May 15, 2007

Box Score

HOUSTON, Texas -- Freshman right-hander Willie Kempf looked strong in his first career start, but Baylor's bullpen could not keep the game close as the Bears dropped a 13-0 decision at No. 2 Rice in Tuesday night action at Reckling Park. Baylor (28-24) suffered its first shutout since a 7-0 loss to Rice (42-11) in the season's second game.

Kempf (1-2) suffered the tough-luck loss, despite being the most effective of Baylor's six pitchers. The Castroville, Texas, native allowed two runs on five hits and two walks with two strikeouts over 5.0 innings. However, the Bears' bullpen allowed three runs in the sixth, six runs in the seventh and two runs in the eighth.

Meanwhile, Rice starter Chris Kelley (3-2) escaped jams in the first, second and fourth innings and joined with two relievers for the shutout. Kelley allowed four hits and three walks with seven strikeouts over 6.0 innings. Ryne Tacker, Ryan Price and Cole St. Clair pitched a scoreless inning each to close out the game.

Joe Savery broke a scoreless tie with an RBI single up the middle in the fourth. After a single and a walk loaded the bases, Danny Lehmann plated the Owls' second run of the inning with a sacrifice fly. Kempf held Rice scoreless in the fifth before giving way to Cliff Springston in the sixth. The Owls sent eight batters to the plate in the sixth and 10 to the plate in the seventh en route to the 13-0 win.

The Bears had five hits on the night; Shaver Hansen produced the only two-hit game for the Bears, going 2-for-2 with a double and a walk.

Baylor concludes the regular season this weekend with a three-game Big 12 Conference series against Kansas State this weekend at Baylor Ballpark. The Bears and the Wildcats meet Friday at 6:30 p.m. CDT, Saturday at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. Baylor enters the weekend series one-and-a-half games behind Kansas State in the Big 12 standings.

NOTES:  Baylor leads the all-time series 125-86-1; this is the fourth most-played series in Baylor baseball history. Rice holds a 50-44-1 advantage in games played on the Rice campus. The Owls have won six straight and 11 of the last 12 meetings. ... Matt Czimskey (13 games) and Raynor Campbell (10 games) both extended career-long hitting streaks. Czimskey's is the longest by a Bear this season. Dickerson also extended his hitting streak to five games. Ben Booker saw his career-long tying eight-game streak end, and Chase Gerdes' three-game run halted.