The Good, The Bad & The Ugly from Baylor's Week of Sports
A rocky week for hoops, a banner weekend for softball, a new era in baseball, and spring football takes shape.
Here’s a digest of The Good, The Bad & The Ugly from the past week of Baylor Athletics.
The Good
Softball Milestones — What a weekend. Glenn Moore and crew started this year’s home schedule like wildfire, going 4-0 in a Getterman Classic with a couple of instant-classic highlights. Transfer addition Dariana Orme threw the first seven-inning perfect game in program history on Friday in a 3-0 win over SFA. Then on Sunday, the Bears earned an impactful 4-3 win over No. 1 Oklahoma as Orme had another stellar outing on the mound, and transfer Shayla Govan blasted a 3-run homer. Closing the weekend, freshman pitcher Rylee Crandall threw a gem to shut out Army 7-0. This week, the 8-1 Bears will remain home as hosts of the Baylor Invitational, where they’ll face Maryland, Minnesota, and Texas A&M-Commerce. I love the icy all-white uniforms. They look super sharp.
MBB Goodies — Adam Flagler was named “Big 12 Player of the Week.” Then LJ Cryer hit 8 three-pointers, and Jalen Bridges got another measure of sweet revenge as the Bears earned a sweep over West Virginia at home on Big Monday. The good times kept rolling until halftime in Lawrence. Now one game back with four games to play, the Bears take on Jerome Tang and K-State in Manhattan on Tuesday and host Texas on Saturday.
Baseball Opener — The Bears walked off Central Michigan in their season debut on Friday night at Baylor Ballpark. Redshirt freshman infielder Jack Johnson delivered the decisive blow with an RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning to plate freshman Kolby Branch and earn Mitch Thompson his first win as head coach. It was an exciting ending and memorable first outing for this new era, although the reality of the journey ahead set in the rest of the weekend. They’ll next host Houston Christian on Tuesday before heading to North Carolina for a weekend series at Duke.
Spring Football Dates — We now know some key dates for off-season football. Spring ball begins on March 21 — kicking off a total of 15 practices — culminating in the Green & Gold Game on Saturday, April 22, at McLane Stadium.
In the meantime, work in the weight room continues. While mostly out of sight, we see occasional glimpses behind the curtain, and I enjoyed this clip featuring wide receiver Josh Cameron.
Men’s Golf — The team won their second straight tournament, taking the Border Olympics title down in Laredo, with an 8-under team finish led by Johnny Keefer, who finished second overall at -3. They begin Monday competing at UC-Davis’ The Prestige events out in Coachella territory.
No. 1 A&T — Defeated No. 14 Presbyterian to move to 3-0.
Women’s Golf — The Bears tied with USC for third place at the T. Hession Regional Challenge in southern California, placing behind No. 5 Oregon and No. 1 Stanford.
The Bad
Rough Follow-Up — Thankfully, baseball rallied on Friday; otherwise, it would have been an 0-3 opening weekend against Central Michigan. The Chippewas crushed the Bears in Game 2, 20-5 (!!!), and took the rubber match on Sunday, 4-3.
Men’s Tennis — The Bears went 0-3 at the ITA Indoor Championships, getting shutout by No. 3 TCU and No. 8 Ohio State, before falling in a hard-fought battle to No. 16 Florida, 4-2. In good news, the insane current schedule should ease up a little as the Bears host Abilene Christian and the Ivy League Bears from Brown this week. The program has lost seven straight, but all seven were against top-20 teams, including five in the top ten.
Women’s Tennis — The Bears played tough but fell short against Arkansas, 5-2, at Hawkins Indoor. They’ll host Washington on Friday and San Diego on Sunday.
No. 8 Equestrian — The Bears went down early and couldn’t complete, dropping their home contest to No. 7 Oklahoma State, 10-9. EQ will look to bounce back as they host No. 1 SMU in Waco on Thursday.
The Ugly
KU Second Half — Losing in Lawrence wasn’t a shocker, but that was a brutal outcome, given the Bears started hot and held a 16-point lead at halftime. Kansas is a good team, and Allen Fieldhouse is a shop of horrors, so everyone knew that lead wasn’t completely safe, but getting blown out 55-26 in the second half was u-g-l-y.
WBB Slide — The losing streak hit four games as the frustrations and pressures of losing continued mounting. On the heels of an 0-2 week, the Bears were blown out by Kansas State in Manhattan. And then, adding further insult to injury, they could not close out No. 22 Iowa State at home, instead suffering a brutal 81-77 loss in double-overtime. As frustrated as anyone, Nicki Collen pushed back against outside noise and criticism, but this is unfamiliar territory now at 7-7 in Big 12 play. The Bears travel to TCU on Wednesday and host Texas Tech on Saturday.
Baseball’s Nightmare Inning — In their 20-5 Game 2 loss to CMU, the Bears gave up 15 unearned runs in the sixth inning alone, attributable to a combination of errors, walks, hits, and hit batters. And all of that scoring madness? It happened with two outs — brutal stuff.
