Baylor Baseball's Fast Start: Quality Pitching, Lineup Powering Bears to Early Success
Head coach Mitch Thompson’s squad continued its blazing start to the season with another 4-0 week that included a Tuesday takedown of Tarleton and a weekend sweep of Loyola Marymount in which the Bears outscored the Lions 24 to 8.
Baylor’s 12-3 record through 15 games is the best start of Thompson’s three-year tenure, and the Bears' three losses have come by a combined five runs to No. 8 Oregon State, No. 25 Auburn and in extra-innings to Gonzaga.
At this point last season, Baylor had a .252 team batting average, a .351 on-base percentage and a 5.68 earned run average. The Bears have been much improved across the board this spring and boast a .303 team batting average, a .426 on-base percentage and a 2.84 earned run average.
Whether it’s a tightly contested pitching duel or an offensive affair, Thompson’s veteran squad is continuing to piece together wins, but the consensus in the clubhouse is to take it one game at a time.
“We’re keeping a level head. Every day is a new day. It doesn’t matter who we are facing — one pitch at a time and one game at a time,” infielder Travis Sanders (RSo.) said. “We’re not looking ahead. Friday is a Friday. Saturday is a Saturday. Sunday is a Sunday. We’re coming up every day expecting to show out and play hard.”
Right-handed pitcher Lucas Davenport (RSo.) added, “I think it’s about finding different ways to win games. Pitching is keeping us in a lot of games, which is very different from last year. Some days, our bats won’t be there. Some days, our arms will be there. It’s a back and forth — it’s a team game.”
So far, the story of the season has been the drastic improvement on the mound under first-year pitching coach Sean Snedeker. In addition to having the eighth-lowest ERA (2.84) and the fifth-lowest WHIP (1.04) in the nation, the Bears have a remarkable 3.47 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
At this point last year, Baylor’s pitching staff collected 143 strikeouts but issued 73 free passes. Through 15 games this spring, the Bears have struck out 132 batters and have cut walks nearly in half, allowing just 38 free passes across 133 innings pitched.
“There are so many more bullets down in that bullpen than we’ve had in years past. Everybody that’s going to the mound is throwing strikes,” Thompson said. “If you throw strikes and make plays on defense, it’s hard to score; it’s hard to piece together enough hits to make it work. … Those free bases add up. Whoever wins the free-base war usually wins the game.”
Against Loyola Marymount, Baylor slightly adjusted the weekend rotation and moved high-profile recruit and left-handed pitcher Carson Bailey (Fr.) into the Sunday role alongside Friday’s starter, Ethan Calder (Jr.) and Bryson Bales (6Sr.) on Saturday.
“It’s a dream to be able to start on the weekend as a freshman,” Bailey said. “It’s pretty rare for a freshman to do that, so I was very thankful. I was really well prepared and made sure to slow down and do my thing.”
Bailey, who has already started three midweek games, was dominant in his first Sunday showcase and struck out six while allowing one run across five frames. He was routinely sitting in the low-to-mid 90s on his fastball and currently leads the team in ERA (1.65).
“That kid’s special,” Sanders said of Bailey. “You can go ask anybody; when he’s on the mound, everybody’s watching. He went out there and competed in his first start on the weekend. I was very proud of him.”
With Bailey locked into the Sunday role moving forward, veteran righty Cole Stasio (RSr.) has been moved into the bullpen. Stasio entered in relief of Bailey in the series finale, tossed three scoreless innings and surrendered just two baserunners.
“He makes our bullpen even deeper,” Thompsons said of Stasio. “I’m a firm believer that ‘he who has the bullpen wins.’ In games that are evenly matched, it’s the guys in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings that are out there on the mound that end up winning or losing games. I’ll take my chances with Cole out there.”
In the sweep of Loyola Marymount, the starting rotation — Calder, Bales, Bailey — combined for roughly half of the innings over the weekend. Stasio and Davenport pieced together 6.2 frames, leaving 6.2 innings for the rest of the bullpen: Will Glatch (Sr.), Grayson Murry (Jr.), Andrew Petrowski (RSr.), RJ Ruais (So.), Gabe Craig (RSr.) and Brayden Bergman (Fr.).
“Friday impacts Saturday and Sunday. We just haven’t had this kind of depth. We had a bunch of guys who didn’t throw,” Thompson said of his bullpen. “We’ll be good to go on Tuesday now. Who are we going to start? I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out. We’ve got some talented guys who need to get out there and throw. We’ll keep everyone pretty short, so we’ll be full when we go into Kansas.”
Offensively, Thompson’s veteran lineup continues to mash away with the seven everyday starters — Jack Little (RSo.), Enzo Apodaca (RSr.), Wesley Jordan (Sr.), Hunter Simmons (RSr.), Ty Johnson (Sr.), Pearson Riebock (Fr.) and Tyriq Kemp (Sr.) — all hitting above .300. Through 15 games, the Bears have totaled 47 extra-base knocks and have a slugging percentage of .463.
“One through nine is going to be a hard out,” Apodaca said. “It’s something that we haven’t really had before in the past. Knowing that we have that much depth in our lineup and knowing that we have guys on the bench who can step up and fill roles whenever we have guys that are down, it’s super cool. We all trust each other.”
Thompson, however, has yet to find his everyday fourth infielder. Kemp has been a mainstay at shortstop, Little is locked into the right side of the infield, and Riebock has what it takes to play regularly, but a consistent fourth option hasn’t emerged.
On Sunday, Thompson inserted Sanders, the Texas Tech transfer and Copperas Cove native, into the batting order at second base, and he went 3-for-4 with an RBI for his first multi-hit performance of the season.
“It felt great to be out there,” Sanders said. “I haven’t gotten much playing time, but Thompson always told me to stay ready — be humble and ready to go. I got the nod today, and I was fortunate to be out there with my great teammates and put on a good show.”
Another storyline from last week was that the Bears were 2-for-18 with the bases loaded across the three games prior to Sunday’s series finale. Baylor had stranded an astronomical 47 runners on base in those three contests.
Thompson’s team rebounded in the series finale against LMU and did a much better job with the bases juiced, leaving only four runners aboard. The highlight of the afternoon was when Little drew a bases-loaded walk after a 14-pitch at-bat in which he fouled off six consecutive pitches.
While it’s not necessarily a concern yet, it’s something to monitor as conference play begins this weekend. Baylor’s woes with runners in scoring position were arguably the reason it lost to Gonzaga in extra innings, 8-7, on Feb. 23.
The Bears (12-3) will round out their five-game homestand against Sam Houston (3-12) at 6:30 on Tuesday, March 11, at Baylor Ballpark before traveling to Lawrence and opening conference play this weekend against Kansas (14-1). All games will be streamed on ESPN+.
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