SB’s Creager has Historic Night as Bears Fall in 15 Against Houston

Thursday, April 2

Waco, Texas

4 PM

Baylor

22-13, 5-5

Houston

19-21, 2-11

Houston

Baylor

SB’s Creager has Historic Night as Bears Fall in 15 Against Houston

4/2/2026 11:11:00 PM | Softball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Thursday marked the longest regular-season game in Big 12 history

By: Matt Roberts

WACO, Texas – Cambree Creager's outstanding performance wasn't enough as Baylor fell to Houston 3-2 in a marathon 15-inning showdown on Thursday at Getterman Stadium.

The Bears (22-13, 5-5 Big 12) made an early push with a pair of runs in the third inning, only to see Houston (19-21, 2-11 Big 12) score the final three over the last 11 innings and edge them out.

Creager (7-7) was saddled with the tough-luck loss despite her 15-inning 250-pitch complete-game effort. The sophomore earned her place in the Baylor record books pitching the second-most innings in program history (15.0), and setting a new program record with 250 pitches, surpassing Cristin Vitek's previous record of 185.

The game marked the second-longest in program history and the longest Big 12 regular-season contest in league history.

RUNDOWN

After two scoreless innings to open the game, Baylor struck first in the third. Sa'Mya Jones worked a leadoff walk before Karynton Dawson singled to put runners on the corners. Brooklyn Carter brought home the first run with an RBI groundout, and Amber Toven followed with an RBI single to give the Bears a 2-0 lead.

Houston answered in the fifth inning. After putting runners in scoring position, Madox Mitchael delivered a two-RBI single to tie the game at 2-2.

From there, both teams settled into a pitching duel that stretched into extra innings. Baylor's Cambree Creager turned in one of the most impressive outings of her career, going the distance with 15.0 innings pitched, allowing just three runs on 10 hits while striking out seven. She repeatedly worked out of jams, stranding runners and keeping the Bears within reach.

Baylor had its chances with runners in scoring position in the seventh, ninth and 14th innings, but was unable to deliver the decisive hit. Overall BU finished 1-for-20 with runners in scoring position, leaving 17 runners on base.

Houston finally broke through in the top of the 15th inning when Makenna Mitchell led off with a solo home run to right field, giving the Cougars a 3-2 lead. Baylor put two runners on in the bottom half, but Houston was able to close out the game and secure the victory.

GAME NOTES

· The second-longest game in program history by innings, it was the longest game in program history by time at 4:51, beating the previous mark of 4:35 set at Oklahoma State in 2023.

· BU's 49 at-bats tied a program record, dating back to May of 2004

· The Bears' 45 putouts came up just three shy of the program record of 48

· The Bears and Cougars set a new Getterman Stadium record combining for 104 at-bats, besting the previous mark of 100

· Baylor and Houston set a new Big 12 record for the longest regular-season contest (by innings)

· Baylor is now 31-16 all-time against Houston, as BU had its 10-game winning streak against Houston snapped

· The Bears are now 10-1 in the last 11 games with the Coogs

· Baylor is now 499-199 all-time at Getterman Stadium

· Creager's 15 innings pitched are the second most in program history, second only to Cristin Vitek's 16 in 2004

· Creager more than doubled her single-game career high in innings pitched (7.0) entering Thursday's contest

· Creager's 250 pitches established a new program record, blowing past Vitek's record of 185

· Amber Toven extended her on-base streak to 16 games

· Toven set a new program record with seven at-bats in the game

· Leah Cran upped her hitting streak to five games, two off her career high

· Sa'Mya Jones' reached base a career-high four times with a career-high three walks

· Faith Piper tied a season high with three hits

QUOTABLE

Glenn Moore on his message to his team — "I told them to embrace the competition. Tip your hat to Houston. They played a great game. They had us chasing the rise ball in a ballpark that you can't hit it out on a night like tonight. Well, most of them aren't going to go out. I thought they played their hearts out there wanting to score a run for Cambree so bad. Maybe we were pressing a little bit to do that, after seeing her go back out there every inning. She did something remarkable that you don't see much that this day and age. It's a long season and we've got an opportunity for redemption and that's going to happen."

Moore on Creager's performance — "We didn't really want to go that long with her because we haven't seen her do that. She certainly broke some barriers down in her own mind and proved to us that down the road if we need that, she can put up a Whitney Canion/Cristen Vitek performance. You don't see this type of performance from pitchers anymore at all. Anything over 100 is really a lot is taxing on the arm. But she wanted to ball and when you have a kid that's not hurting and wants the ball, I don't think you take it away from them. They show signs of being incoherent about something. We had Lexi ready to go, I actually made the call one time and she shook her head and said no. she wanted the ball, so we kept giving it to her."

Creager on her night: "I mean, I'm just really competitive and my team's really competitive, and I wanted to do everything I could for us to try and take that game."

Creager on Bouncing back— "I think we just take the positives from today and know that we fought as hard as we could to the end and just come back and use that tomorrow.."

WHAT'S NEXT

The Bears will aim for the 500^th win in Getterman Stadium history when they play game two of the series on Friday at 3 p.m. The game was originally scheduled for 6:30, but was moved up because of a wet forecast throughout the weekend.

All games for the remainder of the season will be televised on ESPN+ and heard on air and online via 101.3 COOL FM.

Follow @BaylorSoftball on X, Instagram and Facebook for additional updates.

—BaylorBears.com—