WACO, Texas – A refreshing three-man
pitching effort pushed No. 23 Baylor to a 5-0 win over No. 2 UCLA in the
second of a three-game series on Saturday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark. Bears (2-4) hurlers Dillon Newman, Kolt Browder
and Ryan Smith combined to hold the Bruins (3-2) to five hits and three walks with five strikeouts.
"We didn't do anything incredibly special today;
we just didn't beat ourselves," said Baylor Head Coach Steve Smith.
"Cal [Towey] had the big two-run homerun that was inside the pole down
there. We played well defensively. We turned
the tables a little bit, put some pressure on them."
Newman (1-0) earned the win and provided the front
end of Baylor's first shutout of the season, throwing a
career-high-tying five innings. He faced trouble in the third and fifth
innings but escaped unscathed both times. In the third,
he gave up a two-out single to Brian Carroll, who also stole second.
Newman then induced a groundout to first by Kevin Kramer to end the
threat. In the fifth, a two-out bunt single by Carroll created a
first-and-third situation as Newman hit Trent Chatterton
with one out. But Newman conquered Kramer again, getting a fly out to
left to end his day. His final line included four hits and a walk with
two strikeouts as 60 of his 87 pitches were strikes.
Newman left with a scoreless game but it wasn't for
long. After Mitch Price led off the fifth with a walk, Cal Towey hit
his first home run of the season – a ball that was barely fair as it
sailed over the right field foul pole – and it
proved to be all Baylor needed for its 181st win over a team ranked by
Baseball America. UCLA entered the series ranked No. 12 by Baseball America, No. 2 in the latest ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll and No. 6 by
Collegiate Baseball and the NCBWA.
Browder got himself into a jam in the sixth as he
started it off by hitting Pat Valaika and walking Cody Regis. Following
a sacrifice bunt, Towey helped Browder out by diving near the Baylor
dugout to catch a foul pop up by Pat Gallagher.
After another walk, Ryan Smith came on with the bases loaded and took
Chatterton to a full count but caught him looking to finish a pivotal
inning for the Bears.
"He ran it to 3-2 and got a called third – that let
us catch our breath a little bit," said Coach Smith of his son's
stellar relief performance.
In the eighth, Baylor added to its lead with three
runs. The first came on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Lawton
Langford. Steve DalPorto then executed a successful squeeze bunt for an
RBI. Jake Miller followed with a two-out RBI infield
single.
"Late in the game we did some little things well,"
Coach Smith said. "These games are tight and you have to play the game
really well. When you see pitching like we've seen, it's going to be
tough to score a bunch of runs."
Earning his second save, Smith allowed just two base runners over his 3.1 innings of work while striking out three.
The loss was handed to Nick Vander Tuig (1-1), who
threw six innings, gave up two runs on four hits and one walk and struck
out three.
The first six hitters in the BU order had at least
one hit, led by Adam Toth's 2-for-4 day with a single, double and run
scored. The Bears only stranded five runners while UCLA left 11 on
board.
The rubber match series finale is set for 1:05 p.m. CT tomorrow. The pitching matchup presents BU RHP Austin Stone (0-0, 0.00 ERA) against UCLA LHP Grant Watson (1-0, 0.00 ERA).
