Baylor Baseball Travels to Norman to Take on Oklahoma
WACO, Texas – Baylor baseball (11-9, 1-2) travels to Norman for their first true road series of the year against Big 12 foe, Oklahoma (12-7, 0-0) at L. Dale Mitchell Park. Games are slated for 6:30 P.M. Friday, 2:00 P.M. Saturday, and 2:00 P.M. Sunday (Friday and Sunday’s games will be on Bally Sports Oklahoma and Saturday’s game will be on SoonerSports.tv).
BAYLOR BEARS - (#54 RPI Ranking & #12 Strength of Schedule)
2022 Record: 11-9
2022 Big 12 Record: 1-2
Head Coach: Steve Rodriguez
- Career Record: 583-427 (19th season)
- Record at Baylor: 182-127 (7th season)
2022 STAT LEADERS
AVG: Tre Richardson (.313)
H: Jack Pineda (26)
2B: Jack Pineda, Tre Richardson, & Kyle Nevin (4)
HR: Kyle Nevin (3)
RBI: Kyle Nevin (16)
R: Jack Pineda (21)
OB%: Harrison Caley (.444)
SB: Jack Pineda (8)
BB: Jared McKenzie (13)
OKLAHOMA SOONERS - (#41 RPI Ranking & #21 Strength of Schedule)
2022 Record: 12-7
2022 Big 12 Record: 0-0
Head Coach: Skip Johnson
- Career Record: 123-86 (5th season)
- Record at OU: 123-86 (5th season)
2022 STAT LEADERS
AVG: Diego Muniz (.357)
H: Blake Robertson (21)
2B: Diego Muniz (5)
HR: Peyton Graham & Jackson Nicklaus (3)
RBI: Tanner Tredaway (12)
R: Peyton Graham (14)
OB%: Diego Muniz (.541)
SB: Tanner Tredaway (8)
BB: Blake Robertson (18)
*6 OU starters have a batting average of over .285
Probable Starting Fielders: Baylor
C: So. Harrison Caley (.333, 4 R, 15 H, 1 2B, 3 RBI, 8 BB, .444 OB%)
1B: R-Jr. Chase Wehsener (.278, 8 R, 20 H, 3 2B, 14 RBI, 10 BB, .379 OB%)
2B: So. Tre Richardson (.313, 20 R, 25 H, 4 2B, 2 HR, 12 RBI, 11 BB, 2 SB, .402 OB%)
3B: Sr. Esteban Oquendo-Cardoza (.227, 9 R, 15 H, 3 2B, 6 RBI, 2 BB, .278 OB%)
SS: Jr. Jack Pineda (.299, 21 R, 26 H, 4 2B, 2 3B, HR, 9 RBI, 9 BB, 8 SB, .384 OB%)
LF: So. Alex Gonzales (.195, 5 R, 8 H, 3 2B, 3 RBI, 5 BB, .325 OB%)
CF: So. Jared McKenzie (.250, 11 R, 19 H, 2B, HR, 9 RBI, 13 BB, 2 SB, .374 OB%)
RF: So. Kyle Nevin (.205, 11 R, 16 H, 4 2B, 3 HR, 16 RBI, 8 BB, 3 SB, .275 OB%)
DH: Jr. Antonio Valdez (.176, 3 R, 6 H, 6 RBI, 4 BB, .293 OB%)
Probable Starting Pitchers
BU SP1: LHP Tyler Thomas (3-2, 1.30 ERA)
OU SP1: LHP Jake Bennett (1-0, 0.90 ERA)
BU SP2: LHP Kobe Andrade (2-0, 2.57 ERA)
OU SP2: RHP David Sandlin (2-2, 6.94 ERA)
BU SP3: RHP Will Rigney (1-0, 3.10 ERA)
OU SP3: LHP Chazz Martinez (2-2, 2.81 ERA)
TOP QUOTES
Coach Rodriguez on this being the team’s first true road series
”We have played some midweek games on the road, which has been great just to make sure that we are road tested. But in regards to weekends, this is our first road weekend... Norman will be a great test for us. I’m excited about what our guys have been doing this past week and so this should be a really fun weekend.”
Coach Rodriguez on what to expect from Oklahoma
“They’re going to have great starting pitching, they obviously have some great talent in regards to their offense, and they’ve been a menace on the bases early this year. So we are going to have to make sure we do a great job holding runners, minimizing some of the mistakes to allow base runners to get on, and trying to keep the ball down, the winds are going to be blowing in different directions this weekend. So we just have to make sure that we really control what we can control.”
Tre Richardson on playing their first conference away series of the year
“On the road, it’s a little more hostile. Everybody is coming out to get you... On the road, you are expected to lose every single time you go out there. So just going on the road and really taking care of business from the get-go and making it known that you know the environment does not faze you and just going out there and playing the game. ”
What I Am Looking For This Weekend
- Extra-Base Hits! This team needs extra-base hits, the slugging percentages across the board are all relatively low outside of Jack Pineda and Tre Richardson.
- What can we expect at DH? Coach Rodriguez has been desperately looking to get something out of the DH role so far this season. No one out of Valdez, Groves, Currington, or Neumann has run away with the position. I liked what I saw from Neumann in limited opportunities. Granted I am not at practice every day and I am not the one making the decisions, but sometimes you do not know what you have until you try it. Regardless of the circumstances, hopefully, someone takes advantage of the opportunity and fills that position of need on this team.
Jack Mackenzie - SicEm365 - Will Jared McKenzie’s changes at the plate bring him success this weekend? McKenzie mentioned after Tuesday night's game that he has started to get back into a hit the ball up the middle approach at the plate. McKenzie’s average went from .207 last week to .250 heading into this weekend, what an incredible turnaround after a slow start to the season.
- Kyle Nevin needs a big weekend. Aside from his home run on Saturday, Nevin has had a quiet past couple of weeks. He is due for some good moments against OU’s left-handed pitching.
- How will Andrade perform on Saturday? After a rough outing against TCU, Jake Jackson was moved to the bullpen. Jackson pitched well out of the pen on Tuesday night against UTSA, but Kobe Andrade was selected to replace Jackson as the Saturday starter.
- Lastly, the bullpen. Who can be trusted? Who pitches when? Who can consistently hit the zone? They performed well against UTSA, but those blown leads to Sam Houston State and TCU still hurt. Let’s see if we can gain some clarity or answer some questions about the pen in this OU series.
Quick Side Notes
- Oklahoma was also a featured team at the Shriners Children’s Classic in Houston where they went 0-3 and lost a close one to LSU and got blown out by UCLA and Tennessee.
- According to OU’s schedule, Friday and Sunday’s games will be on Bally Sports Oklahoma. Saturday’s game will be on SoonerSports.tv. SoonerSports.tv is $9.99 a month and you need an active subscription to watch the game. If you do choose to pay the monthly subscription, be aware that it is a recurring charge, and do not forget to cancel after this weekend!
- Oklahoma head coach Skip Johnson was an assistant at Texas from 2007 to 2016 and an assistant at OU in 2017 before being promoted to head coach in 2018. He was head coach at Navarro College from 1994 to 2006, but I did not include those games in his all-time record as a manager. His five seasons as a D1 head coach have all been at Oklahoma.
- RPI and SOS rankings were last updated last at 3:00 P.M. 3/24