On a hot Houston afternoon the NCAA Baseball Regionals began with matchup of the Baylor Bears and the Cal Golden Bears at Reckling Park. It was slated to be a matchup of two of the hottest pitchers in the NCAA, Erik Johnson for Cal and Logan Verrett for Baylor, but Johnson’s lack of control gave Baylor and early lead, and eventually put Cal away by a score of 6-4.
Johnson struggled with most of his pitches today, taking the loss while walking six batters in only two and 1/3 innings of work after giving up five earned runs on only three hits. Logan Scott allowed another run in the third in relief, but besides that, was very solid in his three innings of duty. Joey Donorfio and Matt Flemer kept Baylor scoreless the rest of the way, allowing Cal to stage their comeback.
After a Marcus Semien triple in the seventh, Chad Bunting plated him with a grounder to short. Then Cal got in a groove in the eighth after Chadd Krist’s RBI single plated Austin Booker, then Semien scored Tony Renda on a single to right. Devin Rodriguez kept the rally going with another RBI single, but unfortunately it would end there as Baylor would ultimately prevail.
Logan Verrett was the winning pitcher for Baylor, lasting for seven and 1/3 innings while allowing three runs on seven hits with two walks and four punch outs. Shortstop Landis Ware was 1-3 with two RBI, while first baseman Max Muncy was 1-4 with an RBI as well.
Full box score can be found here.
Cal will go on to play the loser of the Rice/Alcorn State game at noon PT Saturday, with only one loss left to give before being eliminated from the tournament. Coverage can be found on KALX 90.7 FM.