By Foster Nicholas | Sports Editor
Coming off a Cinderella season that ended one win shy of the Women’s College World Series, No. 19 Baylor softball has its eyes on playing in Oklahoma City come May.
Following months of restless nights thinking about how an additional 10 feet of distance on a warning-track shot could have changed history, head coach Glenn Moore’s Bears kicked off spring practices on Jan. 15 hungry. A midseason hiccup in 2024 helped the team come together and rally to succeed, and those memories still roll through Moore’s mind as he gazes at a new-look squad in chilly January weather.
“We were five games from not being above .500, which would’ve been a completely different season,” Moore said. “Our season could have gone either way, and we were hanging on by a thread. But we held on, and the fact that we did, we ended up feeling really good about ourselves when we finished with a lot of players coming back.”
The 2024 roster featured 21 of 22 athletes returning, a feat in itself in the transfer portal era. While a handful of seniors graduated and others tested their luck in the portal, Moore kept the roster primarily intact, with 15 of 25 players on the roster returning for 2025.
“The psychological part of it is important and I think will play huge dividends,” Moore said. “It will give us a little more rope before we do panic if we start a slide, which we will at some point in time. This is not a team that is going to play 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.
“I welcome that, I just want to make sure we turn each loss into a win by making the corrections and not panicking, and I think last year will play a big role in doing that.”
Coming off an NFCA unanimous first-team All-American season with a team-leading .444 batting average and 35 runs batted in, senior first baseman Shaylon Govan was named the No. 9 player in the nation in D1Softball’s preseason top 100. Govan was also named the No. 1 first baseman in the nation by both D1Softabll and Softball America.
But even with the preseason hype, Govan hasn’t let the accolades get to her head.
“The game humbles me. I still strike out all the time,” Govan said with a chuckle. “Having teammates that are humbling me and working hard just pushes me to continue to do that. The game is not given. I still have to work hard to continue to get the type of success I’m having.”
After their postseason run, the Bears lost two-way star Aliyah Binford, who transferred to Ole Miss in November, and junior right-handed pitcher RyLee Crandall, who transferred to No. 4 Oklahoma State. The pair ate up more than 80% of the team’s pitching innings in 2024, forcing Moore to craft a new-look rotation.
The green and gold expect senior right-handed pitcher Dariana Orme to return to the circle and picked up senior Duke left-handed pitcher Lillie Walker to anchor the rotation. Moore didn’t stop there as he reeled in junior Washington transfer Brooklyn Carter, who is set to play center field, and senior Hourston transfer Turiya Coleman, who will see time at third base and behind the plate.
“We do have some missing pieces, but we’re not really letting that affect us,” senior outfielder Ashlyn Wachtendorf said. “We’ve got a lot of new people with a lot of depth that are coming in to replace some of those lost people. I think we’re gonna be just fine.”
The green and gold open the season against Abilene Christian University on Feb. 6 as part of the Aggie Classic in College Station.
