ROUND ROCK — It seems these days that every pitch Baylor throws turns to gold.

That’s been the case for the first five games, at least.

On Wednesday night, it was Texas State’s bats that were rendered nearly useless as the 25th-ranked Bears stayed unbeaten with a 5-1 win in the first-ever neutral-site game between the two schools in front of a crowd of 1,179 at the Dell Diamond.

Tyler Bremer got a predetermined four-inning start and blanked the Bobcats over that span, then turned it over to a bullpen of Trae Davis, Miles Landry and Dillon Newman.

“From a pitching standpoint, they’re getting after it,” Baylor coach Steve Smith said. “They’re aggressive and throwing a lot of strikes. I think they’re pitching with a lot of confidence. I see confidence on the mound. It’s one thing to be aggressive and try to throw first-pitch strikes, but it’s another thing to do it with some purpose. I’ve seen that a lot.”

The Baylor hurlers weren’t quite as dominant as they were Tuesday, when they no-hit No. 15 TCU for 7  2/3 innings. But they were just as effective when they needed to be.

Texas State pushed runners to third base with two outs, but Bremer struck out Isaac Nuti looking to end the second and fielded a check-swing grounder back to the box to squash the threat in the fourth.

“You can look back at different situations and say, ‘Hey, Texas State’s a great-hitting team,” Bremer said. “They’re always a great-hitting team, and the fact that I could work my way out of it definitely makes you feel good.”

The Bobcats broke up the shutout when Casey Kalenkosky doubled off the right-field wall to bring home Morgan Mickan with two outs in the eighth.

But Baylor was firmly in charge by that time, and Newman struck out the side in the ninth to keep the Bears’ incredible team ERA at 1.00.

Smith said the Bears’ pitching is contagious, and everyone seemingly has the bug.

“This is a pretty close group of guys, and they want to do well for each other,” Smith said. “It’s still early in the year, so nobody’s been emotionally tested too severely yet. But they’re still doing a really nice job to this point.”

The Bears jumped out to an early lead and never let it go.

Baylor opened the scoring in the top of the first when Josh Ludy’s flare landed just inside the right-field line and drove in Nathan Orf, who was hit by the second pitch of the game by Texas State starter Mitchell Pitts.

The Bears missed out on an opportunity to capitalize on Pitts’ early wildness, when he fanned back-to-back hitters to leave the bases loaded.

That started a streak in which Pitts (0-1) retired 10 straight Bears, but even during that span he created more work for himself by consistently falling behind batters. In the fifth, Pitts was seemingly out of gas, and Baylor began to tee off.

The levee breaks

“I think (Pitts) tired,” Smith said. “That’s his first outing this year. We got a couple chances early, and he got his changeup going, and he went to it. He’s got a really good one. He’s one of their best guys, if not their best guy. So you have to give him a ton of credit for getting out of that bases-loaded deal in the first. from that point, it was just hang on until he starts to tire and we can get enough looks at him. That game plan will work as long as you’re pitching well.”

Lawton Langford began a four-run rally with a solid single to left, and he was balked to second base. Adam Toth followed with an RBI double to center, before Orf singled to right with Toth moving to third on an error when Jeff McVaney’s throw got away on the infield. 

Cal Towey smashed a liner that McVaney caught, but it was enough to get Toth home and make it a 3-0 Baylor lead. Max Muncy then crushed the big blow of the inning, a run-scoring triple that landed just shy of the 407-foot marker in left-center. Muncy scored on a deep fly ball off the bat to centerfield to complete the rally and push the Bears out to a commanding 5-0 lead.

Ludy had Baylor’s only multihit night, going 2-for-4 with two runs driven in.

Baylor will travel to UCLA for a three-game set this weekend, starting with an 8 p.m. CST first pitch Friday.

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