esthay has a three-game hitting streak as he hit his third homer of the season and eighth of his career – the homer was his second of his career in Big 12 Championship play as he also had one last year against TCU.
*Richard Cunningham has a three-game hitting streak.
STAT OF THE GAME
3 – The amount of innings Baylor scored in and the amount of innings TCU failed to score in.
QUOTE OF THE GAME
“TCU played well. You have to tip your hat to them. They came out swinging offensively and made some good adjustments. That’s why they’re one of the best teams in the country. We had our opportunities offensively and we just couldn’t get contact. That was pretty frustrating because it felt like we were trying to do too much.” – Head Coach Steve Rodriguez
WHAT’S NEXT
Baylor continues its run in Oklahoma City at the Big 12 Championship with a game Thursday at 12:30 p.m. CT against the loser of No. 2 Oklahoma State vs. No. 7 Texas.
