Baylor Baseball Shows Signs of Improvement, Despite Winless Record

“[Competing] is to be expected,” head coach Mitch Thompson said walking off the field after Baylor’s 11-5 defeat to No. 9 Tennessee on Sunday night at Globe Life Field. “This competing thing is to be expected. We’ve got to get over the hump, but we’re playing good people. We’re learning a lot about where we have to go and how much better we have to get.”

Rightfully so, Thompson didn’t believe his team should earn a participation trophy for simply opening the season with three relatively close losses at the Shriners Children’s College Showdown to Nebraska, Oregon and Tennessee.

Jack Mackenzie - SicEm365

Baylor baseball dropped all three of its Opening Weekend contests to Nebraska, Oregon and No. 9 Tennessee.

Whether you point to a Wesley Jordan (Jr.) misplay in left field that gift-wrapped the Cornhuskers a lead in the eighth inning on Friday or an uncharacteristically bad outing from Grant Golomb (Sr.) that evaporated a 4-1 lead to the Ducks on Saturday, it was disappointing Baylor couldn’t leave Arlington with at least one win.

But from my perspective, I still came away encouraged by what I saw over the weekend. Coming off a season in which the Bears lost a program-record 35 games, there have already been noticeable improvements that seem to have put last year’s team in the past.

In excellent back-to-back starts on the mound against Nebraska and Oregon, Mason Marriott (Jr.) and Collin McKinney (RFr.) combined for 15 strikeouts and gave up just four hits across 10 frames. Last year, Baylor had abysmal starting pitching; if Marriott and McKinney can each throw at a high level consistently at the front end of the rotation, the Bears will have a chance in every series they play.

Jack Mackenzie - SicEm365

Weekend starters Mason Marriott (Jr.) and Collin McKinney (RFr.) combined for 15 strikeouts and gave up just four hits across 10 frames.

Aside from McKinney, four other freshmen arms made their collegiate debut over the weekend: lefties Jackson Elizondo, Mason Green, RJ Ruais and righty Stephen Sepulveda. Three of the four were ushered into college baseball by being flung into high-leverage situations; while Elizondo and Sepulveda took their bumps, Green worked out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam against the No. 9 team in the country.

As for the batting order, the lineup is deeper this spring. Typically, it can take a few weeks for the bats to get going and Baylor most definitely struggled with runners in scoring position (3-for-22) across the Shriners Showdown, but they held their own out of the gates against three teams with talented arms.

“We’re definitely capable of being a great offensive team that averages seven or eight runs a game,” center fielder Ty Johnson (Jr.), who is quickly becoming the face of the program, said after Sunday night’s loss. “We just have to stick to our approaches [after hot starts at the beginning of games], not get too big or do something different when the other team responds.”

Defensively, Baylor definitely has to clean some things up. Left field was an adventure all weekend with Jordan and Gavin Brzozowski (RSo.). At shortstop, Tyriq Kemp (Jr.), who is known for his glove, didn’t have the best start to his season either.

It’s early, but the defensive miscues, specifically against Nebraska and Tennessee, were definitely the most disappointing thing for me personally. When you’re playing better opponents, you can’t win by routinely handing them free bases. The defense has to be better moving forward, and Baylor can’t afford to beat itself.

Jack Mackenzie - SicEm365

Baylor recorded four errors over the weekend and had multiple other defensive miscues that were ruled as hits.

In comparison to last spring, the bullpen should also be improved, but the ceiling of this team will be determined by how well the underclassmen pitchers perform. While it was just the first series of the year, the veterans didn’t inspire a ton of confidence with their appearances out of the pen, and that will also be something to monitor.

But overall, this first month of the season was always going to test Thompson’s squad in every way imaginable. Baylor is playing the toughest schedule in the country over the first month, according to Baseball Radar. And it won’t get any easier over the next two weekends, as the Bears will host No. 23 Indiana and Oral Roberts – both of whom were 2023 NCAA Tournament teams.

So far, Baylor has been thrown into the fire and hasn’t backed down yet. Yes, it would have been nice to leave Arlington with at least one win, but it’s okay to look at the bigger picture rather than get fixated on early-season wins and losses.

And whether fair or not, people expect progress and they expect results sooner than ever before. With the transfer portal, it’s never been easier to rebuild a program in minimal time. While it may seem that Thompson and his staff are slow-playing the process, they are headed in the right direction whether it’s clearly visible yet or not.

Jack Mackenzie - SicEm365

Baylor is playing the toughest schedule in the country over the first month, according to Baseball Radar.

I know I wasn’t around to enjoy or cover the glory years of Baylor baseball during the Steve Smith era or even the handful of really good Steve Rodriguez teams, but I’ve been around the program for two of the losingest seasons in school history, and I’d like to think I’ve seen rock bottom and that I know a thing or two.

While not up to the standard of some of the early 2000s or late 2010s squads, the team that played in Arlington this weekend is significantly better than the team Baylor fielded last year. What the 2024 Bears will turn into over the course of the season remains to be seen, but I get the feeling that Thompson knows this team isn’t as far off as everyone believes and he senses a breakthrough is coming.