Quotes and Notes: Baylor Softball 2025 Season Preview
A couple of weeks ago, Baylor Softball head coach Glenn Moore fielded questions from local media members about the Bears’ upcoming season. The Green and Gold enter this season ranked No. 21 by D1 Softball and No. 19 by ESPN/USA Softball. This leaves the Bears as the fourth highest-ranked team in the Big 12 in the preseason polls behind Arizona, Texas Tech and of course Oklahoma State.
The Bears were picked to finish fourth in the conference by the Big 12 Softball preseason coaches poll seen below.
2025 Big 12 Softball Preseason Poll
- Oklahoma State – 99 (9)
- Texas Tech – 90 (2)
- Arizona – 81
- Baylor – 75
- BYU – 54
- Utah – 52
- UCF – 51
- Arizona State – 36
- Kansas – 34
- Iowa State – 23
- Houston – 10
Baylor’s schedule is also loaded with opponents ranked in the preseason polls. The Bears play No. 9 Texas A&M this Friday (Feb. 7) in the Aggie Classic. They also get two games in two days against the reigning NCAA champions No. 3 Oklahoma during the Getterman Classic (Feb. 15 and 16). The next week the Green and Gold go back to Palm Springs for the Marry Nutter Classic where they will play No. 14 Nebraska, RV Missouri and No. 10 Arkansas. Things calm down a bit for Baylor until conference play. The Bears’ last non-conference game before the first Big 12 series is a trip to Austin to face No. 2 Texas. The second and third Big 12 series are home against No. 13 Texas Tech and away at No. 5 Oklahoma State. The other conference series are UCF, at Houston, at Arizona State, BYU and at Iowa State.
The Bears dodge preseason No. 12 Arizona during the regular season, but overall this Baylor schedule will thoroughly test the team.
Now for the head coach’s insight into his latest team:
On roster turnover:
“Through attrition, you're going to lose a few and hopefully replace them. And that dynamic is getting more and more difficult to manage with, you know, the portal… I think we're going to miss a few, but we've got some we're really excited about replacing we lost our entire outfield, but, but we have, I still think, one of the most talented outfields that we've had with the ones that are replacing them, so I'm excited about that. Just take a little time. Need to Be a little patient and I think our infill is going to eventually be very strong, one of the best that we've had here. So a lot of promise, but we have to be patient with it and let it develop”
See the charts below for details on the roster turnover from 2024 to 2025. Student Athletes that left the team are in red on the left and additions are in green on the right.
As per the charts, Baylor lost 305 starts from last year’s team. A rough estimate shows that 305 starts is about 52% of the team’s starts. Now that number might in reality be below 50% given a Designated Player is not used in every game. Either way, the Bears lost close to half of their starts from 2024. Glenn Moore brought in transfers with experience, but he was only able to replace about a third of those starts. More interesting is that 51 of 59 pitching starts left Waco and only one was brought in by Lillie Walker from Duke.
Here is some more information on the transfers into the Baylor program and how they produced last season at their respective schools.
- #47 Turiya Coleman - Houston - Sr. - C/INF - 55 Starts: .374 avg, 58 Hits, 8 HR, 46 RBI, 1.058 OPS
- Compare to Shaylon Govan: .444 avg, 63 hits, 11 HR, 35 RBI, 1.318 OPS
- #35 Carson Frier - UCF - Sr. - C - 6 starts: just 2 ABs, nothing to gather here
- #15 Lillie Walker - Duke - Sr. - P - 1 start: 63.2 IP, 1.98 ERA, .99 WHIP, 40 SO, 234 AB, .218 avg
- Compare to RyLee Crandall: 155.1 IP, 3.20 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 112 SO, 593 AB, .240 avg
- #11 Brooklyn Carter - Washington - Jr. - OF - 35 starts: .314 avg, 37 hits, 0 HR, 9 RBI, .661 OPS
Pitchers
On pitchers and injuries, Glenn Moore said this:
“I've kind of been conditioned not to get too high or too low about a pitcher being here or not being here through injuries. We've, you know, we've not had Dariana [Orme], and then postseason yet, since she's been here... We've got several that are coming off of injuries and got a transfer in that we don't know a ton about, and Lillie Walker, but high expectations there. So we're gonna truly pitch by committee early. Two, three innings, here and there, and try to see what they can do and not overuse them.
On Duke transfer Lillie Walker:
“Lillie Walker be the first lefty we've had on our staff in a while, and great command of her pitches. She's going to win some big games for us”
On Lexie Warncke:
“Lexie was a great pitcher in high school, and went through a surgery last year to relieve some pressure in her forearm area. She feels good right now, but not 100%. so we've got to give her some time till she's fully released.”
On Sadie Ross:
“Sadie Ross, kid from Colorado, won three state championships out there that has had three ACL tears. So we're hoping that the percentages are in our favor now with her, because she's surely running out of injuries to have. I need to knock on wood when I say that, but great change-up and a kid that can mix it a little bit. But again, it's going to take time… she was just released over Christmas break fully.”
Fielders
On Shaylon Govan managing expectations and lineup around her:
“I felt that she felt it a little bit early on last year, but then got in control of it… The biggest thing is probably handling the fact that she's not seeing a whole lot of pitches because of that. So it's going to depend, once again, on who's around her. And we have one very special hitter in Turiya Coleman, that you'll hear her name a lot this year. [She] is very capable of punishing a pitcher that pitches around her... We have a couple others. Karynton Dawson is another one, a freshman that's going to be a big name before she leaves here.”
On Turiya Coleman catcher vs. third base:
“So we have four catchers this year. She'll see time behind the plate. I anticipate her seeing more time at third, but she can do both. She's nationally recognized behind the plate as well … I like her at third. I like the way she plays third. I think she goes glove side really well. She's deceivingly fast. Played leadoff, believe it or not, although she hit the ball 300 feet, she hit lead-off for Houston quite a bit last year, and she's a scary threat offensively, both with her speed on the bases and with her power and ability to lay down a bunt. She’s just an athlete.”
Note: Coleman signed with Oklahoma out of high school before transferring to Houston before making it to Baylor this offseason.
On batting order re: Coleman and Govan:
“If you do have them at three and four — which I would anticipate early on — finding that five-hole hitter will be important. And we've got a few options there with Abi Flores, and Karynton Dawson and a couple others that could hit in the DP position.”
On Presleigh Pilon at Shortstop vs. Amber Toven at Shortstop and Pilon at 2nd base:
“We’ve got some options there, but number one, we'll go initially to giving Amber a chance back at that spot. That combination was leading the nation in double plays. But we're also working Presleigh over there, just in case it takes a little longer for Amber to get her game back ... We know confidently that Presleigh can play any position in the infield, so we'll just keep that in our back pocket and see how Amber's game progresses.”
On the outfielder Brooklyn Carter:
“Brooklyn Carter is a transfer from Washington that will most probably be our starting center fielder. She hit lead-off for the University of Washington. Stole about 25, 26 bases for them last year. She has played in the World Series at that level two years ago.”
On the rest of the outfield:
“Ashlyn Wachtendorf is one of our vocal leaders, and … I could see her starting and playing in the right field position. Again, I'm speculating right now, because there's plenty of time for movement on our depth chart. But Ashlyn is a good player, really good player, and an excellent base runner, and just plays the game the way I love it on the bases… probably Karynton Dawson would be the left field candidate right now. She's a great outfielder as well, outstanding. Has great speed, but she's also just … give her a little time, and she's going to show up big on the offensive side as well.”
Depth
On local freshman Savanna Pogue:
“Savanna is the utility player. She can play infield, outfield, and I think she comes to practice every day with the mentality that if I get my foot in the door, I'm gonna go for it. She's earned my confidence — not that I didn't have it to start with — but she's coming into a defense that is fairly well-established. So it's going to take a little time for her.”
On overall depth:
“I think one of the problems we've had in this program over the years, is we could put a good nine or ten out there, but we didn't have a lot of depth and quality depth. So whenever you lost a player and had to throw someone in off the bench, it was a little bit of a regression. And [Savanna] is one I'm confident in, as well as Gigi Lindsey, and returners like Caroline Rowatt or Emry McDonough.”
Season Outlook
Throughout his presser, Glenn Moore made it clear that there is only one way that taking a bunch of early losses from their tough schedule will cause anxiety for him: if the defense is breaking down and the losses don’t see the team “failing forward” and learning lessons. Coach Moore cited last year’s slow start and great finish as an example of this.
Specifically, Coach Moore was referencing the rough start to Big 12 play in 2024. Baylor raced out to a 13-3 record with two losses to a great Tennessee team and a loss to a tournament team in Louisiana. However, the Bears started conference 1-8 and continued skidding to 5-13 leaving them at 22-18 overall (just four games above .500). Baylor finished the regular season on a 9-1 run to go 31-19. The Bears ended with a 36-23 record and were a few runs short of a trip to the Women’s College World Series.
In Coach Moore’s mind, last season was about five games away from being completely different. When the team was around .500, they worked their way into not just the postseason but about 10 feet away from a walk-off homer to go to the World Series. That experience not only helped with roster retention and recruiting but can serve as a valuable lesson for the players that went through it all.
Overall, Coach Moore is not worried about some bumps along the way this year for his team.
“This is not a team that's not that's going to play, you know, consistently uphill the whole time. We're going to have some regression, and that's part of growing and developing and regrouping and finding out what you're made of. And I welcome that. I just want to make sure that we turn each loss into a win by making the corrections and not panicking. And I think last year will play a big, big role in doing that.”