Baylor Baseball Takes Step in Right Direction Before Big 12 Play Begins

What a difference a week makes.

Last Thursday, the Bears had lost multiple starters for the year with injuries and were coming off a sweep to No. 23 Indiana and an embarrassing 6-4 loss to Abilene Christian, marking the third straight loss to the Wildcats dating back to last season.

Head coach Mitch Thompson’s squad was at a crossroads – would it go off the rails just two weeks into the season, or would it take a formidable stand against Oral Roberts, a talented team that made the College World Series in 2023 and No. 20 DBU, a perennial powerhouse?

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RF Enzo Apodaca (RJr.) leads the Bears in virtually every offensive category two and a half weeks into the season.

Heading into the series versus the Golden Eagles, sophomore lefty Ethan Calder said, “The buck stops here. We’ve struggled in a couple of games, but we’re ready to get back [to Baylor Ballpark] this weekend and win.”

And win they did. The Bears swept Oral Roberts with sound pitching and an offensive explosion that produced over 30 runs and 40 base knocks in the three-game set.

The top of the lineup of RF Enzo Apodaca (RJr.), 3B Hunter Teplanszky (Jr.) and 1B Will Pendergrass (RJr.) combined to go 17-for-39 at the plate over the weekend with nine extra-base hits and 12 RBIs.

Players at the bottom of the batting order who have been thrust into starting roles because of injuries, such as CF Caleb Bergman (So.), 2B Daniel Altman (Sr.) and LF Kade Fletcher (RJr.) also made significant contributions.

After a slow start, C Cortlan Castle (Jr.) has begun to heat up, going 7-for-14 over his last four starts. DH Wesley Jordan (Jr.), who opened the season going 2-for-16 at the plate, picked up four base knocks over the weekend, including his first two homers of the year.

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RHP Mason Marriott (Jr.) allowed just one earned run across 5.2 innings of work against ORU in last Friday’s victory.

On the mound, starting pitchers Mason Marriott (Jr.) and Collin McKinney (RFr.) rebounded from rough outings against No. 23 Indiana with quality starts against Oral Roberts. Out of the bullpen, the young arms – Mason Green (Fr.), Stephen Sepulveda (Fr.), RJ Ruais (Fr.) – continue to have good moments, but the veterans Calder and Patrick Hail (RJr.) stole the show.

Calder and Hail combined for 7.1 shutout frames and nine strikeouts and were the only two arms used in relief on Friday and Saturday.

The Bears' sweep of ORU marked just the second time in Thompson’s tenure that they had swept an opponent – the first was against CSU Bakersfield to end the 2023 season.

While Baylor’s poor defense was a major point of contention over the first two weeks of the season, it has looked better over the last handful of games, notching four errors in comparison to 14 in the previous eight games.

Tyriq Kemp (Jr.) has seemed to turn a corner at shortstop, Pendergrass has made multiple quality plays at first base and Fletcher in left field has been an upgrade over Jordan and Hunter Simmons (Sr.).

However, it’s not enough of a sample size to say definitively that the defense has improved. As the competition begins to heat back up with conference play starting, it’ll be something to monitor closely, considering BU will win very few games when it routinely hands better opponents free bases.

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Baylor’s defense has totaled four errors in its last four games, in comparison to 14 errors in the previous eight.

With Baylor headed back in the right direction after a brutal 1-7 start to the year, the Bears were set to face off against the No. 20 DBU Patriots (10-1) on Tuesday night at Baylor Ballpark.

It was a big opportunity for Thompson’s squad to get a signature win, and while they didn’t walk away with a victory, they showed they could compete with one of the best teams in the state and better teams in the nation.

In the 8-5 loss, Baylor’s batting order struggled against the talented Patriots arms. The Bears notched over 10 walks and had plenty of opportunities in the contest to tie or take the lead but ultimately went a brutal 0-for-17 with runners on and 0-for-15 with runners in scoring position.

Baylor had the bases juiced in the second, third and fourth innings and mustered just two runs. Had the Bears gotten a timely hit or two, they easily could have been in that game and could have potentially walked with a victory.

“[Losing is] pretty frustrating because we had plenty of opportunities,” Thompson said after the defeat. “That was disappointing. [DBU] gave us some things, they hit us, they walked us, we drew some walks and had some quality at-bats to make that happen, but we couldn’t do enough offensively to really get into the game.”

Although slightly disappointing that the Bears couldn’t walk away with a 4-0 record this past week, going 3-1 was a necessary step back in the right direction after the sweep to No. 23 Indiana and the loss to Abilene Christian last Wednesday.

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Baylor has won three of its last four games and opens conference play against Houston (8-4) this weekend.

“We’re obviously not where we want to be record-wise right now,” Thompson said. “But at the same time, we played the schedule we played and faced the adversity we faced. And when you look at where we were at this time last year through 12 games – same record but a totally different level of competition and performance.

We’re two runs better ERA-wise than we were last year at this time. We’re hitting 40 points higher as an offensive team going through the adversity we’ve gone through. There are good things happening; it just hasn’t shown up yet in the wins and losses, and that’s where we need it to show up now.”

Next, Baylor will hit the road to open Big 12 play with a weekend series against the Houston Cougars (8-4) at Schroeder Park. The first pitch is on Friday at 6:30 p.m. and will be streamed on ESPN+.