ARLINGTON, Texas — If No. 8 seed Baylor is going to make a run to steal the Big 12's automatic big to the NCAA Tournament, it's going to have a long road there.
Wednesday, No. 1 seed TCU beat the Bears 4-2 in the first round of the Big 12 Conference Tournament at Globe Life Field in Arlington.
A 2-run eighth inning kept the regular-season champion Horned Frogs in the top bracket. With nobody out in the eighth, a wild pitch from Grant Golomb scored Tommy Sacco to give TCU its first lead of the day. Then, Kurtis Byrne hit an RBI line drive in to left field to make it 4-2.
Baylor opened the scoring almost immediately, Wednesday, with Kyle Nevin following a Tre Richardson double by hitting a 2-out triple to take the lead.
The game would stay 1-0 in to the sixth. In the Baylor half, Antonio Valdez hit a hard grounder in to right field to scored Richardson from second base and extend the lead to 2-0.
The Horned Frogs hopped back in the bottom half, though. Bobby Goodloe hit an RBI double to right center field to get TCU on the board and David Bishop following it with an RBI sac fly to left field to tie the game, 2-2.
Blake Helton was solid for the Bears on the mound, going 6.1 innings and striking out seven while allowing five hits and a pair of runs. He was pulled after a one-out double in the TCU 7th.
The Bears will face No. 4 seed Oklahoma State at 9 a.m. Thursday in the elimination bracket of the tournament. It'll be their fourth meeting in eight days.
The Cowboys lost 4-0 to Texas in the first game Wednesday.
TCU will face the Longhorns at 4 p.m. Thursday.
