Through five innings Thursday night, McCallie had played almost error-free baseball to battle back and even the score against rival Baylor. Then came the sixth, when Baylor's first two batters reached on error and, as Blue Tornado coach Tim Costo later described the inning, "things just snowballed."
The snowball was four errors that helped the Red Raiders bury host McCallie under an avalanche of seven runs and pull away for an 8-2 win in Division II-AA East/Middle Region play. Baylor sent 11 batters to the plate in the sixth to take the opener of a three-game series with the Blue Tornado.
"I told the guys to just keep taking aggressive hacks," Baylor coach Greg Elie said. "Put the ball in play and apply some pressure to them, and let's see what happens. It finally paid off there with a big inning.
"To get the win in the first game of a series like this is always big. I'm proud of the way our guys battled."
Baylor (13-2, 8-1) wasted little time taking aggressive hacks as leadoff batter Bradley Garland drilled the second pitch he saw over the fence in right field.
The Blue Tornado (7-7, 3-6) rallied to tie in the fourth on Andrew Natter's single that scored Max Riemer, who had walked to lead off the inning. Baylor's Stan King was robbed of a go-ahead home run in the fifth when Landon Lewis leaped high to grab the ball just before it cleared the short fence in right.
But after that spectacular play, McCallie's defense opened the door for Baylor's big inning.
Senior right-hander Alex Butler earned the win with five strong innings, allowing four hits and striking out six before sophomore left-hander Gage Johnson came on with the bases loaded and no one out in the home half of the sixth. Johnson then closed out the final two innings.
"Getting that early lead was really big because it allowed me to just settle down, calm the adrenaline and focus on throwing strikes," said Butler, who improved to 4-1. "I had confidence that we would get some more runs, and we eventually did. This win definitely sets the tone for what we want to do the rest of the series."
Baylor senior Teddy Lepcio had an RBI single down the right-field line in the sixth, and after back-t0-back singles from Christian Martin and Cooper Kinney to load the bases, Baylor got two more runs on a two-out error, followed by an RBI hit from King.
The teams will play again today at Baylor and finish the series Saturday afternoon at McCallie.
"We are a much better team than we showed in the sixth," Costo said. "But the beautiful thing about this game is we get to wipe the slate clean and come back out with another shot tomorrow."
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.