Baylor Baseball’s Road Woes, Plus Updates on Big 12 Race
As Mitch Thompson’s squad prepares for a road trip to Lubbock to face off against No. 16 Texas Tech, the young Bears have a lot of momentum to build on after they went toe-to-toe with No. 19 Texas this past weekend.
Baylor’s lone win over the Longhorns came in thrilling fashion Saturday, thanks to a two-run walk-off single from sophomore 3B Hunter Teplanszky.
In Friday and Sunday’s defeats, the Bears fell by just three combined runs. While the schedule reflects two losses, it doesn’t necessarily indicate how hard Thompson’s team fought.
In the series opener, BU’s offense put up six runs in the last two innings but ultimately came up short. And in the finale, Baylor had opportunities late to tie or take the lead but made multiple mental mistakes on the basepaths to kill any chance of a comeback win.
However, one issue that plagues the young Bears is that they remain winless on the road in conference play and are 1-11 away from Baylor Ballpark. Their first road win of the season came over Sam Houston last night, 7-6.
“We’ve obviously scuffled when we’ve been on the road,” Thompson said on April 8. “It’s just important to always play well here at home. We need to figure it out on the road as well, but when you’re [home], you need to win”
As of April 16, BU’s offense is hitting for an average of .234 and scoring 4.5 runs per game away from the friendly confines of Baylor Ballpark. The pitching staff is surrendering 12.7 runs per contest and giving up 22.7 hits plus walks per game.
In comparison, at home, the Bears are hitting .270 as a team and are scoring 6.2 runs per game. The pitching staff is allowing 6.5 runs per game and 14.1 hits plus walks per game.
Although a smaller sample size on the road, Baylor plays significantly better at home, which makes sense because of the youth and inexperience on the team.
With Big 12 Tournament implications on the line in this weekend’s series against No. 16 Texas Tech (6-6), it’s imperative the Bears find a way to win at least a game.
Baylor (5-10) currently sits tied for last place in the conference with Oklahoma (4-8) but holds the tiebreaker over the Sooners if both teams finished with the same record.
The Bears are yet to play No. 16 Texas Tech, West Virginia (5-4) and TCU (7-5). While Oklahoma still has to play No. 14 Texas (8-4) and West Virginia on the road and Kansas (5-7) and Oklahoma State (8-7) at home.
Kansas, which also has a first-year coaching staff, is floating around the bottom of the Big 12 as well.
Earlier in April, the Jayhawks were riding a hot streak and took a series over West Virginia and swept Baylor in Lawrence before getting the rug taken out from underneath them in a sweep to in-state rival Kansas State (9-6).
On a positive note, Baylor won’t have to travel beyond the Lone Star State for the rest of Big 12 play. After a trip to Lubbock, the Bears will return home to face West Virginia in Waco before heading to Fort Worth to face the Horned Frogs to end conference play.
With little separation between the middle of the conference and Baylor and Oklahoma at the bottom of the standings, anything could happen over the final month of the season.
The Bears control their own destiny and will hopefully find a way to avoid missing the Big 12 Tournament for the first time in program history, which, all things considered, would be a great success in Thompson’s first year as head coach of the program.
