Baylor Baseball Shuts Out Rice, 6-0

[Calderone, Max]

BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS – March 14, 2023

Baylor Baseball Shuts Out Rice, 6-0
Five pitchers combine to two-hit the Owls in BU’s first shutout of 2023
For more information contact: Max Calderone, 254-265-1639, Max_Calderone at Baylor.edu<mailto:Max_Calderone at Baylor.edu>

WACO, Texas – Baylor baseball (6-11) shut out Rice (8-9) 6-0 on Tuesday night at Baylor Ballpark in Waco behind a strong performance on the mound and production from the top of the lineup offensively.

Five BU pitchers combined to two-hit the Owls, recording the Bears’ first shutout of the season. Baylor’s Kolby Branch, Gavin Brzozowski, Hunter Simmons and Cole Posey each had multi-hit games, combining for nine of BU’s 10 hits on the night.

Junior RHP Will Rigney made just his second appearance since returning from injury, and first start since April 22, 2022, and struck out five in two perfect innings. The Bears’ bullpen kept the last seven innings clean and allowed just two hits the rest of the night.

For the 13th time this season, BU’s arms struck out double-digit batters. The Bears’ 15 punchouts against the Owls tied for their second-most in a game this year.

THE RUNDOWN
Baylor wasted no time getting the offense started, as Branch and Brzozowski recorded back-to-back triples to lead off the bottom of the first. After Simmons drove in the BU right fielder and freshman C Zach Mazoch delivered a sacrifice fly, the Bears led 3-0 early.

Rigney went back to work quickly in the top of the second to strike out the side and bring the Bears back up to the plate. Branch followed up Posey’s leadoff double with an RBI single to make it 4-0, then Simmons notched another run-scoring knock to increase the lead to 5-0.

That’s when Rigney would turn it over to the bullpen, as junior RHPs Anderson Needham, Adam Muirhead, Brett Garcia and sophomore righty Gabe Craig cruised the rest of the way, allowing just five baserunners on two hits and three walks over the last seven innings. Each of the BU relievers tallied at least two punchouts, only one Owl ever reached third base, and each of the last four innings were 1-2-3 frames.

In the bottom of the eighth, freshman LHP/OF Ethan Calder came through with his first-career hit, an RBI single, to mark Baylor’s final tally of the evening.

HIGHLIGHTS
• Baylor improved to 3-1 in midweek contests this season with its third win over a team from the state of Texas in 2023.
• Baylor recorded its first nine-inning shutout since March 12, 2022 against Columbia.
• Two hits are the fewest allowed by a Baylor pitching staff since giving up just two at Rice on March 2, 2022, in another two-hit shutout of the Owls.
• 15 strikeouts is tied for the second-most in a single game this year for the Bears.
• The Bears have punched out at least 13 hitters in nine of their 17 games this year.
• BU pitchers have eclipsed double-digits in strikeouts 13 times in 17 games this season.
• Baylor pitchers started 15 of the last 17 batters they faced with a first-pitch strike.
• BU pitchers collected five strikeouts in six at-bats when getting ahead 0-2 in the count.
• BU improved to 6-0 when scoring six or more runs.
• BU improved to 5-0 when out-hitting its opponent and when leading after six innings.
• The Bears tallied their fifth double-digit hit total of the year with 10.
• Fourth-year junior RHP Will Rigney made just his second appearance, and first start, since April 22, 2022, and struck out five of the six batters he faced.
• Fifth-year junior RHP Anderson Needham worked his fourth scoreless outing of the year.
• Junior RHP Adam Muirhead pitched his third-consecutive scoreless outing and fifth of the season.
• Fifth-year junior RHP Brett Garcia worked his fourth scoreless appearance of 2023. He has struck out 14 batters over his last 6.2 innings pitched.
• Fourth-year sophomore RHP Gabe Craig pitched his third-consecutive scoreless outing. He has struck out two batters in three of his four appearances this year.
• Freshman INF Kolby Branch extended his on-base streak to 17 games.
• Branch also tallied his seventh multi-hit game of the year, including his fifth in the last six games.
• Branch and redshirt freshman OF Gavin Brzozowski each collected their first triples of the season.
• Brzozowski also notched his second multi-hit game of the year.
• Junior OF Hunter Simmons produced his fourth multi-hit and first multi-RBI effort of 2023.
• Fourth-year junior INF/OF Cole Posey tallied his second multi-hit game of the season.
• Freshman LHP/OF Ethan Calder recorded his first-career hit and RBI.

STAT OF THE GAME
0  – Baylor allowed zero runs for the first time this season.

QUOTABLE
Head Coach Mitch Thompson
On the pitching performance…
"The guys on the mound were outstanding. I think Will Rigney gave us a little shot in the arm. Everybody was excited to see Will out there again, and he gave us two good innings, and we followed that up with [Anderson] Needham, [Adam] Muirhead, [Brett] Garcia and [Gabe] Craig. That was just an outstanding ballgame from our pitching staff. Strikeout 15, give up two hits, shut ‘em out? We’ll take that every day and twice on Sunday.”

On heading into conference play…
“We’re just trying to win one game at a time and play one game at a time. If we break them down one game at a time, one inning at a time, one pitch at a time, then we’ll have a chance to stay in here. It’s obviously better to start conference with a win, but today’s game won’t have anything to do with what happens on Friday one way or the other. But, it’s always more fun to win than to lose. So we’ll take every one we can get.”

Junior RHP Will Rigney
On how he felt about his performance…
“It felt really good to just get out there and help the team win. I got to throw at Duke, it felt good, but we’ve kind of had some ups and downs the last few weeks so I was glad to get back out there and feel good. The whole staff just pitched awesome. Conference weekend games are fun, but the Tuesday games you have to have some extra focus and I thought we had that tonight. We’ve got to take that into this weekend too.”

Junior OF Hunter Simmons
On what’s been the difference at the plate…
“I think as a team, the approach is there, but we haven’t been able to string those hits together. You saw that tonight, passing the torch, we haven’t been able to do that. We’ve been able to have success, each guy, but not all together. But tonight I think we honed it in a little bit. Having that boost of confidence from Will [Rigney], from [Brett] Garcia, Adam [Muirhead], coming in there and doing their job, that makes it really easy to just go out and do your thing. The team did a great job tonight.”

WHAT’S NEXT
Baylor (6-11) begins conference play by hosting Kansas State (11-5) for a three-game series at Baylor Ballpark. Friday’s series opener is set for 6:30 p.m. in Waco.
To stay up to date on all things Baylor baseball, follow the team on 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_1468674487]<http://baylorbears.com/>

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