Go Bears!
GO Bears!
Go Bears!
Game of Inches: No. 25 Baseball Falls 1-0 to UCI
Diving catch in center sends Bears to seventh one-run loss.
RHP Sean Walker matched his career high with seven strikeouts Sunday against UC Irvine.

RHP Sean Walker matched his career high with seven strikeouts Sunday against UC Irvine.

March 7, 2004

Box Score

WACO, Texas - UC Irvine center fielder Erik Johnson made a diving catch on Kyle Reynolds' dying Texas Leaguer to end an eighth-inning Baylor rally and preserve a 1-0 victory for the Anteaters over the 25th-ranked Bears here Sunday.

With the victory, Irvine (12-3-1) won for the 11th time in its last 12 games and swept the three-game weekend series. It marks the first time Baylor (4-10) has been swept at home in a three-game non-conference series since McNeese State pulled the feat at Ferrell Field in 1994.

With runners at first and second, Reynolds lifted a 1-1 David Huff pitch into no-man's land in shallow left-center. However, Johnson made up for an 0-for-4, two-strikeout day at the plate with a diving snag on a ball that would have scored Seth Fortenberry from second had it dropped.

"Baseball is a game of inches," Baylor head coach Steve Smith said. "Right now, we're just on the wrong end of the ruler."

Irvine closer Blair Erickson pitched a perfect ninth with two strikeouts for his eighth save of the season and third of the weekend. Baylor has now lost seven consecutive one-run games, including all three losses against Irvine.

The Anteaters got their one run in the top of the first, thanks to doubles by Matt Fisher and Mark Wagner.

That spoiled one of the best outings of Baylor starter Sean Walker's career as he tossed his second career complete game. Walker (0-2) scattered seven hits with one walk and tied his career high with seven strikeouts. After a pair of one-out hits in the third, Walker settled into a groove, allowing just two hits the rest of the way and retiring the final 15 batters after a Brett Dalton lead-off single in the fifth.

However, UC Irvine starter Chris Nicoll (2-0) was one pitch better, tossing 7.2 shutout innings; he allowed four hits and walked two with three strikeouts. Baylor's two base runners in the eighth were the Bears' only two after the fourth inning.

 

 

Baylor returns to action Tuesday, traveling to Arlington, Texas for a 6:30 p.m. CST game against Texas-Arlington at Clay Gould Ballpark.

NOTES: The Baylor-UC Irvine series is now tied 3-3. The home team has never won a game in this series. ... Baylor falls to 2-7 this season in one-run games. The Bears have dropped seven straight such contests. ... With a walk in the fourth, Mike Heldoorn has reached base safely in seven consecutive games. ... Mike Pankratz extended his career-best hitting streak to five games with his second-inning single. That matches Drew Sutton's season-opening five-game run as the Bears' longest hitting streak of the season.