By Foster Nicholas | Sports Editor
Mitch Thompson has been above .500 with Baylor baseball just once in his two-year tenure as head coach: a walk-off win in extra innings over Central Michigan on Opening Day in 2023. In year two, Thompson’s squad rattled off a 10-1 11-game stretch at the midpoint of Big 12 play to even their record at 18-18 but failed to bounce above the .500 marker.
After an injury-riddled 2024 season, Thompson anticipates a breakout season for the Bears. With five of their top hitters and seven of the team’s Opening Day starters returning, Baylor picked up spring practice healthy with the injury bug out of their system.
“I’ve done this for too long. It doesn’t happen like that every year,” Thompson said. “When you have that many season-ending injuries even before the season started or right as the season started, that was a blow. And so, from the first weekend on, we’re playing four guys that we didn’t think would be in the lineup every day, and they’re in the lineup every day for the next 50 games.”
Finishing the season at 22-31 — two more wins than the season prior — the green and gold improved their batting average by 19 ticks (.254 in 2023, .273 in 2024) and flashed individual success throughout the season. Something that the team thinks will translate to an overall performance bump in 2025.
“We want to show what we’re capable of,” senior outfielder Wesley Jordan said. “We’re tired of being at the bottom. So, just knowing who we have and who the guys’ personalities are, that’s what gives us confidence.”
Led by the senior outfield trio of Jordan, Enzo Apodaca and Ty Johnson, the Bears also feel they have the depth to make up for short stints without key players. The green and gold have a core group of seven seniors projected to land in the starting lineup to go along with at least one underclassman who can comfortably back up each position on the field.
“We have more depth. We have more guys and more options at more spots on the field,” Thompson said. “I feel very good about that. I feel we’re real close to two-deep everywhere on the field where, hey, we have a talented kid who can play there. And on the mound, what we saw this fall was a big step forward.”
Thompson added 31-year coaching veteran Sean Snedeker to take over as the team’s new pitching coach after the green and gold accumulated a 6.43 earned run average across Thompson’s first two seasons. This mark has been the worst in the Big 12 during this two-year span by nearly an entire run. The Bears find themselves behind Texas Tech who has the second-worst ERA of 5.47.
Snedeker, who has churned out high-profile MLB arms like Marcus Stroman and Jordan Romano, instantly gained the support of the roster and transformed fall workouts for the pitching staff. Senior right-handed pitcher Patrick Hail, who spent time working with Snedeker while at Lamar, has already seen a noticeable change.
“Oh, man, in reality, it’s a dream come true,” Hail said about working with Snedeker again. “My first year with him, I was injured the whole year, so I got an inside look into how his mind works and what it takes to be an elite pitcher realistically. It’s been life-changing for some of these guys to get to experience that themselves. And I’m really glad that they get to experience what I’ve experienced.”
The most significant change to the 2025 roster starts with the increased presence of competitive left-handed arms. In Thompson’s first two years, left-handers accounted for less than 27% of Baylor’s innings pitched and combined for a 5.90 ERA. Now, just two weeks away from the beginning of the season, the Bears’ staff has enough left-handed arms to make up at least 35% of the team’s innings.
“We have seven left-handed arms on this staff, and I can see all of these guys playing big roles,” Thompson said. “It just lengthens out our pitching staff, for sure. It gives us lots of options. We don’t [have] roles all lined out yet. I mean, we have ideas and we’re starting to work through those.”
On paper, Baylor’s pitching staff looks improved, to go along with a veteran-led lineup that has succeeded against conference foes. However, the Bears were picked to finish 13th out of 14 teams in the Big 12 Preseason Poll, which head coaches around the conference vote on.
“It’s our job to go prove them wrong,” Thompson said. “It doesn’t happen on paper. If you’re number one, they don’t hand you the trophy. You still have to go play the games. If you’re last, ask Arizona State in football — they did OK this year.”
Baylor baseball opens the season with a weekend series against Youngstown State, with Opening Day’s first pitch scheduled for 3 p.m. Feb. 14 at Baylor Ballpark.
