Lumberjacks Fall to Bears

Tuesday, February 25

Waco, TX

6:30 PM

Stephen F. Austin

4-5

Baylor University

7-1

SFA

Baylor

2/25/2025 9:24:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Peter Trainor, Student Assistant for Strategic Communications

WACO, Texas – The Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks Baseball Team (4-5, 0-0 SLC) fell on the road to the Baylor University Bears (7-1, 0-0 Big 12) by a final score of 9-4 on Tuesday evening.

The Bears would get on the board in the bottom of the first with an RBI double and RBI single to take an early 2-0 lead. Baylor would tack on one more run in the bottom of the second off a sacrifice fly to hold a 3-0 lead after three full innings of play.

The Lumberjack offense came firing back in the top of the fourth, however, as Jackson Benattar would reach on an error, Josh Ibe would be hit by a pitch, and Julian Swift would reach on a second Baylor error to load the bases for SFA. River Curs would step in and work a full 3-2 count before also being hit by a pitch to score Benattar from third and make the score 3-1 in favor of Baylor.

Kevin Duran stepped in with the bases still juiced and wasted no time as he smoked the first pitch he saw from Carson Bailey into the right-center field gap for a bases-clearing double, scoring Curs, Swift, and Ibe to launch SFA in the lead 4-3. The Bears would threaten in the bottom of the fourth putting a pair of runners on with only one out, but Hayden Tronson would come in out of the 'pen and needed just three pitches to induce a flyout and groundout from the Bears to strand two runners and keep SFA in the lead 4-3 after four full innings.

The Bears would once again threaten in the bottom of the fifth, loading the bases with only one out. However, Hayden Tronson and the SFA defense would once again be up to the task as Tronson got Will Pendergrass to lineout to Dylan Hummel at shortstop, which allowed Hummel to flip the ball to Kevin Duran at second base, doubling off Hunter Simmons at second on the hotshot lineout and getting SFA out of the jam with their 4-3 lead still intact after five full innings.

The Bears would respond in the bottom half of the sixth as they would plate four runs and take a 7-4 lead over SFA after six full innings. Baylor would add on two more runs in the bottom of the eighth and held a 9-4 lead after eight full innings. River Curs would hit a two-out stand-up triple for SFA in the top of the ninth, however the Lumberjacks would be unable to find the equalizing runs and eventually fell 9-4 to Baylor.

Hayden Tronson (0-2) took the loss for SFA, while Grayson Murry (1-0) was credited with the win for the Bears

Top Lumberjacks of the Game:

Kevin Duran: 1-4: 2B, 3 RBI
River Curs: 1-3, 3B, HBP, R, RBI
Dante Turgeon: 1-3, 2B, BB
Jonathan Valdez: 1.1 IP, K
Reid Boyett: 1.1 IP, K
Jack James: 1.0 IP, 2 K

On Deck:
The Lumberjacks return home for their second home series of the season as they get set to kick-off conference play, hosting the New Orleans University Privateers in a three-game weekend series at Pilgrim's Park. The series will run Friday, February 28th-Sunday March 2nd, with first pitch for the series opener against the Privateers on Friday set for 6:05 p.m. CST at Pilgrim's Park.

Ticket Information:

Join SFA Baseball at Pilgrim's Park this season! Single-game tickets are on sale now. Fans can visit SFAtickets.com for more information.

Follow the Lumberjacks:

For all the latest information on SFA Baseball, visit SFAjacks.com. For up-to-the-minute updates, follow the Lumberjacks on X, Instagram and Facebook.