Baylor’s Henry Godbout waits for the pitch off second base.
photo by M.A. Locke
The Baylor baseball team has a lot of offensive firepower and they took advantage of it Saturday night at home on Wyatt McMahan Field in an 8-2 victory over the Silverdale Seahawks.
These two teams play in different classifications in Division II, but Saturday’s game was a battle between two teams who have had great seasons so far and are expected to do well in the post-season.
It was a close game for a while as Silverdale had a 3-2 lead early, but the Baylor bats finally came to life and the Red Raiders pulled away with seven runs in the final three innings.
Junior Jonathan Larrea normally catches for Baylor, but he got his first start as pitcher on Saturday and he made the most of it, getting the win after allowing two runs on three hits in four innings of work.
The Red Raiders had a leadoff hit in each of the first four innings, but they didn’t really produce any runs until they swatted three home runs at the end.
Baylor coach Greg Elie knew it would be a close game, but he also has a lot of confidence in his team’s ability to hit and he knew it was just a matter of time before the scoring began.
“That was a good game as Silverdale has an outstanding team. Lance (Rorex) is a really good coach and is doing great things with them and I can promise you they will cause problems for teams in their classification,” Elie began shortly after the game ended.
“That’s about what we expected. We drive the baseball and runs often come in bunches. But Jonathan Larrea got his first chance to start and did an outstanding job. He’s a bulldog behind the plate and that’s the same approach he takes when he’s pitching, but Jacob Smith came in and closed the door at the end,” the veteran coach added.
Silverdale’s Rorex was all smiles when the game ended.
“I love my guys as they play the game of baseball the way it’s meant to be played. I thought we bunted well today and did some situational stuff well and our pitcher Brody Lamb was in a zone. But Baylor can hit and I think we may have left too many fastballs out over the plate,” he began.
“We’ll continue to work, but these guys just have to trust the process. But I’m sure we got better today as we competed with a really good team. I love the direction we’re heading,” Rorex added.
Henry Godbout singled to lead off Baylor’s half of the first inning and later scored on a wild pitch while Eric Boggess singled to lead off the Silverdale third and eventually scored on a double steal. Cam Mullins reached on an error to lead off for the Seahawks in the fourth and scored the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly to left by Bryson Cline, but that lead didn’t last long as Baylor regained the advantage in the bottom of the fourth.
Carson Yates ripped a leadoff double to left-center and scored ahead of a two-run homer by Jay Dill.
Vito Valincius made it 4-2 with a run-scoring single in the fifth as Cooper Kinney scored following a two-out double.
It was still anybody’s game at that point, before Baylor batted around in the sixth and scored four more runs to put the game out of reach.
Hunter Herndon ripped a solo homer to lead off while shortstop Danny Corona hit a three-run homer down the line in right to score Patrick Johnson and Godbout, who had reached with a single and double, respectively.
Smith, who allowed just one hit in the final three innings, then got the Seahawks in order in the seventh to end the game.
Larrea was the winning pitcher after allowing the two runs on three hits. He also struck out three and hit one. The only hit Smith allowed was a leadoff single to Ian Reagan to lead off the sixth.
Southpaw Brody Lamb took the loss after allowing four runs on seven hits in five innings. He also walked three and struck out two. Relief pitcher Sebastian Hanks surrendered the final four runs in the sixth on five hits and a walk. He also had one strikeout.
Godbout, Yates and Johnson all had two hits for Baylor while Reagan was the only Silverdale player with two.
Baylor improves to 10-2 with the win and will be at home again on Monday to face Chattanooga Christian. The Seahawks are now 12-2-1 and face rival Notre Dame at home on Monday.
SILVERDALE 001 100 0 – 2 4 2
BAYLOR 100 214 x – 8 12 4
Lamb, Hanks (6) and Reagan; Larrea, Smith (5) and Kinney.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)