The Kansas State Wildcats remained unbeaten at the Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Tournament with a come from behind 13-9 victory over Baylor Friday afternoon at Chickasaw Brick Town Ballpark in Oklahoma City. K-State rallied from deficits of 5-0 and 7-4 earlier in the game and trailed 9-8 in the top of the ninth inning before rallying for five runs.
One would never know that the Wildcats would have such an offensive output after they were held hitless for the game’s first three innings by Baylor starting pitcher Max Garner. K-State would slice a 5-0 deficit to 5-4 with four runs in the fourth highlighted by Jared King’s RBI single, Jon Davis’ RBI double Mitch Meyer’s RBI groundout and a wild pitch. Almost immediately the Bears responded with two runs to push their lead back up to 7-4. The Bat Cats would erupt again with four more tallies in the top of the sixth to take an 8-7 lead when Blair DeBord had an RBI groundout, Lance Miles hit an RBI single, and Ross Kivett plated two more runners with an RBI double. Baylor however would tie the game again in the bottom of the sixth on a wild pitch and regain the lead in the eighth on a hit batter with the bases loaded.
In the ninth inning, K-State would start its rally with one out and the bases empty. Davis’ two-run single put the Bat Cats ahead 10-9, King then scored on an infield hit and Miles hit a two-run single. After the Bears got their leadoff runner on in the bottom of the ninth, winning pitcher Gerardo Esquivel (1-2) induced a double-play grounder and finished things off with a strikeout to keep the Bat Cats unbeaten in Oklahoma City.
K-State will face Oklahoma Saturday at 12:30 p.m. with the winner advancing to Sunday’s Championship Game. The Sooners became the first team in the history of the tournament to start off with two straight shutouts when they blanked Texas Tech 8-0 earlier Friday. On the other side of the bracket West Virginia blasted TCU 10-3 and KU remained unbeaten in their pool after their 5-3 win over Oklahoma State.
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