Baylor
#9 BYU or #12 Texas Tech
No. 8 Seed BSB Readies for Big 12 Tournament
5/19/2026 5:45:00 PM | Baseball
Bears in search of first conference tournament win since 2019
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BAYLOR BEARS (28-26, 14-16 Big 12) Location: Waco, Texas Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Mitch Thompson (Fort Hays St., 1988) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
BAYLOR (28-26, 14-16) vs. BYU (27-27, 14-16) or TEXAS TECH (27-27, 10-20) May 20, 2026 • 6:30 p.m. CT Surprise, Ariz. • Surprise Stadium (10,714) LIVE STATS: BaylorBears.com/Stats WATCH: ESPN+ LISTEN: ESPN Central Texas 1660 AM/92.3 FM Talent: Derek Smith, Tom Barfield Baylor Social Media:    |
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2026 Big 12 Tournament presented by Allstate Location: Surprise, Ariz. |
STORYLINES
LEADING OFF
• Baylor Baseball received the No. 8 seed to the 2026 Big 12 Tournament presented by Allstate and earned a first-round bye, awaiting the winner of No. 9-seed BYU and No. 12-seed Texas Tech for when the Bears open up play on Wednesday, May 20, at 6:30 p.m. CT.
• If the Bears win on Wednesday, they would face top-seeded Kansas on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. CT in the tournament's quarterfinals. Two wins would advance BU to the semifinals where it would take on either No. 4-seed UCF or No. 5-seed Oklahoma State at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. The tournament's championship game is set for Saturday, May 23, at 6:30 p.m. CT.
• Baylor hit 11 home runs in its weekend series at Utah and has hit 15 home runs in its last four games..
• Dating back to at least 2004 (modern Statcrew era), BU had never homered more than nine times in a series.
• Redshirt senior 1B Tyce Armstrong now holds the school's single-season home run record with 24 home runs.
• Freshman OF Brady Janusek broke the school's single-season record for home runs by a freshman with his now 13 blasts.
• Baylor erased a six-run deficit to beat Utah on Saturday, its largest come-from-behind victory of the Mitch Thompson Era, having trailed by as much as 7-1 before Armstrong's three-run home run in the top of the ninth put the Bears ahead, 11-10.
• BU has won 13 games in comeback fashion this season.
• Baylor is 37-44 all-time at the Big 12 Tournament and is in search of its first win at the event since 2019.
ALL-BIG 12 BEARS
• Five different Bears picked up a total of six All-Big 12 honors on Tuesday, including Tyce Armstrong (Newcomer of the Year, First Team INF), Travis Sanders (Second Team INF), Caleb Bunch (Second Team RP), Brady Janusek (All-Freshman Team) and Lucas Davenport (Honorable Mention SP).
• Armstrong is BU's third Newcomer of the Year in program history and first since Montana Parsons in 2017.
• Baylor's starting shortstop has now earned All-Big 12 praise in eight of the last nine seasons, excluding the shortened 2020 season in which All-Big 12 awards were not presented.
• Sanders (6 errors, .972 fielding percentage) is tracking for the best defensive season by a BU shortstop since at least 2003, as no primary SS (min. 45 games) has posted a fielding percentage above .966 or made less than eight errors at the position for Baylor in the modern Statcrew era.
THE NEW HOME RUN KING OF WACO
• Redshirt senior 1B Tyce Armstrong broke Baylor's single-season home run record with his 22nd blast of the year in the home finale against UCF on Sunday, May 10, a record that was previously held by Charley Carter (1998).
• Since then, Armstrong hit two against Utah on May 16, his sixth multi-HR game of the year, to move his total to 24 HR on the season.
• Armstrong has hit 10 home runs in his last 12 games and had homered in five-consecutive games, becoming the first Bear in the program's recorded history to do so.
• Armstrong ranks fourth in the Big 12 and eighth nationally with 24 home runs as one of just 16 players in the country with 21 or more homers this year.
SWIPING RIGHT (ON THE BASES)
• Through 54 games, the Bears have stolen 93 bases, the most by a BU team at this point in a season since at least 2003.
• 93 stolen bases is also the most in a single season since the Bears stole 96 in 2012.
• Baylor has stolen five or more bases six times in 2026, and have stolen multiple bases in 24 games this year.
• 2026 is the first season since 2013 that BU has had three or more players reach double figures in stolen bases (Sanders, 24; Janusek, 17; Riebock, 12).
• Travis Sanders' 24 bags are the most by a Bear since Brooks Pinckard swiped 36 in 2011.
• Baylor ranks second in the Big 12 with 93 stolen bases, trailing only Cincinnati's 113 on the year. The Bears finished just one behind West Virginia for the league lead in conference play with 49 bags.
YOU SHALL NOT [FREE] PASS
• All three of Baylor's weekend starters rank inside the Big 12's top-10 in walks allowed per nine innings: Calder (6th, 2.01); Davenport (7th, 2.07); Wallace (8th, 2.11).
• As a team, the Bears rank third in the league with 3.83 BB/9.
• Lucas Davenport's 4.86 strikeout-to-walk ratio ranks fifth in the Big 12 and 39th nationally.
To stay up to date on all things Baylor baseball, follow the team on its official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts: @BaylorBaseball.
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