Baylor Baseball Walks Off No. 8 OSU, 13-11

[Calderone, Max]

BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS – May 19, 2022

Baylor Baseball Walks Off No. 8 OSU, 13-11
Bears erase eight-run deficit for largest comeback win in five years
For more information contact: Max Calderone, 254-265-1639, Max_Calderone at Baylor.edu<mailto:Max_Calderone at Baylor.edu>

THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas – Baylor baseball (26-24, 7-15) erased an eight-run deficit to come from behind and walk off No. 8 Oklahoma State (34-18, 13-9) Thursday night at Baylor Ballpark, 13-11.

Antonio Valdez delivered the walk-off two-run blast that hit the top of the wall before going over. Jared McKenzie hit two home runs and drove in five, including a grand slam in BU’s eight-run seventh inning. Beau Wimpee reached base three times after pinch-hitting in the seventh and scored the game-winning run on Valdez’s homer.

The Bears opened the scoring off an OSU error in the bottom of the first, but quickly found themselves in a hole as the Cowboys scored two runs in each of the next three innings. Kyle Nevin’s fourth-inning sacrifice fly cut the OSU lead to 6-2, but a three-run top of the fifth swayed it back to 9-2.

In the bottom of the sixth, McKenzie crushed his first long ball of the night, a solo shot to get one back at 9-3. However, OSU responded again with two more in the top of the seventh to go ahead 11-3.

That’s when the magic happened, as 13 Bears came to the plate in the eight-run frame. Jacob Schoenvogel drove in two with a single, then Esteban Cardoza-Oquendo reached on a run-scoring error. After a Jack Pineda double and a Tre Richardson walk to load the bases, McKenzie came through again with his 11th home run of the season to bring BU within one.

Then with two outs in the inning, Wimpee singled and Valdez walked to set up Harrison Caley’s game-tying RBI single which sent the Bears to the eighth all knotted at 11-11. Things were quiet until the bottom of the ninth, when Wimpee led things off with another single ahead of Valdez’s game-winning long ball.

With its third win over a top-10 team in 2022, Baylor also punched its ticket to the 2022 Big 12 Championship and will await its final seeding after this weekend’s results.

NOTES
• Baylor improved to 44-51 all-time against Oklahoma State, including a 7-9 mark under seventh-year head coach Steve Rodriguez.
• BU collected its third win over a top-10 team with the 13-11 victory.
• Baylor overcame a deficit of eight runs for its largest comeback victory since May 19, 2017.
• Four Baylor pitchers combined to strikeout 10 batters for BU’s 14th double-digit punchout performance of the season.
• Baylor extended its streak to 29 games in a row with an extra-base hit.
• The Bears have tallied two or more XBH in 18 of their last 19 games.
• BU continues to lead the nation with 59 double plays turned in 2022.
• Antonio Valdez delivered BU’s first walk-off home run since Ryan Bertelsman did so against Holy Cross on Feb. 16, 2019.
• Jared McKenzie hit Baylor’s first grand slam since March 30, 2019 (Cole Haring vs. Kansas).
• McKenzie became the first Bear to drive in five runs this season, and first since Andy Thomas knocked in six on May 9, 2021 against K-State.
• Five RBIs is a career-high for McKenzie.
• McKenzie tallied his 17th multi-hit and 13th multi-RBI game of the year.
• Harrison Caley recorded his seventh multi-hit game of the season.
• Jacob Schoenvogel collected his third multi-RBI outing of 2022.
• Schoenvogel also extended his team-leading on-base streak to 11 games.
• Beau Wimpee produced his first multi-hit performance of the season.
• Jake Jackson tied his season high with seven strikeouts.

STATS OF THE GAME
8 – Baylor erased an eight-run deficit for its largest comeback victory in the last five years.
5 – Jared McKenzie drove in a team-high five runs to set a new career high.
1 – Antonio Valdez hit his first home run of the season, a two-run walk-off blast to seal the win.

TOP QUOTES
Head coach Steve Rodriguez
On tonight’s win…
“I tell you what, it’s definitely not how you design it up but, I told our guys at the end of this game - they absolutely won this game. There’s nothing they were given. They did everything that they possibly could, fight, scratch and crawl. Jake [Jackson] just battled, he battled to get us deeper into the game. Then [Matt] Voelker and [Adam] Muirhead and [Hambleton] Oliver came in. Muirhead coming in and getting that last out was huge. Giving our offense an opportunity to get a guy on and then get a guy over and get them in. Then Antonio [Valdez] obviously just a dramatic home run, you know it hits the top of the wall and then is it going out, is it not going out. It was pretty dramatic. Hats off to Jaren McKenzie, comes up with two humongous homeruns to get us within one and then next thing you know we scratch and crawl to get a base hit and tie the game up.”

Sophomore OF Jared McKenzie
On the team’s approach in the seventh inning…
“You look at the score and you can either sit there and give up, or you know what, it becomes an individual sport at that point. How are you going to take it personally? Come up there and grind at-bats. When everybody on your team is showing that it mattered to them, no matter what the score was, their at-bat mattered. When everybody’s at-bats matter and they start to click, you have good results.”

Junior INF Antonio Valdez
On the walk-off home run…
“I’ve never done anything like that in my life and as soon as I didn’t get those bunts down, you know, I had to do whatever I could to get Beau [Wimpee] to second base. And Beau getting on base three times is part of that comeback, we don’t win without Beau getting on base again and the pitchers and everybody who contributed. It was everybody tonight and I just can’t believe I did it.”

WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor (26-24, 7-15) looks to clinch the series over No. 8 Oklahoma State (34-18, 13-9) on Friday, May 20, 2022 with first pitch set for 6:30 p.m. CT.

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_2900488507]<http://baylorbears.com/>

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