Midweek Lunch: Baylor baseball's opportunity to finish strong

With only two more Big 12 series left in the season, Baylor baseball sits at the bottom of the pack. Standing in seventh place, the Bears have gone 8-10 in Big 12 play and 27-17 overall.

Baylor will wrap up their two-game series with Prairie View A&M on Wednesday evening before heading to Stillwater to face Oklahoma State in a three-game series this week. The Bears will then hit the road to face UTSA in a midweek contest before returning home for the regular-season finale against Kansas State the following weekend.

Only Kansas State (5-13) and Oklahoma State (6-11) fall below the Bears in the Big 12 standings.

Expectations for the final eight games

Looking back at the beginning of the season, the Bears started off red hot, reeling off 10 straight wins and moving to 13-2 over the first 15 games. In that stretch, the Bears improved their RPI which has carried them throughout the season, including individual victories over Ole Miss and Texas A&M and a series victory over Houston.

Since the great start, however, the Bears have struggled. Prior to winning a home series over Texas, the Bears dropped four-straight series to West Virginia, Oklahoma, Washington, and Texas Tech. During the same stretch, the Bears also dropped mid-week games to both UTSA and Lamar.

Fortunately, Steve Rodriguez's team avoided the dreaded sweep during conference play, claiming road victories over nationally ranked opponents TCU and Texas Tech.

The biggest difference in the victories was how the Bears bats came alive. The group collected 19 hits and tallied 15 runs against the Horned Frogs and finished off a tremendous comeback in an incredible six run ninth inning performance to win 10-9 to avoid a sweep against the Red Raiders.

Against Prairie View A&M on Tuesday, the bats were alive again and the pitching was once again fantastic. In a 16-hit performance, the Bears scored 15 runs to PVAMU’s two. Josh Bissonette was the player of the game, going 3-5 with three RBIs.

Looking forward to postseason play

Provided that the Bears can continue to find their offense, a decent run through the tournament is possible.

With two series set for the bottom two teams in the conference, the Bears are within striking distance of a top three finish in the league. However, even a 4-2 finish to conference play should place the Bears in a good position in the bracket.

A strong finish to the season followed by respectable performance in the conferene tournament should have the Bears in a strong position to earn a two seed when regionals are set for the field of 64. Despite Baylor's midseason struggles, according to D1baseball.com, the Bears stand at No. 15 in RPI and No. 1 in strength of schedule.

However things shake out for the Bears, a return to the postseason tournament for the baseball program is a huge step forward in restoring a program that has been wondering in the wilderness since winning the Big 12 in 2012.