|
Baseball Advances to NCAA Super Regional
June 6, 2005 WACO, Texas - Seth Fortenberry hit a solo home run in the ninth to tie the game and Jeff Mandel hit the game-winning home run in the 12th as the top-seeded Baylor baseball team rallied for a 4-3 victory over Stanford to claim the championship of the NCAA Waco Regional. With the victory, Baylor improves to 42-21 on the season and advances to face Clemson in the NCAA Super Regional next weekend. Times and dates for the best-of-three series with the Tigers will be announced tonight. Stanford ends the season with a record of 34-25 after the loss. After a scoreless first three innings, the Cardinal took the lead in the fourth when Jed Lowrie hit his 14th home run of the season, a solo shot over the left-center field wall, as Stanford took a 1-0 lead. Baylor rallied for two runs in the fifth; however, to take a one-run lead. Fortenberry scored on a Paul Witt bunt single to tie the game and scored from second on a ground-out by Chase Gerdes to give the Bears a one-run lead. The Cardinal rallied to take the lead in the bottom of the sixth when Chris Lewis hit a two-run home run, his eighth of the season, as Stanford grabbed a 3-2 lead. After Baylor failed in the seventh and eighth, Fortenberry stepped up to the plate with one out in the ninth and hit a line-drive home run over the right field wall, his fourth of the season, to tie the contest and send it into extra innings. With both teams unable to score in the next two innings, Mandel broke the scoreless tie when he took the first pitch of the 12th inning over the left field wall for his first career home run as Baylor grabbed a 4-3 lead. The Cardinal loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the inning; however, Ryan LaMotta struck out Ben Summerhays to end the contest and send Baylor to the NCAA Super Regional round.
Mandel picked up the win for Baylor after allowing no runs on two hits three innings of work to improve to 3-0 on the season. Greg Reynolds suffered the tough-luck loss for Stanford after allowing four runs on ten hits in 11 innings of work and ended the season with a 2-3 record. Michael Griffin had three hits in the win for Baylor while John Hester collected three hits in the loss for Stanford. |
 |
