By Foster Nicholas | Sports Writer
Baylor baseball opened up a 14-game homestand on Tuesday evening with an 8-3 loss to the University of Texas at San Antonio, and the squad is hoping to get back on track at Baylor Ballpark.
The Bears (2-6) and head coach Mitch Thompson are off to a rocky start in the 2023 season and even though there haven’t been many highs, the green and gold is prepared to keep the past behind it and learn from the experience.
“It hurts to get beat and to lose the way that we have in some of these games,” Thompson said. “We have to bounce back quickly. You have to have a short memory and you have to be able to look forward and move forward and hopefully this is a weekend that we can start doing that.”
Baylor entered the season as the youngest team in the Big 12 with 23 new faces. Junior left-handed pitcher and outfielder Kobe Andrade is in his second year at Baylor, and he said things are still new to him. Andrade has taken on a leadership role and said he still understands the team has a long way to go, but they are growing closer day by day.
“We have a lot of young guys on our team, not a lot of experience,” Andrade said. “All these guys were the best guys on their team back in high school and they’re getting humbled a little bit, myself included. My career is early on the offensive side, too.
“So, I’m learning a lot of things and they’re learning every at bat. Take failure, take it light. Keep your highs low, and keep your lows high. That’s our mindset going into every day.”
The two-way player hit his first home run in a Baylor jersey on Tuesday night against UTSA. Andrade said he wants to play within himself so that the team can succeed.
“Winning is the object of the game, but you can’t win them all,” Andrede said. “Obviously winning would be great, but we have to focus on playing Baylor baseball and doing our thing.”
Baylor will host Youngstown State University for a four-game weekend series at Baylor Ballpark at 6:30 p.m. Friday. The green and gold will throw fifth-year senior right-handed pitcher Blake Helton in game one, while sophomore right-handed pitcher Mason Marriot and junior left-handed pitcher and outfielder Cam Caley will each get a start on Saturday as part of the day-night doubleheader. Sunday’s starting pitcher is still to be determined.
Thompson is viewing this massive home slate as an opportunity to get back on track.
“It can be huge for us and it needs to be,” Thompson said. “We have to get on the right track so we need to take advantage of these next 13 games [at home] and make them count.”
Baylor fans can expect to see junior right-handed pitcher Will Rigney back on the bump at some point during the weekend, most likely out of the bullpen. Rigney is battling back from injury, but that hasn’t stopped him from helping develop the new faces on the pitching staff.
“I missed basically two years and I sat here and watched a lot of baseball,” Rigney said. “As freshmen you kind of tend to overlook simple things, and I just try to tell them that being competitive and throwing a lot of strikes will take you a long way.”
Following Youngstown State (1-7), the Bears will take on Dallas Baptist University, Mercer University, Rice University, Kansas State University and Sam Houston State Univeristy as part of the homestand. Under Thompson’s guidance, he’s trying to steer the team in the right direction.
“The thought process is on winning, but if you’re just worried about the end result then you’re not really taking care of what you have to take care [of],” Thompson said. “[We need to] take care of the process and it’s a simple game when you break it down. If you take care of the little things, the big things add up at the end of the year.”
