Baylor Baseball Rolls Over Roadrunners, 10-3

[Calderone, Max]

BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS – May 18, 2023

Baylor Baseball Rolls Over Roadrunners, 10-3
Bears down Bakersfield behind Golomb’s career-best relief outing
For more information contact: Max Calderone, 254-265-1639, Max_Calderone at Baylor.edu<mailto:Max_Calderone at Baylor.edu>

WACO, Texas – Baylor baseball (18-35) claimed its series-opening contest against CSU Bakersfield (18-29) Thursday night at Baylor Ballpark, 10-3.

Junior RHP Grant Golomb turned in a career-best relief outing, going five innings without allowing a run and striking out five to tie his career high.

The Bears took advantage of some CSUB miscues and scored four runs on wild pitches and passed balls. Another four runs crossed the plate via either a sacrifice fly or RBI fielder’s choice, while sophomore C Cortlan Castle’s two-run single was the only RBI hit on the night for BU.

THE RUNDOWN
Baylor wasted no time in getting on the board, as the ‘Runners’ starter walked the bases loaded in the bottom of the first, setting up a run-scoring passed ball and RBI sac fly from redshirt freshman OF Gavin Brzozowski.

After a two-run homer tied it for Bakersfield in the top of the second, the Bears responded with a pair of runs of their own in the bottom half, including sophomore INF Hunter Teplanszky’s RBI fielder’s choice and a sacrifice fly from freshman INF Kolby Branch that made it 4-2.

The Roadrunners pulled within one thanks to an RBI single in the top of the fourth, but it would be all zeros the rest of the way for the visitors as Golomb came on and retired the first 11 he faced.

BU broke it open with a three-spot in the sixth, thanks in part to two run-scoring wild pitches and another sacrifice fly, this time from redshirt freshman INF Jack Johnson. Another three runs in the seventh put the game out of reach, as Castle knocked in a pair and another wild pitch plated BU’s 10th run of the night.

Golomb was nails the rest of the way, having only allowed one hit and later worked around a pair of walks in the ninth to collect his third win of the season.

HIGHLIGHTS
• Baylor’s win marked the fourth time this season that the Bears have won back-to-back games.
• BU improved to 16-7 when scoring six or more runs, and 7-0 when scoring 10 or more.
• The Bears tied their largest margin of victory with a seven-run win, matching three other seven-run victories from earlier this season.
• Baylor collected its fifth win this season when being out-hit by its opponent.
• BU scored eight of its 10 runs without a hit. Sophomore C Cortlan Castle’s two-run single was the only RBI knock of the night for the Bears. The rest of the runs scored came via a wild pitch, passed ball, sacrifice fly or RBI fielder’s choice.
• Junior RHP Grant Golomb pitched a career-high five innings and matched his career best with five strikeouts.
• Sophomore C Cortlan Castle recorded his 12th multi-hit game of the season, and third in his last four games.
• Castle also notched his second multi-RBI effort of the year.
• Junior INF/OF Daniel Altman tallied his third multi-hit game of the year.
• Freshman INF Kolby Branch extended his on-base streak to six games.

STAT OF THE DAY
5 – Baylor reliever Grant Golomb pitched five scoreless innings, a career-best, and earned his third win of the season while matching his personal best with five strikeouts.

QUOTABLE
Head Coach Mitch Thompson
On the importance of this last series…
“I think for us it means everything. I said to every guy in that locker room, whether you’re a fifth-year guy or first-year guy, it says something about us. It says something about us as a team. This is the last time that we are going to get together and play together as a team. There is going to be a winner and a loser every day, so we may as well play to win. We may as well enjoy playing together. We have two more days playing together and then this team is going to disband. I think for us individually it means a ton and I think for the program it also means a ton. If you’re a fifth-year guy, I want you to feel like you helped to start something. If you’re a first-year guy, it definitely means something [moving forward]. We’re going to compete as hard as we can, take them one at a time, and hope that we can win all three.”

On Grant Golomb’s outing…
“He filled it up, attacked the strike zone, located his stuff, he was really good. We made plays behind him so it was a great outing for him. He’s thrown well here lately, went through a rough stretch in the middle [of the season], but was good before. When he got those first two innings under his belt, I looked over to Coach Lev and said ‘Hey, he has got to get in the mentality that he is finishing this thing today.’ It was good that he did, he’s helped us save the rest of the bullpen and hopefully we can come out tomorrow and score some runs again.”

Junior RHP Grant Golomb
On pitching well as of late and the importance of this series…
“It’s definitely given me something to build off of. I’m going to work pretty hard this summer, I’ve got a lot of stuff to work on just like everyone else would. It’s definitely something fun to hang the cleats up on this year. I think this series means a lot to our guys. We’re going to go out there and fight, regardless of how much these next two games mean.”

WHAT’S NEXT
Baylor (18-35) returns to face CSU Bakersfield (18-29) in Friday’s game two, set to begin at 6:30 p.m. at Baylor Ballpark 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_522189747]<http://baylorbears.com/>

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