Homer-Happy Baylor Wins 10-6 Slugfest With McCallie

Kinney, Corona, Kurtz, Ahearn All Go Deep As Red Raiders Stay Unbeaten At 6-0

  • Wednesday, March 20, 2019
  • John Hunt

If you were looking for a pitcher’s dual, McCallie’s baseball field wasn’t the place to be Wednesday night.

If you wanted to see a lot of offense and a bunch of home runs, then maybe you should have come.

Whatever the case, Baylor remained unbeaten after scoring 10 runs for the second straight day.

Improving to 6-0 overall and 5-0 in region play, four different Red Raiders had homers as Baylor came from behind to win, 10-6.

“It was a little crazy out there, but just another typical Baylor-McCallie baseball game,” said Baylor coach Greg Elie following the contest where there were 16 runs and 17 hits, but no errors by either team.

“We have some guys who can hit the long ball and it was fun to watch four all hit home runs.  I thought Colin pitched a great game and Nick Kurtz did a nice job of filling the gap in his relief.  Then sophomore Luke Courdin came in at the end and got three big outs.

“This game swings both ways, so kudos to McCallie for answering our big inning with one of their own.  Now we just need to come back over tomorrow to win the last one,” Elie added.

Baylor was the home team in this game since their home field is unplayable right now.

The Blue Tornado didn’t waste any time taking the lead as Dane Beard’s triple plated Daulton Payne, who had singled with one out.

Baylor took the lead in the bottom of the first when Cooper Kinney ripped a two-run homer to center, scoring Danny Corona, who had singled.

Payne singled in the third and Beard drove him in again with a single to knot the score before Baylor took the lead for good at 3-2 following Corona’s solo homer in the bottom of the third.

The Red Raiders then took control in the fourth when they batted around and scored six runs.

Christian Martin led off with single and scored ahead of a two-run homer by Nick Kurtz.  Taylor Shahan then singled before winning pitcher Colin Ahearn ripped a two-run homer.  Kinney completed the scoring with a two-run single to right.

With Baylor leading 9-2 and cruising to another win, McCallie made things interesting with three runs in the fifth and another in the sixth.

Daalen Adderley singled to lead off and went to third on back-to-back wild pitches.  He then scored on a double steal as he beat the throw home after Chase Roberts stole second.  Roberts later scored on another wild pitch while Gray Glover’s grounder to third scored Beard, who had doubled.

Then in the sixth, catcher Carter Edge ripped a solo homer to left to lead off to cut the gap to 10-6, but that was all McCallie got as Kurtz was able to escape any further damage.

Then in the seventh, Courdin got Kahler Youngblood on a grounder to second before Kristopher Bowman and Grayson Jones both flied to left to end the game.

McCallie coach Tim Costo was just happy that his team kept battling and never tossed in the white towel.

“We could easily have laid down after their six-run inning, but we kept plugging away and I’m most proud of that,” Costo said after his team dropped to 1-4 overall and the same in region play for the season.

“It’s tough to compete when the other team hits four home runs, but I thought we competed at the plate and played really good defense.  They just happened to score more runs than we did.

“We’re a much better team than our record and I’m hoping we can come back and win tomorrow’s third game,” he concluded.

Baylor finished the game with 10 hits. 

Corona had three while Kinney and Ahearn both had two each.

Beard had three to lead the Blue Tornado while Payne had two hits and scored twice.

Ahearn, the junior southpaw, was the winning pitcher after allowing five runs on six hits.  He struck out seven and walked three before being replaced by Kurtz with one out in the fifth.

Beard suffered the loss after allowing seven runs on seven hits.  He also had four strikeouts with no walks.

McCALLIE  101 031 0 – 6 7 0

BAYLOR  201 610 x – 10 10 0

Beard, Bowman and Edge; Ahearn, Kurtz (5), Courdin (7) and Kinney, Ebel (5).

(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)

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