The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Baylor
Baylor sends Baseball to 2-1 loss on Thursday night
05.19.2016 | Baseball
The Longhorns allowed just two unearned runs on nine hits, but could not overcome the deficit.
AUSTIN, Texas—A pair of unearned runs in the fifth inning sent Texas Baseball to a 2-1 loss at the hands of Baylor on Thursday night at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
The Longhorns offense struggled early against Baylor righthander Drew Tolson (6-3), who sat down the first nine batters he faced before Travis Jones singled through the left side to lead off the home half of the fourth.
In the following frame, Baylor (23-26, 9-13 Big 12) took the lead thanks to a pair of unearned runs. After Morgan Cooper (2-5) hit shortstop Josh Bissonette to open the frame, the Bears' nine-hitter laid down a sacrifice that resulted in a throwing error to give them two aboard. A second sacrifice gave the Bears a pair in scoring position before an RBI groundout and a run-scoring single put Texas in a 2-0 hole.
The Longhorns (21-29, 9-13 Big 12) got on the board in the sixth when Jake McKenzie ripped a double to left-center—his first of two hits in the game—and Jones singled with one out to put runners on the corners. Two batters later, Tres Barrera smoked a line drive that the third baseman could not handle and the Longhorns cut the deficit to 2-1.
Freshman Beau Ridgeway came on in relief of Cooper in the seventh and strung together three perfect innings on just 21 pitches to hold the deficit to one, but the Longhorns went down in order in the ninth and were sent to their 13th loss in Big 12 play.
Texas and Baylor return to action tomorrow for game two, scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. CT. Lefthander Ty Culbreth is expected to take the hill for the Longhorns.
