Fans of the Baylor-McCallie baseball rivalry occupied just about every nook and cranny with a visible sightline Monday night as the Red Raiders celebrated their seniors.
All totaled nine Baylor seniors were recognized before the game, and it would not have come as any surprise to see every McCallie fan applaud knowing time is nearing an end for so many of the boys in red who have absolutely tortured the boys in blue since arriving on campus.
Baylor won its 11th straight game against McCallie, and did it in a way that has become a staple for this year’s Red Raiders, lashing out extra base hit after extra base hit in a 10-0 shutout of their rivals.
All told, there was not a single player in red who has experienced a loss at the hands of McCallie.
“I have two older sisters who went to Baylor and I’ve been here for the past seven years and it’s been engrained in us to go beat the blue team. There was a lot of energy tonight, and we fed off the big crowd. It felt good,” said pitcher Jay Dill, who struck out eight and allowed just two hits in the shutout.
“It’s one more step towards getting to our goal and that’s what matters, but everyone knows what this game means. It’s a fun one to play,” said Baylor coach Greg Ellie.
And Baylor has its most fun in the batter’s box, and last night was no exception. The Red Raiders collected seven extra base knocks, including a pair of impressive homers which had just two things in common: they were both crushed and they both landed on the other side of the fence.
The first one, courtesy of Nick Kurtz, might have broken the fence if it had been about foot lower. The line drive slipped just inside the right field pole and never got higher than said foot above the fence.
“The ball (Nick) Kurtz hit was about as hard as any ball we have barreled this year,” added Ellie.
And make no mistake; Baylor has barreled some balls this year. In fact, of the 197 hits collected on the year, almost half of them have gone for extra base hits (90), including 31 homers and 54 doubles on the season.
McCallie almost used the same recipe in the first inning when Kyle Berry tripled on the second pitch of the game, but was left stranded when Dill struck out two and got a comebacker to the mound.
Baylor quickly went to work in the first as Danny Corona reached on an infield single before Cooper Kinney ripped a double in the gap to plate him. After a wild pitch advanced Kinney, Kurtz’ grounder made it 2-0. A pair of two-out doubles by Henry Godbout and Corona in the second pushed across two more to make it 4-0 with Corona two of his four RBI on the night with his swing. Godbout and Corona teamed up again in the fourth with Godbout just missing a homer that ricocheted off the wall for a triple and Corona doubled for his third hit in front of his parents who were in town from New York for the celebration.
“It was fun. We prepared really well for tonight and it was nice having the folks here. Now it’s time to go back out and do it again tomorrow,” said Corona, the Wake Forest signee.
Kurtz led off the fifth with his laser shot and it ignited a four-run outburst to make it 9-0. A single by Henry Herndon, and a bunt single by Jonathan Larrea was followed by a wlak to load the bases, and Godbout laced a double to push across two and Corona’s deep sac fly got the other one in.
Which brings us to the second homer of the night: an absolute moon shot off the bat of Vito Valincius to dead center field where it cleared the batter’s eye easily. It was Valincius’ team-leading seventh homer of the year and made it 10-0 to end the bout. It was the eighth time in the last nine games Baylor has scored in double digits and the tenth time this year.
“We don’t go up there looking for homers or to hit fly balls, but we do preach gaps, and we have done a good job barreling up some pitches tonight and recently,” said Baylor coach Mike Kinney.
Dill in the meantime only allowed one more hit after the leadoff triple to Berry as Nolan Sergeant singled up the middle in the third. Dill retired the final eight and has allowed just six hits in his last five starts with no runs allowed.
William Baker struck out six for the Blue Tornado, who fall to 18-4. Baylor improved to 18-3 and can clinch the region title with a win today when the two teams meet at McCallie.
MCCALLIE 000 000 – 0 2 0
BAYLOR 220 141 – 10 13 1
Baker, Winnie (6) and Zahrobsky; Dill and Larrea.
(Contact James Beach at 1134james@gmail.com)