Baylor knocks ORU out of NCAA

BY BRICE CHERRY World Correspondent
Monday, June 04, 2012
6/04/12 at 3:37 AM

WACO, Texas - When Logan Domenico led off Sunday's game by stroking a fastball for a double, Oral Roberts coach Rob Walton thought to himself, "Nice work. Way to stick to the plan."

Unfortunately for ORU, the rest of the Golden Eagle hitters didn't really follow Domenico's lead.

Baylor's Tyler Bremer tossed six solid innings to vault the top-seeded Bears past ORU 5-2, eliminating the Golden Eagles from the Waco Regional.

Baylor moved on to face Dallas Baptist Sunday night, then won to force a second game on Monday.

"The problem with our offense is that we can't stick to an approach," Walton said. "It was typical, even in the last inning where we have a 2-0 count (with Brandon King) and we swing at two balls out of the strike zone and pop one up. ... We struggled keeping our composure in the (batter's) box."

Bremer (7-1) limited ORU to five hits, striking out five and walking one. Mixing speeds and working both sides of the plate, Bremer consistently stayed ahead of the Golden Eagle hitters, retiring seven in a row at one point.

"If Bremer gets you early, we're poor at identifying breaking balls to begin with, and if he gets to two strikes, he's very difficult to handle," Walton said.

ORU (38-25) actually struck first, as Domenico opened the game with a double and then scored three batters later when Jose Trevino ripped an RBI single to left.

But Baylor (46-15) bounced back to take a 2-1 lead on Logan Vick's two-run single to left in the third.

Alex Gonzalez (6-3) was mostly effective for ORU on a hot afternoon, but encountered trouble in the seventh. Baylor's Jake Miller bunted, and Gonzalez made an errant throw to first. That led to the Bears tacking on two more runs, on a Vick infield chopper and a Josh Ludy RBI double.

"I didn't have my fastball command right away, but I just tried to work through it," Gonzalez said. "I was able to get out of it once in a while, but it just all caught up to me."

ORU cut the gap to 4-2 in the bottom of the seventh, but the rally stalled against Baylor reliever Crayton Bare, who notched his second save in as many days.

It marked only the third time in the last eight years that ORU hasn't at least reached the regional final.

Original Print Headline: Eagles eliminated by Baylor

Waco Regional

SCHEDULE

Friday

Game 1: No. 2 Dallas Baptist 10, No. 3 UT-Arlington 0

Game 2: No. 4 Oral Roberts 4, No. 1 Baylor 2

Saturday

Game 3: Baylor 11, UT-Arlington 6

Game 4: Dallas Baptist 11, Oral Roberts 8

Sunday

Game 5: Baylor 5, Oral Roberts 2

Game 6: Baylor 9, Dallas Baptist 2

Monday

Game 7: Dallas Baptist vs. Baylor, 6:30 p.m.

Associated Images:

Baylor's Dan Evatt slides safely into second as Oral Roberts' Nate Goro tries to make the tag during Sunday's game in Waco, Texas. DUANE A. LAVERTY / Associated Press