Box Score

The Dallas Baptist 2012 season came to an end Monday night in the same spot that saw the program take a step forward in 2011 – an NCAA Regional Championship game. The Patriots fell 8-2 to Baylor in the Waco Regional with Freshman Cy Sneed (8-5) taking the loss and Baylor reliever Dillon Newman picking up the win. With the loss, DBU falls to (41-19) on the year while Baylor continues their season by hosting the Super Regional round of play against Arkansas.

After a clean first inning by Sneed, Dallas Baptist opened the scoring in their half of the first. Ronnie Mitchell was hit by a Josh Turley pitch and Boomer Collins shot a groundball through the right side to move him to third. Joel Hutter then lined a pitch into left field to score Mitchell and DBU had an early lead.

That lead would not last through the second, though. The first three batters of the inning reached on Sneed and after getting Lawton Langford to fly out to shallow left with the bases loaded, Sneed got a second out on a sacrifice fly that tied the score. Looking to limit the damage and keep the score tied,  however, Sneed walked a batter and hit a batter before being lifted in favor of Aaron Gilbreath. Gilbreath would walk the first batter he faced in the inning and Baylor had scored three runs before the inning was complete.

The Patriots would get one of those runs back in the third thanks to three singles in the inning. Mitchell reached with one out before Hutter and Ryan Behmanesh both singled with two outs. The score would remain 3-2 until the sixth inning when Michael Smith, pitching for DBU, hit Langford to begin the inning with an 0-2 pitch. The Bears would sacrifice Langford to second and he would score two batters later on a Nathan Orf single to right field with two outs.

Baylor added two more runs in the seventh and two in the ninth – a hill the Patriots would not be able to climb. With the loss, the Dallas Baptist season comes to an end with their second straight Regional Championship appearance. The 2013 season will begin with a new ballpark, a new conference, and a chance to return on the Road to Omaha.

Waco Regional All-Tournament Team

P - Taylor Massey, Dallas Baptist
P - Austin Stone, Baylor
C - Josh Ludy, Baylor
1B - Ryan Behmanesh, Dallas Baptist
2B - Lawton Langford, Baylor
SS - Jake Miller, Baylor
3B - Cal Towey, Baylor
OF - Dan Evatt, Baylor (MOP)
OF - Ronnie Mitchell, Dallas Baptist
OF - Landon Anderson, Dallas Baptist
DH - Brandon Healy, Oral Roberts