No. 23 Baylor SB Heads to Arkansas for Wooo Pig Classic
STORY LINES
• Baylor heads to Fayetteville, Ark. for the Wooo Pig Classic. The Lady Bears will take on a pair of ranked foes - No. 22 Arkansas and No. 9 Florida State (twice) - in addition to Villanova and Kent State.
• Only the Arkansas game will be broadcast on the SEC Network+. However, all fans can be listened to on 101.3 FM and streamed at http://listen.streamon.fm/kbhthd2.
• Baylor is 2-0 vs. ranked foes this season (8-0 vs. No. 23 Auburn, 2-1 vs. No. 17 Minnesota).
• The Lady Bears have opened the 2020 season with a 12-0 record at home. It's the best start to a season at home since the 2009 team opened Getterman Stadium with 18-straight dubs.
• Aliyah Pritchett led the way for the Lady Bears in the win over the Lady Techsters as she went 2-for-2 at the plate with a double and a solo home run. The freshman was responsible for both RBI in the win. She also picked up the save, the second of her career.
• For the first time since March 1, 2019, BU is back in the national polls. Baylor is 23 in the NFCA/USA Today poll, 19 in the ESPN/USA Softball poll in addition to a 24th place showing in each of the D1 Softball and Softball America polls.
• Gia Rodoni was named the Co-Big 12 Pitcher of the Week on Monday. She threw her fifth career no-hitter against Tulsa and followed that performance up with a complete-game effort vs. Minnesota as she allowed one run, unearned, off six hits. She racked up 16 strikeouts over the weekend.
• Rodoni has 504 career strikeouts. That mark is good for sixth all-time. She's the first to hit the 500 mark since Heather Stearns finished her career with 738 from 2013-16. Whitney Canion is the all-time strikeout leader with 1,473.
• Kyla Walker now has 66 multi-hit games in her career. That ties her for fourth in Baylor history alongside her sister, Kayce, who played for BU from 2009-12.
• Baylor has recorded six double plays this season. Only one has been the conventional 6-4-3 as three have come from the outfield: 8-3 double play against Auburn, a 7-6-5-2 double play against Louisville and a 9-6-2-1 double play against Missouri State.
QUICK HITS
• Baylor will play five opponents ranked in the preseason Coaches Top 10 and four opponents in the preseason Coaches Top 25. In all, the Lady Bears play 12 games against Top 10 foes and eight games against Top 25 foes.
• Of the 20 games against teams ranked the preseason Coaches Top 25, only six of them are at home (3 vs. No. 3 Oklahoma, 1 vs. No. 8 Minnesota, 2 vs. No. 6 Texas). Three are neutral-site games (2 vs. No. 9 Florida State, 1 vs. No. 23 Auburn), and the remaining 10 are true road games (1 at No. 6 Texas, 3 at No. 7 Florida, 3 at No. 13 Oklahoma State, 3 at No. 18 Texas Tech, 1 at No. 24 Arkansas).
• Baylor will play 10 games against four programs that advanced to the 2019 Women's College World Series - Oklahoma, Florida, Minnesota and Oklahoma State).
• BU was picked fifth in the Big 12 preseason coaches poll behind Oklahoma, Texas, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech.
HOME SWEET WIN STREAK
• Baylor has opened the 2020 season with 12-straight wins at Getterman Stadium. That mark is the best since the 2009 team opened the season with 18-straight home wins.
• During the win streak, six of the dozen victories came by a margin of one run. The last four wins at home for the Lady Bears have come by one run.
OK, G!
• Gia Rodoni was named Co-Big 12 Pitcher of the Week on Monday after she wrapped up the Baylor Invitational with a 0.00 ERA as she allowed just one run, unearned, off six hits thorugh 15 innings of work in addition to striking out 16.
• Rodoni threw her fifth career no-hitter, and second in regular season action, in Baylor's 1-0 win over Tulsa on Friday. It marked her first no-no since May 19, 2018, against McNeese in the NCAA Tournament and her first regular season no-hitter since Feb. 8, 2018, vs. Northwestern State. She finished the game with nine strikeouts.
• This is the seventh weekly honor from the conference for Rodoni and first since April 30, 2018. Her six prior nods all came in 2018, which marked a program record for single-season honors and tied for third-most in a single season by a Big 12 pitcher.
• The honor is the 41st given to a Baylor pitcher in program history after Regan Green earned the nod a year ago. A Lady Bear pitcher has taken home at least one weekly honor from the conference in each of the last nine years.