The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Baylor
No. 10 Baseball beats Baylor 5-3
03.19.2021 | Baseball
The Longhorns picked up their first Big 12 win of the season with a narrow victory over Baylor.
WACO, Texas – No. 10 Texas Baseball held on for a 5-3 win over Baylor in the Big 12 Conference opener on Friday night at Baylor Ballpark. Ty Madden pitched 6 1/3 innings and struck out nine batters to pick up his third win of the season.
The Longhorns (13-5, 1-0) used the reliable bullpen trio of Tanner Witt, Palmer Wenzel and Aaron Nixon for the final 2 2/3 innings of the ballgame. Nixon pitched 1 1/3 scoreless with two strikeouts to earn his first career save.
Baylor started the bottom of the first with back-to-back extra-base hits off of Madden to take a 1-0 lead. Madden was able to limit the damage by striking out the next three batters to end the inning.
Texas came right back to plate four runs in the top of the second on just one hit. The Longhorns benefited from two errors, four walks and one hit batter. Mitchell Daly provided the one hit though, a go-ahead two-run double down the left field line.
The Longhorns added a run to their lead in the third inning on doubles by Trey Faltine and Cam Williams to make the score 5-1.
The Bears got a run back in the third to trim the Texas lead to 5-2 but yet again Madden was able to limit the damage.
Starting in the fourth inning, Madden retired 10-straight batters before issuing a one-out walk in the seventh. Tanner Witt came out of the bullpen and got a pair of strikeouts to end the inning.
Palmer Wenzel came into the game in the eighth and got the first batter he faced, but an error allowed a run to score and trim the lead to 5-3. Nixon came into the game and got the Longhorns out of a bases-loaded jam to end the threat and keep the lead intact.
Nixon then finished off the ninth with two strikeouts and groundout.
The Longhorns and Bears will square off in Game 2 on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Baylor Ballpark.
