University of Missouri
Baylor
Baseball Falls at Baylor, 6-3
4/22/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 22, 2011
WACO, Texas - The Mizzou baseball team fell, 6-3, to Baylor in the middle of a three-game Big 12 series on Friday afternoon (April 22) at Baylor Ballpark in Waco. The Tigers allowed four runs in the fifth inning as freshman starter Rob Zastryzny was tagged with the loss after going 4.1 innings, allowing eight hits, five runs (four earned) while walking another. Junior Conner Mach tallied the Tigers' first four-hit game this season as he went 4-4, finishing just a triple shy of the cycle. He launched his first homerun of the season in the third inning, a two-run shot over the left field wall. He was also hit by a pitch, reaching base in all five plate appearances.
Mach was obviously the highlight of the day for the Tigers at the plate. He tallied four of the Tigers' nine hits while driving in two and scoring another run. Blake Brown, Eric Garcia, Jonah Schmidt and Ben Turner also all tallied hits in the loss. Reliever Jeff Emens had a great outing in relief of Zastryzny, throwing 3.2 innings while allowing just one earned run and striking out two. Baylor's Logan Verrett earned the win, moving to 4-4 on the season. He threw 5.2 innings and allowed three runs on eight hits while fanning seven.
Baylor got a run in the first as Mach, making his second career start in left field, dropped a routine foul ball allowing Chris Slater to score from third, giving the Bears an early 1-0 lead. But Zastryzny rallied to pitch out of the jam, inducing a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning. But the defense failed Zastryzny again in the second. After a leadoff single, Baylor attempted to move the runner to second with a bunt. The ball was fielded by Dillon Everett who tried to get the runner at second, but no one covered as he threw to the bag and the ball ended up in centerfield, putting runners on second and third with no one out. Baylor then scored on an RBI single by Landis Ware, taking a 2-0 lead. But once again, Zastryzny minimized the damage by pitching out the jam.
That was huge for the Tigers as they got on the board in the top of the third after a two-run shot to left field by Mach, atoning for his error in the first. It was his first homerun of the season and his first since May 21, 2010. The two-run shot drove in CJ Jarvis as well, who posted his first career hit in the previous at bat, knocking a single to right field.
The score remained tied at 2-2 until the bottom of the fifth when Baylor tallied four hits - three of which went for extra bases - plating three runs off of Zastryzny and one off of reliever Emens. That gave BU a 6-2 lead after the fifth inning. Mizzou came back in the sixth and cut into the lead after an RBI single from Turner, scoring Garcia.
After giving up one earned run in that the four-run Baylor fifth, Emens kept the Bears in check through the next three innings, giving Mizzou a chance to cut into the lead further. The Tigers threatened with runners on base in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings but couldn't push any runs across, giving Baylor the 6-3 win.
The loss drops the Tigers to 15-23 on the season and 3-10 in Big 12 play. The two teams will play for the series tomorrow at noon as Matt Stites will get the start for Mizzou. For all the latest on Tiger baseball, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on twitter @MUTigerBaseball.
