Baylor Baseball Drops 7-5 Finale to K-State

Sun May 15 17:05:14 CDT 2022

BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS – May 15, 2022

Baylor BSB Drops 7-5 Finale to K-State
Late grand slam undoes BU’s 5-1 lead as Wildcats take series
For more information contact: Max Calderone, 254-265-1639, Max_Calderone at Baylor.edu<mailto:Max_Calderone at Baylor.edu>

THE RUNDOWN
MANHATTAN, Kan. – Baylor baseball (24-24, 6-15) dropped its series finale at Kansas State (27-23, 8-13) by a final of 7-5 on Sunday at Tointon Family Stadium in Manhattan, Kan.

The Bears led 5-1 after seven innings, but a go-ahead grand slam in the eighth undid the BU advantage and allowed K-State to steal the rubber match. Three Bears had two hits in Jack Pineda, Jacob Schoenvogel and Jared McKenzie, including his team-leading ninth home run of the season.

Blake Helton turned in an excellent outing on the mound for Baylor, tying his career high with seven innings of work and allowing just one run on three hits. The fourth-year junior also struck out four in just his third start of the year.

BU burst out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first behind McKenzie’s towering home run. After KSU got one back in the bottom half, the Bears added another in the second thanks to a two-out knock off the bat of Esteban Cardoza Oquendo and took a 3-1 lead into the third.

Kyle Nevin’s sacrifice fly kept momentum on the side of the Bears and they extended their lead even further in the fifth thanks to a run-scoring single by Jack Pineda. Meanwhile, Helton cruised through the middle innings and faced the minimum in both the fourth and fifth. He didn’t face more than four batters over the course of his final six frames.

In the eighth, an error and back-to-back singles preceded a walk which loaded the bases for the Wildcats. That set up the go-ahead grand slam, then another solo homer later in the inning increased the lead to 7-5. K-State was able to hold off a late Baylor rally in the top of the ninth to secure the series over the Bears.

NOTES
• Baylor extended its streak to 27 games in a row with an extra-base hit.
• The Bears have tallied two or more XBH in 16 of their last 17 games.
• Blake Helton tied his career high with seven innings pitched in just his third start of the season.
• Jared McKenize recorded his 16th multi-hit game of the year and 12th multi-RBI performance of 2022.
• McKenzie also took over the team lead with his ninth home run of the season.
• Jack Pineda collected his team-leading 18th multi-hit effort of the year.
• Jacob Schoenvogel tallied two hits for the third time this season and reached base for a team-best 10th consecutive game.
• Kyle Nevin extended his hit streak to six games.

STAT OF THE GAME
7 – Blake Helton tied his career high with seven innings pitched in just his third start of the season.

TOP QUOTES
Head coach Steve Rodriguez
On today’s ballgame…
“I thought we played really well all the way up until that 8th inning. Offensively, we made some baserunning mistakes that are really kind of non-traditional for us. I thought our offense did a good job continuing to put pressure on them pretty much most of the game. And then, I thought Blake Helton just did a phenomenal job for us, coming back. It’s been a while since he’s been able to pitch like that. So, that was good to see. We brought in our hottest arm in [Matt] Voelker, and we get a groundball that we can’t field, then we walk a couple of guys, and they were able to get a ball up into the wind and it went out. So, that was kind of the tale of the tape right there.”

On Blake Helton’s performance…
“To be honest, we just needed that, his veteran leadership. He had kind of a rough first inning. You could tell he was trying to get his bearings back a little bit. And then, once he settled in, he got better as the game went on. He was really efficient with his pitches, and he just did a really good job. And I’ll be honest, if he had gotten his pitch count up a little bit more, or we were able to do that, it would have been easier to kind of keep him going. But, just to make sure that he was safe and he can continue to go on to next weekend, we wanted to make sure everything was going to go well with him. And he just did a great job for us, and was really happy with his performance. And once again, it’s good to have that senior leadership back in the rotation.”

WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor (24-24) returns home to round out its regular season with a four-game homestand beginning against Stephen F. Austin (14-34) on Tuesday, May 17, at 6:30 p.m. CT at Baylor Ballpark in Waco.

For the latest news on the Baylor baseball team all season long, follow its official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts: @BaylorBaseball.

-BaylorBears.com-

__________________________________

Max Calderone | Associate Director of Athletics Communications (BSB, FB, EQ)
Department of Athletics | Baylor University
C: 254-265-1639

[signature_4015344989]<http://baylorbears.com/>

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