May 3, 2005
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#8 BAYLOR (45-9, 11-6) at #4 TEXAS A&M (42-6, 13-4)
May 4, 2005, 6:30 p.m.
Aggie Softball Complex - College Station, Texas
THE SERIES
Baylor vs. Texas A&M: Texas A&M leads 37-12-1
Waco, Texas: Texas A&M leads 14-7
College Station, Texas: Texas A&M leads 15-3-1
Neutral: Texas A&M leads 8-2
Streak: Texas A&M won 1
Last Meeting: Texas A&M 7, Baylor 1 (3/23/05)
LIVE COVERAGE
Radio: None
Live Audio: Fox Sports Radio 1580 AM
Live Stats: www.BaylorBears.com
Television: None
No. 8 Baylor (45-9, 11-6) closes out the regular season when the Lady Bears travel to College Station, Texas, to face No. 4 Texas A&M (42-6, 13-4), the 2005 Big 12 Conference regular season champion, on Wednesday, May 4, at 6:30 p.m.
The contest with the Aggies will determine where Baylor will finish in the final Big 12 Conference standings. A win over Texas A&M will move the Lady Bears into a tie for second-place with Oklahoma and will give Baylor the third seed in the upcoming Big 12 Conference Tournament. Should Baylor lose in the season finale, the Lady Bears will finish fourth in the standings and earn the four-seed in the upcoming tournament.
Baylor and Texas A&M opened up the 2005 conference season on March 23, 2005, as the Aggies claimed a 7-1 win over the Lady Bears at Getterman Stadium. Texas A&M owns a 37-12-1 edge in the series and are 15-3-1 all-time against Baylor at the Aggie Softball Complex.
SCOUTING TEXAS A&M
Texas A&M enters the season finale with the Lady Bears as the Big 12 Conference regular season champions and has earned the top seed in the upcoming Big 12 Conference Tournament. However, the Aggies enter the contest with the Lady Bears riding a two-game losing streak after suffering a pair of tough losses at Missouri last weekend.
The Aggies, who lead the Big 12 Conference and the nation with a .342 team batting average, are led at the plate by standout freshman Amanda Scarborough. In her first season, Scarborough leads the team with a .413 average and also ranks ninth in the conference with 11 home runs on the year. Another freshman, Megan Gibson, has also had an outstanding year-to-date for the Aggies, as she ranks second on the team and ninth in the conference with an average of .391 on the season. The freshman also leads the league in home runs with 16 on the season.
Scarborough also has had an outstanding year in the circle for the Aggies as she leads the team with a perfect 25-1 record on the season. The freshman ranks second in the conference with a 0.62 ERA and has held opponents to a .147 batting average in 169.1 innings of work.
Emily Gipe ADDED TO BAYLOR ROSTER
Emily Gipe, a senior from Waco, Texas, is a late addition to the 2005 Baylor softball roster as the infielder joins the team to serve primarily as a pinch-runner in late-game situations. The senior will provide immediate help on the base-paths for the Lady Bears as she has been clocked in a time of 2.69 seconds from third-to-home, one of the fastest times on the team.
The 5-8 senior joins the Lady Bears after serving as a student intern in the Baylor Athletics marketing office for the past season, where her primary duty was to help with the marketing efforts for the Baylor softball team.
Gipe graduated in 2001 from Midway High School where she lettered in basketball for four seasons and helped lead the team to the regional semifinals her junior and senior seasons. The senior played for the junior varsity softball team her freshman and sophomore seasons and played summer softball with the Waco Stars, coached by her father, Jamie Gipe.
The senior scored her first career run in the 11-3 win over Iowa State on May 1, 2004, when Tessa Lynam hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning of the win.
LAKE SETS PAIR OF SINGLE SEASON RECORDS
In a year that has seen a number of single season team and individual batting records fall, sophomore Chelsi Lake has provided the biggest spark for the Lady Bears at the plate. Heading into this week's action, Lake ranks near the top in three key categories as she ranks third on the Lady Bears with a .372 batting average and ranks first with 15 home runs and 59 RBI.
The designated player's 15 home runs and 59 RBI have already established new single season records at Baylor, surpassing the 11 home runs hit by Bri Chambliss in 1997 and 40 RBI by Kristin Barton in 1996.
BAYLOR PASSES HOME RUN AND RUNS MILESTONES
Fifty-four games into the 2005 season, this year's version of the Lady Bears have already established new school records for most home runs and runs scored in a season. Through 54 games this season, Baylor has blasted 50 home runs, surpassing the 27 home runs hit by the 2002 squad as the most in a single season. Chelsi Lake leads the team and is second in the conference with 15 home runs on the season with Stephanie Pomes second on the team with 13 home runs. Currently, Baylor is fourth in the conference in the category.
This year's version of the Lady Bears have also established a new single-season runs scored record as well. Through 54 games, Baylor has scored 339 runs, an average of 6.28 runs per game, surpassing the 1996 squad (249 runs) for the most runs in a single-season in school history.
OSBURN AND POMES SET CAREER HOME RUN MARK
While the team shattered the school single-season home run record, a pair of Baylor players have reached the career Lady Bears milestone.
Kelly Osburn established a new Baylor career home run mark with the 21st home run of her career in the 18-3 win over Oklahoma Christian. On a 1-2 pitch from Lindsey Lawson to lead-off the second inning, Osburn drove the ball over the left field wall for her fifth homer run of the season and 21st of her career, surpassing Ryan Stukel, who hit 20 from 2000-03, for most career home runs.
Stephanie Pomes tied Osburn's mark with her 13th home run of the season, a solo shot that tied game one in the series against Missouri, pushing her career total to 21 on the year.
OSBURN ALSO ESTABLISHES RUNS SCORED RECORD
With a run scored in Baylor's 2-0 win over No. 4 Texas on March 30, Kelly Osburn pushed her team-leading runs scored total to 42, establishing a new single-season school record in the category. Osburn's total, which has now reached 53 runs, eclipses the previous record of 41 runs, held by Sheeley Green, who established the mark during the 1996 season. In two-plus seasons as a Lady Bear, Osburn has scored 118 runs, 10 runs shy of the Baylor career mark of 128 held by Michelle Sorrels.
FERGUSON ONE SHY FROM CAREER SAVE MARK
After tossing 1.2 innings of relief in Baylor's 10-2 victory over Massachusetts at the Speedline Classic, Lisa Ferguson earned her second save of the season and 10th of her career, moving her into a tie for the Baylor career mark.
Former Baylor pitcher Joni Miller established the standard with 10 saves from 2000-2003. Ferguson is on pace to shatter the school record after finishing second in the NCAA with eight saves her freshman season.
800TH CAREER STRIKEOUT IN SIGHT FOR VITEK
Senior left-handed pitcher Cristin Vitek continues to climb up the career charts in several categories, including strikeouts where she entered the season as Baylor's career leader with 645. In fact, Vitek has a good shot at becoming Baylor's first-ever 800 strikeout performer as the lefty currently has 751 strikeouts and is now only 49 strikeouts shy of the milestone.
Last season, she became only the second player in school history to record 600 strikeouts in her career when she struck out Tina Boutelle of Texas in the sixth inning at the Big 12 Conference Tournament.
BAYLOR LADY BEARS IN THE CAREER CHARTS
Several Lady Bears are aiming to continue making their way up the career charts in 2005. Below is a list of Lady Bears who currently rank in the top ten in one of the career categories:
BATTING RECORDS
AT-BATS: Kim Wilmoth (5th, 641)
RUNS: Kelly Osburn (2nd, 118); Kim Wilmoth (5th, 105); Harmony Schwethelm (6th, 96)
HITS: Kim Wilmoth (4th, 201); Harmony Schwethelm (5th, 171); Kelly Osburn (7th, 157)
MULTIPLE-HIT GAMES: Kim Wilmoth (3rd, 56); Harmony Schwethelm (5th, 48)
DOUBLES: Kelly Osburn (2nd, 31); Stephanie Pomes (t-6th, 25)
TRIPLES: Carrie Leerberg (t-1st, 9); Kim Wilmoth (t-1st, 9); Kelly Osburn (t-4th, 7)
HOME RUNS: Kelly Osburn (t-1st, 21); Stephanie Pomes (t-1st, 21); Chelsi Lake (t-3rd, 16)
TOTAL BASES: Kelly Osburn (3rd, 2652); Kim Wilmoth (5th, 240)
WALKS: Kelly Osburn (1st, 77)
HIT BY PITCH: Kelly Osburn (2nd, 16); Kim Wilmoth (t-6th, 9) Carrie Leerberg (t-6th, 9)
SACRIFICE FLIES: Stephanie Pomes (1st, 7); Kelly Osburn (t-7th; 3)
SACRIFICE HITS: Kim Wilmoth (t-8th, 22); Harmony Schwethelm (6th, 25)
STOLEN BASES: Kim Wilmoth (1st, 91); Harmony Schwethelm (2nd, 76); Carrie Leerberg (3rd, 66); Kelly Osburn (4th, 63)
STOLEN BASE ATTEMPTS: Kim Wilmoth (1st, 116); Harmony Schwethelm (2nd, 89); Carrie Leerberg (3rd, 77); Kelly Osburn (4th, 75)
PITCHING RECORDS
APPEARANCES: Cristin Vitek (2nd, 160); Lisa Ferguson (5th, 75)
GAMES STARTED: Cristin Vitek (2nd, 108); Lisa Ferguson (6th, 48)
RELIEF APPEARANCES: Cristin Vitek (1st, 52); Lisa Ferguson (5th, 27)
WINS: Cristin Vitek (2nd, 72); Lisa Ferguson (4th, 33)
LOSSES: Cristin Vitek (t-3rd, 36); Lisa Ferguson (6th, 110)
DECISIONS: Cristin Vitek (2nd, 108); Lisa Ferguson (5th, 424)
COMPLETE GAMES: Cristin Vitek (3rd, 46); Lisa Ferguson (5th, 20)
SHUTOUTS: Cristin Vitek (3rd, 18); Lisa Ferguson (4th, 10)
SAVES: Cristin Vitek (3rd, 9); Lisa Ferguson (t-1st, 10); Tessa Lynam (6th, 3); Nicole Jackson (t-8th, 1)
INNINGS PITCHED: Cristin Vitek (2nd, 721.2); Lisa Ferguson (5th, 328.0)
STRIKEOUTS: Cristin Vitek (1st, 751); Lisa Ferguson (5th, 227); Tessa Lynam (8th, 72)
UP NEXT...
Baylor will return to action as the third or fourth seed at the Big 12 Conference Tournament on Thursday, May 12, at 11:00 a.m. in Oklahoma City, Okla.
