South Alabama Notes

WACO, Texas -- Baylor baseball welcomes South Alabama for a weekend series between two undefeated teams at Baylor Ballpark. Games are scheduled for 6:35 p.m. CT Friday, 3:05 p.m. Saturday and 1:05 p.m. Sunday on FOX Sports Southwest.

All Baylor baseball games are broadcast live on Waco's 1660 ESPN Central Texas (1330 AM/100.9 FM in Temple, Belton and Killeen). Derek Smith provides the play-by-play with Steve Johnigan adding color commentary. Live streaming audio, video and GameTracker also are available for all Baylor baseball home games online at BaylorBears.com.

SERIESà ¢Ã¢' ¬Ã‹ € INFO
Date(s): Feb. 24-26, 2017
Time(s): 6:30 PM | 3 PM | 1 PM CT
Location: Waco, Texas
Stadium: Baylor Ballpark (5,000)
TV: FSSW (Sunday only)
Talent: John Morris (pxp), Pat Combs (color)
Radio: ESPN/KRZI 1660 AMà ¢Ã¢' ¬Ã‹ € (Waco)
Talent: Derek Smith (pxp), Steve Johnigan (color)

SERIES HISTORY
Overall: Tied 1-1
Streak: BU has won 1
Waco: BU leads 1-0
Mobile: Never met
Neutral Site: USA leads 1-0
Rodriguez vs: 0-0
First Meeting: May 28, 1993
Last Meeting: March 6, 2009

SERIES MULTIMEDIA
Live Stats: BaylorBears.com
Audio: BaylorBears.com
Video: BaylorBears.com
Twitter Updates: @BaylorBaseball

BAYLOR BEARS
2017 Record: 5-0
2017 Big 12 Record: 0-0
Head Coach: Steve Rodriguez
Career: 315-327 (14th season)
BU: 29-29 (2nd season)

2017 STAT LEADERS
AVG: Shea Langeliers (.500)
2B: Tucker Cascadden (3)
HR: Shea Langeliers (2)
RBI: Cascadden, Langeliers (6)
SB: Three Players (1)

SOUTH ALABAMA JAGUARS
2017 Record: 4-0
2017 Sun Belt Record: 0-0
Head Coach: Mark Calvi
Career: 171-129 (6th season)
USA: 171-129 (6th season)

2017 STAT LEADERS
AVG: Eddie Paparella (.643)
2B: Four Players (2)
HR: Four Players (1)
RBI: Eddie Paparella (11)
SB: Three Players (2)

TEAM QUICK NOTES
*Baylor is 5-0 to start a season for the first time since 2012 (6-0).

*Baylor posted back-to-back shutouts for first time since Feb. 26-28, 2003 (9-0 win at UTSA, 4-0 win at UC Irvine).

*Baylor's pitchers racked up 14 strikeouts at Texas State for the first time since March 11, 2011 vs. Louisiana Tech.

*Baylor has won 5 straight games for the first time since doing the same from Feb. 26-March 4, 2016.

*In 5 games, Baylor's starters have combined to give up just four runs (three earned) on 14 hits and 9 walks with 19 strikeouts in 25 innings for a 1.08 ERA and 0.92 WHIP. The quintet of Sr. RHP Nick Lewis, Jr. RHP Montana Parsons, Fr. LHP Cody Bradford Fr. RHP Luke Boyd & Jr. RHP Alex Phillips also picked up 5 wins.

*In 5 games, Baylor's newcomers picked up 4 wins on the mound (Parsons, Bradford, Boyd & Phillips) while going 19-for-52 (.365) at the plate with 14 runs, 6 doubles, 2 homers 20 RBI and 2 walks. BU as a team is 52-for-164 (.317) at the plate with 44 runs, 11 doubles, 5 homers, 38 RBI and 23 walks.

*In 5 games, Baylor's pitchers have posted a 1.80 ERA and 1.31 WHIP while striking out 48 batters in 45 innings.

*Baylor has finished its home schedule with a .500 record or better (4-0 in 2017) in all 18 seasons at Baylor Ballpark (since 1999) and is 405-182 all-time in the park.

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation

Now in his 14th season as a collegiate baseball head coach, Steve Rodriguez has learned to expect the unexpected when "you're dealing with 18- to 22-year-old young men who are still trying to figure it out themselves."

"It could be anything from they wake up and don't feel right or they're sick or something happens. They have a bad test, whatever," said Rodriguez, whose 5-0 team will play South Alabama (4-0) in a three-game series this weekend at Baylor Ballpark.

That's why Rodriguez couldn't have necessarily expected what he's gotten out of his Bears in general and specifically his pitchers. Baylor's five starters have combined to give up just three earned runs on 14 hits and nine walks with 19 strikeouts in 25 innings for a 1.08 ERA and 0.92 WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched).

"To be able to get the quality starts that we've gotten out of these guys has been tremendous," Rodriguez said. "I tell them all the time, `You better be careful, or pretty soon the expectation is going to be that.' What's nice is that I think they're starting to expect it out of themselves. When you get to that point, it's going to be a good season."

The pitching overall has been tremendous through the first five games, with the Bears posting an overall staff ERA of 1.80 and 1.31 WHIP with 48 strikeouts in 45 innings. After a three-game season-opening sweep of Niagara, they posted back-to-back shutouts for the first time in 14 years with wins over Nevada and Texas State.

Junior transfer Montana Parsons, who is 1-0 with a 1.50 ERA, says the pitchers have tried to one-up each other every game.

"It's very friendly competition," said Parsons, who is slated to pitch Saturday's 3:05 p.m. game. "We all love each other; best team chemistry I've ever had in my career. But, Nick (Lewis) threw really well Friday, and I wanted to go out there and do the same thing Saturday. And then the freshman (Cody Bradford) goes out there Sunday and does the same thing, goes deeper in the game. It's definitely competitive."

Lewis (1-0, 1.80) will be paired against the Jaguars' Randy Bell (0-0, 3.38) in Friday's 6:35 p.m. series opener, followed by Parsons vs. USA lefty Zach Melton (1-0, 0.00) on Saturday and Bradford (1-0, 1.29) squaring off against left-hander Zach McMullen in Sunday's 1:05 p.m. series finale.

South Alabama will be a significant step-up in competition for the Bears. The Jaguars were 42-22 a year ago, losing to Florida State in the Tallahassee Regional final, and are hitting .390 with 60 runs scored in their first four games this season.

"They're a big, physical team," Rodriguez said. "They've scored a lot of runs in a short amount of time. They've got some really good pitching. They're going to be aggressive. They haven't made a lot of errors, at all. It's going to be great competition for us . . . I tell everybody, it doesn't matter who we're playing, if we don't play well, anybody can beat us. But, if we play well, we know we have a chance to win."

Baylor's also produced at the plate, hitting .317 with five home runs and right at nine runs per game.

While veterans like senior designated hitter Matt Menard (.400) and senior outfielder Kameron Esthay (.389) have carried hot bats, the somewhat surprising leader has been freshman catcher Shea Langaliers. He is hitting .500 with two doubles, two homers, six RBI and a .900 slugging percentage.

"It's been awesome," said Langaliers, who was 4-for-5 with a homer in Wednesday's 4-0 road victory at Texas State. "These older guys have really taken in all of us freshmen, from the moment we got here in the fall and summer. It's just been an awesome ride so far."

All three games will be broadcast on ESPN 1660, with Sunday's game also televised by FOX Sports Southwest. John Morris and former Baylor Hall of Fame pitcher Pat Combs will do the TV broadcast.