Baylor Baseball Completes Sweep of Oral Roberts, 11-7

[Calderone, Max]

BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS – March 3, 2024

Baylor Baseball Completes Sweep of Oral Roberts, 11-7
Late homers help Bears pull away in back-and-forth series finale
For more information contact: Max Calderone, 254-265-1639, Max_Calderone at Baylor.edu<mailto:Max_Calderone at Baylor.edu>

WACO, Texas – Baylor baseball (4-7) finished off a sweep of Oral Roberts (4-7) on Sunday at Baylor Ballpark, 11-7, thanks in part to a pair of late home runs by redshirt junior infielder Will Pendergrass and junior outfielder Wesley Jordan.

In a game that featured five lead changes, it was the Bears who pulled away with three runs in each of the seventh and eighth innings to down the Golden Eagles. All nine starters reached base safely for the third time this weekend, as BU pounded out a season-high 16 hits and matched its 2024 best with 11 runs in the series finale.

Freshman right-hander Stephen Sepulveda got the win in his team-leading fifth relief appearance of the year, as five Baylor pitchers tag-teamed the victory. Freshman lefty Mason Green worked a season-long three innings after senior righty Cole Stasio made his first-career start as an opener.

THE RUNDOWN
ORU got to Stasio in the top of the first, cashing in on a two-run single to open the scoring. However, BU tied things in the third on sophomore catcher Zach Mazoch’s two-run single.

In the top of the fourth, the Golden Eagles retook the lead as a run scored on a wild pitch. They added another tally in the fifth on an RBI fielder’s choice that made it 4-2.

Baylor once again responded with a run in the bottom of the fifth, an RBI infield single from Mazoch, to cut the deficit to one run. Then in the sixth, redshirt junior outfielder Kade Fletcher’s RBI double knotted the score and junior catcher Cortlan Castle’s safety squeeze bunt put the Bears ahead, 5-4.

After not allowing a hit in his first 2.1 innings of relief, BU redshirt junior right-hander Drew Leach got into a bit of trouble in the top of the seventh, as ORU took advantage of a couple walks and a pair of hits to put up three runs and go back in front, 7-5.

But once again, Baylor responded with a rally of its own as Pendergrass kickstarted the bottom of the seventh with a solo homer, followed by an RBI groundout off the bat of freshman infielder Chase Womack and a run-scoring wild pitch that made it 8-7.

In the eighth, the Bears added some insurance thanks to an RBI double by junior infielder Hunter Teplanszky and a two-run moonshot by Jordan.

Freshman southpaw RJ Ruais came on to pitch the ninth and after inheriting a pair of baserunners, he got a double play ball and first-pitch groundout to seal the series sweep.

HIGHLIGHTS
• Sunday’s win over Oral Roberts marked the second weekend series sweep in the Mitch Thompson era.
• Baylor improved to 28-22 all-time against ORU.
• The Bears racked up a season-high 16 hits and matched their season best with 11 runs.
• This is the first time that Baylor has scored 31 or more runs in a three-game weekend series since scoring 43 vs. Kansas State on May 7-9, 2021.
• All nine starters reached base safely for the third-consecutive game.
• Redshirt junior OF Enzo Apodaca tallied his fifth multi-hit game and extended his team-leading hitting streak to 10 games.
• Redshirt junior INF Will Pendergrass hit his first home run of 2024 and extended his hit streak to six games.
• Sophomore C Zach Mazoch logged his first multi-hit and multi-RBI game of the year.
• Junior OF Wesley Jordan homered for the second game in a row and notched his first multi-hit and multi-RBI game of 2024.
• Senior INF Daniel Altman matched his career high with three hits, his second multi-hit day of the season.
• Redshirt junior OF Kade Fletcher posted his first multi-hit day of 2024.
• Junior INF Tyriq Kemp recorded his first multi-hit game of the season.
• Freshman INF Chase Womack made his first-career start.
• Senior RHP Cole Stasio made his first-career start.
• Freshman RHP Stephen Sepulveda collected his first-career win.
• Freshman LHP RJ Ruais made his second scoreless appearance of the season.
• Freshman LHP Mason Green and redshirt junior RHP Drew Leach both tied their season highs with three strikeouts.
• Green worked a season-long 3.0 innings.

STAT OF THE DAY
31 – Baylor scored 31 runs in its weekend sweep over Oral Roberts, its most in a three-game weekend series since May 2021 vs. Kansas State.

QUOTABLE
Head Coach Mitch Thompson
On the weekend sweep being a nice turnaround…
“No question we needed wins. We’ve got to feel the success. Once you do, it kind of becomes contagious and you want more and you start believing in yourself. The beauty of this weekend is just the resiliency of the kids and the depth that we have. I’m just proud of the effort of the guys. That’s a good ballclub we beat. Their guys starting on Friday and Saturday were starting games in Omaha for them. These are real people and that’s a really good [series] win.”

On the resiliency in a back and forth game…
“You can see the tenacity, you see the persistence, the perseverance, whatever you want to call it. There was a lot of fight in the dugout. They wanted it and Oral Roberts was trying with all their heart not to get swept and have to ride home with three losses. Really proud. We’ve got freshmen out there, freshmen closing games. We got six innings on the mound today from freshmen. Guys are growing up before our eyes, so that’s the beauty of it.”

Sophomore C Zach Mazoch
On what changed this weekend…
“Man, we really came together as a team. We thought that we weren’t doing too well, I’ll be honest with you. We looked at reality and I think we came together and were like, ‘Hey, we’re a lot better than this, you know, we may be down a few guys but we’re a lot better than this.’ It’s been kind of a next-man-up situation. I wasn’t going to take this opportunity for granted.”

Junior OF Wesley Jordan
On how important it was to sweep…
“It was good. It shows who we really are. We come out each day and we compete. I think this shows that we have what it takes to be good this year.”

WHAT’S NEXT
Baylor (4-7) welcomes No. 18 Dallas Baptist (9-1) to Waco for a midweek clash on Tuesday, March 5. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. from Baylor Ballpark.

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 (Baseball, Football)
Department of Athletics | Baylor University
C: 254-265-1639

[signature_3971604847]<http://baylorbears.com/>

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