Friday, April 15
Waco, Texas
6:30 PM
Baylor
vs
Sam Houston
SB Readies for Two-Game Set with Sam Houston
4/14/2022 3:55:00 PM | Softball
Bears and Bearkats are meeting for the 83rd time
BAYLOR (20-18, 2-7 Big 12) vs. SAM HOUSTON (11-31, 4-11 WAC)
Friday, April 15 • vs. Sam Houston • Waco, Texas | Getterman Stadium • Radio: 101.3 FM • TV: Big 12 Now ESPN+Saturday, April 16 • vs. Sam Houston • Waco, Texas | Getterman Stadium • Radio: 101.3 FM • TV: Big 12 Now ESPN+
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
As much as Baylor softball (20-18) wants to "work some kinks out" in a non-conference series this weekend against Sam Houston (11-31), Glenn Moore said it boils down to one simple thing.
"We need to win," said Moore, whose team is coming off a series win at Kansas. "Make no bones about it, we have to win. Every time we go out, winning has to be the ultimate goal. Contrary to what I've been preaching, we have to be a little more outcome-oriented if we want to get to postseason."
Fifth in the conference standings at 2-7, the Bears are 60th in the latest RPI rankings, which would likely leave them out of the NCAA tournament.
"Backs are against the wall, young team, hopefully they understand what's at stake," Moore said. "This program has been to a lot of NCAA tournaments, and the expectation is there to do that. And the only way to get there is to take no prisoners. We've got to play to win."
An abbreviated two-game series at Getterman Stadium begins with a 6:30 p.m. Friday, followed by 2 p.m. Saturday. Both games will be streamed by Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
Sam Houston snapped an eight-game losing streak with a 5-1 win at Houston Baptist, but the Bearkats have played one of the toughest schedules in the country for a lower-level Division I team with five games against Power 5 teams. They had 2-0 losses to Texas and Indiana and dropped a pair of one-run games in a doubleheader at Houston.
"Make no mistake, Sam Houston is not a pushover," Moore said. "Their record doesn't look good, but if you look at the better teams they've played – the Power 5 teams – they have some really close games and they've played really well against some good teams, scored runs on some good pitching. When you look deeper into it, not just on the surface of the record, you know that you can't take anything for granted."
After being swept in its first two conference series against top-ranked Oklahoma and No. 6 Oklahoma State, Baylor rallied from 3-1 deficits to win the first two games at Kansas before dropping Sunday's series finale, 3-1.
"Confidence is 100% key," said sophomore pitcher Dariana Orme, who is 8-10 with a 3.23 ERA and 96 strikeouts. "When all of our team is headed in the same direction and feeding off of each other's confidence, it allows for the game to go a little smoother, a little more chill. That's when we all play way better is when we're all just confident in each other."
A young team with as many as seven underclassmen in the starting lineup, the Bears are led by sophomore centerfielder McKenzie Wilson, a transfer from Fresno State who is hitting .423 with a league-high five triples and 20 stolen bases. Sophomore rightfielder Ana Watson went 7-for-11 at the plate last week with two doubles and five runs.
"The biggest thing with being older is you're able to kind of move on from things that happened earlier in the game into your next at-bats," said third-year sophomore Emily Hott, who's hitting .342. "I've been impressed to see the younger girls on our team be able to step up and have that maturity. They're able to take it one step at a time and get their job done."
Moore said he has to manage the load on Orme, who has pitched in 21 of the team's 38 games and ranks fifth in the league with 96.1 innings pitched.
"She's seen the toughest lineups she'll see, no matter how far we go," Moore said. "And that's grueling on a pitcher that throws as hard as she does and as often as she throws hard. It would be nice not to have to use her the duration of a game this weekend, but we're going to throw her, obviously, because of our respect for Sam Houston. But, she also needs to stay fine-tuned to be able to compete as well as she can in conference."
After this weekend, Baylor has three conference series remaining against Texas Tech, Iowa State and Texas and a pair of midweek games against UTA and SFA.
"Not completely depleted, but we're certainly banged-up," Moore said. "We've taken a couple days off this week. I feel like the recovery was more important than the practice time, but our practices have been fruitful and we've improved."
STORY LINES
• Baylor Softball is set to host Sam Houston in a two-game set Friday and Saturday at Getterman Stadium.
• These two teams have previously met 82 times with Baylor leading the all-time record 52-30. BU also leads the series in Waco 28-12.
• Baylor (20-18) is coming off of a weekend conference series on the road at Kansas. Baylor took the series from the Jayhawks 2-1, defeating Kansas in the first two game before falling in the series finale.
• The Bearkats (11-31) are coming off of a weekend conference series with Tarleton, where they fell in all three games before picking up the 5-1 win over Houston Baptist in a midweek contest.
• BU had their midweek matchup with Texas State canceled because of weather in the area Tuesday night. The Bears had an intrasquad scrimmage once the weather had passed in place of the game.
•The Bears are currently sitting at 60 in the NCAA RPI rankings. All seven Big 12 schools currently rank in the top 100 RPI rankings.
• Last week, Ana Watson shined offensively for the Bears going 7-for-11 at the plate. She reached base in every at bat in Saturday's matchup against Kansas, recording two hits and being hit by a pitch. On the week, she also had two doubles and scored five of the Bears runs.
BEARS IN THE BIG 12 RANKINGS
• McKenzie Wilson still ranks first in the Big 12 with five triples on the season. Her .423 season batting average still leads the Bears as well as her 24 RBI. Also in the Big 12, Wilson is fourth in batting average (.423), second in hits (47) and first for stolen bases (20).
• Baylor as a team is fourth in the conference in pitching. BU is also leading the league in sacrifice bunts (18).
• Maren Judisch is tied for first in saves with two.
• Dariana Orme and Aliyah Binford are both in the top ten in strikeouts, Orme in seventh with 96 and Binford in eighth with 85.
• McKenzie Wilson is 1st in percentage reached as a leadoff batter with .676, while Josie Bower is batting 1.000 with the bases loaded.
• Josie Bower is leading the league in hit by pitches (9), while Taylor Strain leads in sacrifice bunts (8).
SAM HOUSTON STATE
Waco: Baylor leads 28-12
Huntsville, Texas: Baylor leads 18-14
Neutral: Baylor leads 6-4
- BaylorBears.com -
Players Mentioned
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