Baylor and Texas Tech open Big 12 series on Thursday evening

STORY LINES

• The Bears head out on the road this weekend, visiting Texas Tech for three starting on Thursday, April 18 at 6:30 p.m. Game two follows on Friday, April 19 at 6:30 p.m. and game three is on Saturday, April 20 at 2 p.m. 

• The Bears carry a three-game winning streak into Tuesday’s contest after defeating Sam Houston State 9-6 on Tuesday after taking two-of-three against visiting Oklahoma on the weekend. The Bears took the rubber game in the bottom of the 12th inning as Josh Bissonette delivered the game-winning hit with two outs to score Shea Langeliers from third to give the Bears the 3-2 win and the series victory. The Bears won their first series over Oklahoma in the Steve Rodriguez era. Tuesday’s victory over Sam Houston State was the first over the Bearkats at Baylor Ballpark since 2012.  

• The Bears have tallied 25 wins through 35 games, the quickest Baylor has reached the 25-win mark since 2012, when the Bears won 25 of their first 32 games. 

HOW TO WATCH AND STREAM

The Thursday and Saturday games will be televised live on FOX Sports Southwest and the FOX Sports Go app. Friday’s game will be televised nationally on FS1. 

PROJECTED PITCHING MATCHUPS

Thur., April 18 • 6:30 p.m. CT • RHP Jimmy Winston (3-1, 1.98 ERA) vs. LHP Erickson Lanning (0-1, 3.34 ERA)

Friday, April 19 • 6:30 p.m. CT • LHP Paul Dickens (4-1, 3.56 ERA) vs. RHP Micah Dallas (3-0, 3.66 ERA)

Saturday, April 20 • 2:00 p.m. CT • TBD vs. RHP Caleb Killian (5-2, 4.53 ERA)

AGAINST TEXAS TECH

• The Red Raiders enter the weekend tied for fourth in the Big 12 standings at 6-6. The Bears are 4-6 against the Red Raiders under the direction of fourth-year head coach Steve Rodriguez. The Bears took two-of-three in 2018 from the Red Raiders in Waco last season, but in Rod’s one trip to Lubbock in 2017 the Bears dropped the first two before salvaging the weekend with a game three victory. Overall the Bears have not won a series in Lubbock since 2010 and are 4-8 in conference series in Lubbock since 2009. In 2010 the Bears won game one, 6-2, lost game two, 5-3, before taking the rubber game, 12-5. 

TOPS IN THE CONFERENCE 

• The Bears remain in first place in the Big 12 with a record of 8-3 and have won three-of-four series so far (the fourth series was a two-game split with Texas). The Bears started conference play 5-1, the best start to conference under Coach Rodriguez and the best over the first two weekends of the season since starting 6-0 in 2012. 

IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS

• The Bears rank 32nd in scoring (7.1) and boast a top 25 pitching staff (17th in ERA). The Bears boast the seventh-highest batting average in the nation (.313), 16th in total hits (391), ninth with 2.31 doubles per game, ninth with 81 total doubles, 11th in slugging percentage (.482), 25th in on-base percentage (0.399) and 32nd in scoring (7.1). The Bears’ fielding percentage of 0.98 ranks 15th nationally. On the mound the Bears rank 17th in ERA (3.3), seventh with just 6.94 hits allowed per nine innings and 29th with a WHIP of 1.28.