Morris, Bloxom Pace Cats in 9-4 Win
May 22, 2009 | Baseball
With the win, K-State (41-15-1) moved to 2-0 in the tournament and will face
Morris (13-1) went 6.2 innings Thursday against the Bears, scattering nine hits and allowing four runs, while striking out seven and walking four. The junior battled all evening to earn his 13th victory of the season, tying for fifth place in Big 12 history for single-season wins.
Bloxom paced the Wildcats with a three-RBI game in a 2-for-4 effort. The junior hit his ninth home run of the season, a towering shot that left the stadium over the wall in right field. Nick Martini also tallied a two-hit game as the freshman was 2-for-5 with a stolen base.
K-State was able to strike in the first inning after an Adam Muenster single up the middle and a double down the left-field line by Martini put runners on second and third. Bloxom was next and dumped a 2-2 pitch into right-center to give the Cats a 2-0 lead.
Morris was able to work around a Dan Evatt leadoff double in the second as he struck out the next two batters and forced a fly out to escape the early threat.
Baylor was able to get a run back in the second inning when Joey Hainsfurther singled and went to third on a ground out and a fly out. Shaver Hansen was next and roped a single into center field to plate the Bears’ first run.
Jordan Cruz then worked a walk before Rob Vaughn drove home Biery on a single to center field for a 3-1 lead and moved Cruz to third.
The Wildcats then took advantage of a Baylor fielding error when Dane Yelovich attempted a safety squeeze that was bunted back to Willie Kempf. The Baylor hurler forced Cruz back to third base, but Kempf’s throw went down the left-field line, allowing both Cruz and Vaughn to score and push the lead to 5-1.
The K-State lead swelled to five in the seventh frame when Martini singled and Bloxom walked with two outs. Jason King was next and pulled a 2-1 pitch down the right-field line for a triple to extend the lead to 7-1.
The Bears would get back into the game with three runs in the bottom half of the seventh as Baylor sent eight men to the plate. BU loaded the bases to begin the inning on a pair of singles and a walk before Morris uncorked a wild pitch to plate one run.
Following a strikeout, Aaron Miller drove home a run on a groundout before another Morris wild pitch scored the third run of the inning.
Kempf (4-5) was saddled with the loss for Baylor after giving up five runs on seven hits in 4.0 innings of work.
Following a day off on Friday,
