LEBANON, Tenn. – If anything could rival the impressiveness of Baylor’s back-to-back baseball state championships, it’s the dominance of the team’s postseason run.
In their past three Division II-AA tournament appearances – a span of eight straight games so far – the Red Raiders have yet to lose. In fact, no opponent has come within three runs of them.
That streak continued Wednesday as the prep version of the Big Red Machine rolled past rival McCallie 4-1 to advance to Thursday’s championship round.
“Too many times that sense of urgency for high school kids comes too late, but these guys know how to lock in when it matters,” said Baylor coach Greg Elie, whose team owns four wins in as many meetings with the Blue Tornado this season.
For the second straight day, Baylor (25-3) got a lights-out pitching performance from its starter as junior Patrick Johnson followed Jay Dill’s three-hit performance from the previous day with one of his own. Johnson struck out six batters and gave up one hit in each of the final three innings, including Carter Hewitt’s solo homer in the seventh.