By Michael Haag | Sports Editor
It was Big 12 Championships week, as several Baylor Athletics programs took part in the annual postseason tournament or event. But since not every sport has started its postseason yet, here’s everything you may have missed in Baylor Athletics over the weekend.
No. 3 seed TCU cruises past No. 6 seed Baylor men’s tennis 4-1 in Big 12 Championships
No. 6 seed Baylor men’s tennis fell to No. 3 seed TCU 4-1 in the first round of the Big 12 Championships on Friday afternoon at the Greenwood Tennis Center in Stillwater, Okla.
The Bears (18-11) snagged the doubles point to take an early 1-0 lead, but four straight wins in singles play by the Horned Frogs (20-3) put an end to the match.
“We did a pretty good job getting started in doubles,” head coach Michael Woodson said. “We did a good job of battling there at No. 1 doubles, and at two and three, we played within ourselves, stuck to our game styles and won some good points with good poise.
“Going into singles, we caught a break on four courts and had some really good momentum that we weren’t able to sustain. We had multiple three setters, and we were very much in a position to win. … Credit to TCU — they really battled well today.”
Baylor now looks ahead to its potential NCAA Tournament selection, as the selection show is set for April 29. The first and second rounds will take place on host campus sites on May 3-4.
“Our guys are moving in the right direction, and I’m really looking forward to the next couple weeks to get us ready for NCAAs and am very hopeful we can make a run there,” Woodson said.
Baylor track and field shines at Michael Johnson Invitational despite rainy weather
Baylor track and field put up numerous wins across a shortened Michael Johnson Invitational, thanks to rough weather in Central Texas. The meet was paused at 4:17 p.m. and then canceled around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Clyde Hart Track and Field Stadium in Waco.
But the Bears put together six total event wins and a collegiate title before the bad weather rolled in.
“We thought [the rain] would come in around 4:30 or 5 o’clock,” head coach Michael Ford said. “I wasn’t sure about the lightning. I don’t play around with the lightning. I don’t like delays honestly, with the kids warming up, then cooling down, then warming back up. I worry about that.
“We just said we were going to go ahead and call it. … It’s late in the season. We don’t need any injuries. At least on our end, we don’t need any injuries. That’s why I said, ‘You know what? We’ll go ahead and cancel the rest of the meet.’”
Baylor will return to the Clyde Hart Track and Field Stadium for the 2024 Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championships on May 9-11. But the Bears will compete in one final meet in Arizona, the Desert Heat Classic on April 27, first.
Haywood told us she hadn’t PR’d since she cleared 14-6 to win the 2023 Tomball Memorial Wildcat Relays as a senior at Memorial High School.
The true freshman has now won the pole vault title in back-to-back meets.
“It’s super exciting to see it start to come together.” https://t.co/r3cEgct7Th
— Michael Haag (@MichaelHaag_) April 20, 2024
Baylor women’s golf tallies fourth-place finish at Big 12 Championship
Baylor women’s golf wrapped up the Big 12 Championship in fourth place on Saturday at the Clubs at Houston Oaks in Hockley. Junior Sera Hasegawa carded an even-par 71 to cap off her 1-over 214 on the weekend.
Hasegawa earned her spot on the Big 12 All-Tournament Team after what became her second straight round at par or better on Saturday. Baylor as a team finished in the top five for a seventh straight season at the Big 12 Championship.
“We have a fantastic team that never really got it going this week,” head coach Jay Goble said. “It’s a little frustrating that we came out here and didn’t play our best golf this week. Thankfully, we have an opportunity to go to regionals, and we’re going to have an opportunity to earn some even bigger trophies.
“This team really is special. They’re really good. I think sometimes there might be some doubt that they are as good as they are. Ninety-five percent of the golf we played this weekend was fantastic, but I think the 5% that we didn’t play great cost us big. The hardest thing to swallow is that there really was so much good. And I hope our team can focus on the good things they did this week in preparation for regionals.”
The Bears will find out which regional they’re headed to, as it’ll be announced on the Golf Channel at 1 p.m. on Wednesday. Baylor will be making its seventh straight appearance at an NCAA Regional.
RyLee Crandall, Aliyah Binford lead Baylor softball to UCF series sweep
“Four” was Baylor softball head coach Glenn Moore’s magic number going into the weekend.
Moore said four wins would put the Bears (25-18, 8-13) in a good spot for the postseason, and they went ahead and got three out of the way.
Baylor capped off a series sweep of UCF with a pair of wins in a doubleheader on Sunday afternoon at Getterman Stadium. The Bears won the series opener 2-1 on Friday before winning both Sunday contests by a score of 1-0.
BEARS LEAD#SicEm | #andONE pic.twitter.com/8bbqL3AjF8
— Baylor Softball (@BaylorSoftball) April 21, 2024
“Where we’ve been and knowing how well they’ve been playing, [the sweep is] huge, mainly for our confidence,” Moore said. “These are games we knew moving out of the more difficult part of the Big 12 schedule that we were matched up well enough to win some.
“But that doesn’t mean we’re going to win, especially when you have a depleted bullpen. I think the weather helped us out yesterday to give RyLee [Crandall] another day off. Then Aliyah [Binford] came back and threw one of her better games.”
The Bears will now travel into Mountain time to face Utah for a midweek contest. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. on Wednesday at Dumke Family Softball Stadium in Salt Lake City. The game will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.
Baylor baseball loses two straight, drops series finale to Kansas 12-2
Baylor baseball dropped the final two contests of a three-game series to Kansas following a blowout win on Friday night that marked the first time Baylor baseball had a .500 record since February 2023. The Bears fell in the series finale by a score of 12-2 on Sunday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark.
Head coach Mitch Thompson and the Bears (18-20, 9-9 Big 12) rode a six-game conference winning streak and landed in a fourth-place tie in the Big 12 after the game-one victory. Baylor promptly forfeited six walks and allowed 14 Jayhawk (21-15, 9-9 Big 12) hits in the game-three loss, which dropped the Bears into a three-way seventh-place tie in the conference standings.
“We just didn’t pitch well enough, and then we didn’t swing the bat well enough for sure today to win a game. So that’s disappointing,” Thompson said. “The game got away from us today, and it wasn’t a whole lot of fun.”
Baylor will wrap up its four-game homestand with a midweek game against Sam Houston at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday at Baylor Ballpark. The Bears lost to the Bearkats (24-16, 7-8 SLC) by a score of 18-3 on March 19 in Huntsville.
