MORGANTOWN, West Virginia – Baylor baseball (16-12, 2-4) travels to Morgantown to take on conference opponent, West Virginia (17-10) at Monongalia County Ballpark for a three-game set this weekend. Games are slated for 4:00 P.M. Friday, 3:00 P.M. Saturday, and 12:00 P.M. Sunday (ESPN+).
BAYLOR BEARS - (#35 RPI Ranking & #8 Strength of Schedule)
2022 Record: 16-12
2022 Big 12 Record: 2-4
Head Coach: Steve Rodriguez
- Career Record: 588-430 (19th season)
- Record at Baylor: 187-130 (7th season)
2022 STAT LEADERS
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SicEm365
Richardson celebrates scoring on a Sunday
- H: Jack Pineda (37)
- 2B: Kyle Nevin & Jared McKenzie (8)
- HR: Kyle Nevin (4)
- RBI: Kyle Nevin (27)
- R: Tre Richardson (35)
- OB%: Harrison Caley (.430)
- SB: Jack Pineda (8)
- BB: Tre Richardson (17)
- SB: Jack Pineda (8)
West Virginia Mountaineers - (#47 RPI Ranking & #94 Strength of Schedule)
2022 Record: 17-10
2022 Big 12 Record: 2-1
Head Coach: Randy Mazey
- Career Record: 466-378 (16th season)
- Record at West Virginia: 280-218 (10th season)
2022 STAT LEADERS
- AVG: Braden Barry & McGwire Holbrook (.333)
- H: JJ Wetherholt (33)
- 2B: JJ Wetherholt (8)
- HR: Grant Hussey (6)
- RBI: Victor Scott II (25)
- R: JJ Wetherholt (26)
- OB%: Victor Scott II (.459)
- BB: Victor Scott II (26)
- SB: Victor Scott II (25)
Probable Starting Fielders: Baylor
C: So. Harrison Caley (.318, 9 R, 21 H, 3 2B, 8 RBI, 12 BB, .430 OB%)
1B: R-Jr. Chase Wehsener (.288, 15 R, 30 H, 5 2B, HR 26 RBI, 15 BB, .386 OB%)
2B: So. Tre Richardson (.313, 35 R, 35 H, 7 2B, 3B, 3 HR, 17 RBI, 17 BB, 3 SB, .418 OB%)
3B: Sr. Esteban Oquendo-Cardoza (.234, 16 R, 22 H, 6 2B, 12 RBI, 6 BB, .324 OB%)
SS: Jr. Jack Pineda (.301, 30 R, 37 H, 6 2B, 2 3B, 2 HR, 16 RBI, 14 BB, 8 SB, .390 OB%)
LF: So. Alex Gonzales (.200, 9 R, 13 H, 3 2B, 6 RBI, 6 BB, .288 OB%)
CF: So. Jared McKenzie (.296, 18 R, 32 H, 8 2B, 3B, 3 HR, 18 RBI, 15 BB, 2 SB, .405 OB%)
RF: So. Kyle Nevin (.243, 22 R, 28 H, 8 2B, 4 HR, 27 RBI, 12 BB, 3 SB, .311 OB%)
DH: Fr. Casen Neumann (.310, 7 R, 9 H, 2B, 2 HR, 12 RBI, 3 BB, .382 OB%)
Probable Starting Pitchers
Jack Mackenzie - SicEm365
Andrade has taken to the Saturday starter spot quite well
BU SP1: LHP Tyler Thomas (4-3, 1.59 ERA)
WV SP1: RHP Jacob Watters (2-1, 2.08 ERA)
BU SP2: LHP Kobe Andrade (2-0, 2.52 ERA)
WV SP2: LHP Ben Hampton (4-2, 3.14 ERA)
BU SP3: RHP Will Rigney (2-0, 4.40 ERA)
WV SP3: RHP Zach Bravo (3-0, 4.13 ERA)
TOP QUOTES
Esteban Cardoza-Oquendo on the mindset heading into Morgantown
”It’s just another Big 12 weekend. We know it’s going to be good competition. We’re just going out there to dominate the game one pitch at a time and hopefully, we’ll go out on top.”
Tyler Thomas on the current state of the team
”Just go out and win. Control what you can control. We dropped a couple of games we think we should have won and hopefully it doesn’t come back and bite us in the end. But really hindsight is 20/20, you can't change the past. We have to keep going forward and win the series we are supposed to win and go from there.”
Coach Rodriguez on the offense
”I think that our offense has the opportunity to do something special. When they take good at-bats, when they hit the ball hard in the ‘killzone,’ when they don’t swing as bad pitches. Well, that's every offense in the country, but our guys have done a really good job of making those adjustments. You can kind of see it, we were only a couple of swings from turning [the DBU] game completely around. That’s what I really like, we have guys 1-9 who step in there and make good swings on baseballs. They have done a really good job of that in recent weeks. ”
What I Am Looking For This Weekend
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Jack Mackenzie - SicEm365
As always, the bullpen will be key
- Extra-Base Hits! The offense has been great and we have done a great job in recent weeks of getting extra-base hits.
- Thomas, Andrade, and Rigney have all been excellent. After they leave the game, it gets dicey. It’s tough to have faith in late innings if the game is tight with the way the bullpen is currently performing. My biggest fear this weekend is West Virginia capitalizing on walks with a multitude of stolen bases.
- However, Mason Marriott was great last weekend. That’s a positive. Let’s see if he can carry the momentum over.
Quick Side Notes
- It’s supposed to rain all weekend in Morgantown, hopefully, the games are able to be played.
- RPI and SOS rankings were last updated last at 9:00 A.M. 4/7
