Sunday's Sports Update: Baseball dominates Houston College Classic
Junior Jimmy Comerota slids in safely at home plate in the fourth inning, beating the relay from the outfield in Rice's 9-2 win over Houston in Wednesday's home opener. Comerota finished the game 2-3 with a run and an RBI.
The Owls captured their first Minute Maid College Classic Sunday afternoon with an 8-3 victory over #6 Baylor. Led by a strong performance from freshman starting pitcher Taylor Wall, the Owls capitalized on a number of errors and mental miscues made by the Bears.
Wall did his best Ryan Berry impression and picked up the win after allowing just one run and three hits in 6.1 innings of work. Wall entered the game with an ERA over eight, but was in full command of all three of his pitches and struck out a career-high eight batters.
Sophomore pitcher Craig Fritsch started the game for the Bears. The talented right-hander attracted a large contingent of scouts to the game, but the majority left early when he struggled on his first trip through the Owl lineup.
In the second inning, the Owls sent seven batters to the plate and scored 3 runs, 2 of them after a fielding error on the Bears. Both of the batters walked by Fritsch in the inning scored.
Fritsch would settle down in the third and fourth frames when he retired six Owl batters in a row, but ran into trouble again in the 5th.
With two on and two out, freshman third-baseman Anthony Rendon cleared the bases with a 3-run line drive homerun that landed in the Baylor bullpen in left-center field.
The homerun was Rendon's second of the season.
The Bear's went to their bullpen shortly thereafter and pulled Fritsch in the bottom of the 6th inning after allowing 6 runs on seven hits to go along with seven strikeouts.
Rendon knocked in his fourth RBI in the bottom of the 7th on a fly ball to the base of the infamous hill in center field, deep enough for the Owl runner to tag from third.
Wall had one spot of trouble in the 3rd inning but was bailed out on a fantastic diving catch by freshman left fielder Jeremy Rathjen. The Owls doubled up the Bears on the play when the Baylor runner took off for third after mistaking the catch for a trap ball. Wall escaped the inning after allowing only one run and was not in any trouble when he was pulled from the game.
With the win, the Owls improve to 5-2 overall.
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