Baylor Baseball Welcomes East Tennessee State for a Weekend Series

WACO, Texas – Baylor baseball (13-11, 2-4) takes a brief pause from conference play and welcomes East Tennessee State (18-5) to Baylor Ballpark for a three-game set this weekend. Games are slated for 6:30 P.M. Friday, 3:00 P.M. Saturday, and 1:00 P.M. Sunday (ESPN+).

BAYLOR BEARS - (#54 RPI Ranking & #16 Strength of Schedule)

2022 Record: 13-11 

2022 Big 12 Record: 2-4

Head Coach: Steve Rodriguez 

•           Career Record: 585-429 (19th season) 
•           Record at Baylor: 184-129 (7th season) 

2022 STAT LEADERS 

Baylor Athletics

Jack Pineda leads the team in hits and stolen bases

• AVG: Tre Richardson (.309)
• H: Jack Pineda (31)
• 2B: Kyle Nevin (7)
• HR: Kyle Nevin (4)
• RBI: Kyle Nevin (22)
• R: Tre Richardson (28)
• OB%: Harrison Caley (.418)
• SB: Jack Pineda (8)
• BB: Jared McKenzie & Tre Richardson(14)

East Tennessee State Buccaneers - (#117 RPI Ranking & #117 Strength of Schedule)

2022 Record: 18-5

2022 SoCon Record: 0-0

Head Coach: Joe Pennucci

•           Career Record: 106-79 (5th season)
•           Record at ETSU: 106-79 (5th season)

2022 STAT LEADERS 

• AVG: Cam Norgen (.364)
• H: Cam Norgren (28)
• 2B: Cam Norgren (8)
• HR: Cam Norgren (7)
• RBI: Garett Wallace (26)
• R: Ashton King (25)
• OB%: Cam Norgren (.485)
• BB: Tommy Barth (12)

Probable Starting Fielders: Baylor

C: So. Harrison Caley (.304, 5 R, 17 H, 2B, 6 RBI, 10 BB, .418 OB%)

1B: R-Jr. Chase Wehsener (.295, 13 R, 26 H, 4 2B, 20 RBI, 13 BB, .393 OB%) 

2B: So. Tre Richardson (.309, 28 R, 30 H, 4 2B, 3B, 3 HR, 14 RBI, 14 BB, 2 SB, .398 OB%)

3B: Sr. Esteban Oquendo-Cardoza (.228, 14 R, 18 H, 3 2B, 6 RBI, 5 BB, .319 OB%)

SS: Jr. Jack Pineda (.290, 21 R, 31 H, 6 2B, 2 3B, 2 HR, 13 RBI, 10 BB, 8 SB, .372 OB%)

LF: So. Alex Gonzales (.211, 7 R, 12 H, 3 2B, 6 RBI, 5 BB, .286 OB%)

CF: So. Jared McKenzie (.284, 16 R, 27 H, 4 2B, 3B,  HR, 11 RBI, 14 BB, 2 SB, .393 OB%)

RF: So. Kyle Nevin (.235, 17 R, 23 H, 7 2B, 4 HR, 22  RBI, 9 BB, 3 SB, .295 OB%)

DH: Fr. Casen Neumann (.350, 5 R, 7 H, 9 RBI, 3 BB, .435 OB%)

Probable Starting Pitchers

Baylor Athletics

Tyler Thomas will look to continue his great season of Friday starts

BU SP1: LHP Tyler Thomas (3-3, 1.79 ERA)

ETSU SP1: RHP Hunter Loyd (3-0, 1.21 ERA)

BU SP2: LHP Kobe Andrade (2-0, 1.89 ERA)

ETSU SP2: LHP Colby Stuart (3-0, 5.88 ERA)

BU SP3: RHP Will Rigney (1-0, 4.74 ERA)

ETSU SP3: RHP Landon Smiddy (1-2, 2.88 ERA)

What I Am Looking For This Weekend

1. ETSU is not a bad team by any means, they only lost to #1 Tennessee 5-1. Baylor cannot take this opponent lightly, ETSU across the board can flat out hit. 
2. Extra-Base Hits! This team did a great job of tallying doubles, triples, and home runs against Oklahoma. Let’s hope the momentum carries over.
3. How will Andrade perform in his second Saturday start? Andrade was excellent against Oklahoma, let’s see if he can continue the momentum. 
4. Lastly, the bullpen…. Again. Who can be trusted? Who pitches when? Who can consistently hit the zone? The questions that I had going into last weekend remain unanswered heading into the ETSU series. Walking people is going to be a major issue against a lineup of ETSU’s caliber. On a positive note, I will say that Jake Jackson and Cam Caley were solid out of the pen. 

Quick Side Notes

• RPI and SOS rankings were last updated last at 3:00 P.M. 3/31