| June 4, 2005 Baylor uses a pair of three-run innings to get past Roadrunners in NCAA Championship, 8-3 Box Score Afrer waiting an extra day to begin the regional competition, the Bears got three runs in the first inning and added another three-run inning in the fifth to race past UTSA. The Roadrunners, making their first appearance in an NCAA regional since 1994, fell to 27-33, getting a pair of three-hit nights from Ryan Crew and Stephen Holdren. The Bears, the number four national seed, improved to 40-21. UTSA, seeded fourth, will have little time to forget the loss and prepare for its next game. Due to the delay on Friday, tomorrow's first game is scheduled for 11 a.m. UTSA will meet Pac-10 foe and third seed Stanford, which dropped a 5-1 decision to second seed TCU earlier in the day. It will mark the first ever meeting with the perennial national contender team from Palo Alto, Cal.. "Baylor was able to put together some big innings, and while we got hits and guys in scoring position, we were just never able to get any multiple-run innings," said Roadrunner head coach Sherman Corbett. The Roadrunners registered nine hits on the night with six coming from the duo of Crew and Holdren. Crew, who was coming off being named MVP of the Southland Conference tournament last weekend, continued his hot streak, going 3-for-3 with his sixth home run and a double along with two RBIs. He is now 12-for-21 in his last five games. Holdren went 3-for-4, scored a run, and legged out his team-leading fifth triple of the season. But, UTSA did not have a winning answer for Baylor's Trey Taylor. The southpaw pitched a complete game and fanned 10 Roadrunner hitters. "He was awesome tonight. He made couple of mistakes and left a few up for me, and I took advantage of that," said Crew, who moved into third place in career hits with 228. "But, for the most part, he kept us guessing. Holdren felt the same way about the Baylor hurler. "We knew we were going to have to be good because we were facing one of the best pitchers in the nation tonight," he said. "When we had an opportunity, Taylor kept us off balance." UTSA senior starter Aaron Rodriguez surrendered six earned runs in 4.1 innings and was tagged with the loss to fall to 8-6. Taylor improved to 7-5. Rodriguez struck out four on the night, giving him 193 career strikeouts in his four-year UTSA stint. Sophomore Josh Ruffin tossed the final 3.2 innings and recorded four punch-outs as well. Josh Ford and Zach Dillon paced the Bears with two hits each, but it was Reid Brees' first-inning round-tripper that set the tone. It was Brees' only hit of the night, but he also had four RBIs. The Roadrunners grabbed a run back in the third as senior Sean Danielson singled to lead off and moved to second on a ground out. He scooted to third on a wild pitch and scored on Crew's sacrifice fly. Ford belted a homer to left field in the bottom half of the frame to make it 4-1, and Baylor tacked on three in the fifth for its biggest lead at 7-1. UTSA added a solo tally in the sixth as Holdren drilled the Roadrunners' 30th triple of the year to deep left field. He scored a batter later as senior Chris Lewis notched his 50th RBI of the year on a groundout to deep short. Baylor made it 8-2 in the seventh before the Roadrunners scored the game's final run in the eighth on Crew's long ball to left field. |