By Dylan Fink | Sports Writer
A polite 55-degree chill sat in the air Friday night as Getterman Stadium played host to new bases being placed, fresh grass watered and an eager Baylor crowd awaiting the first pitch of a new softball season on the Brazos.
The season opener for the Bears (0-1) quickly went south against No. 24 Mississippi State (1-0) at home. The Bulldogs mercy-ruled the home team 10-0.
“You can’t make too much out of a big win or a big loss right now,” head coach Glenn Moore said. “This is a young team and there is still 52 games left in the year.”
The green and gold hoisted four new faces in the starting lineup, including sophomore pitcher Cambree Creager making her Baylor debut on the mound.
Creager’s first inning as a Bear didn’t begin as the Arizona State transfer hoped. The Bulldogs took an early 2-0 lead when third baseman Nadia Barbary smashed a two-run home run over the left field wall.
Creager found her way out of the inning with loaded bases, as she followed up a full-count strikeout with a forced double-play to close out the top of the first.
“I threw two pitchers tonight who are transfers and haven’t thrown in a regular rotation since arguably they were in high school,” Moore said. “Later in the season we may pull her in that situation, but we needed to get some work out of her tonight and she did great getting out of there.”
The Bears did not answer in their first at-bats of the season, coming out of the first inning without any hits.
The Bulldogs stretched their lead to 3-0 after outfielder Abby Grace Richardson led off the second with a missile lofted over the right-field wall.
Baylor gave up a fourth run in the top of the third, allowing a seemingly catchable fly ball to find green grass in shallow right after a miscommunication between freshman infielder Kaygen Marshall and sophomore right fielder Sa’Mya Jones.
“You saw how the defense played,” sophomore infielder Faith Piper said. “We were right there behind our pitchers the whole night, so they know that we’re backing them up.”
After giving up her fifth run of the ballgame, Creager’s night was done. Sophomore pitcher Peyton Tanner took her place on the mound to finish out the top of the third. Tanner’s first batter, shortstop Morgan Stiles, quickly took the fresh arm yard, way over the left-field wall.
With a batter in between, Tanner gave up another dinger to dead center, bringing in two more runs. The Bears went into the bottom of the third still hitless and down 10-0.
“There were a lot of butterflies,” Moore said. “That’s normal. Playing a good team right away, those are going to show up.”
The Bears continued to lack answers from the batter’s box as Bulldog pitcher Peja Goold kept the home team hitless through three innings in just 44 pitches.
The top of the fourth was the first scoreless inning for the Bulldogs, as Baylor managed to hold the SEC program to one hit that time around. The Bears went three-up, three-down in the fourth.
The bottom of the fifth saw Baylor get their first hit of the season, as Piper earned a single off a blooper to right-center field. The Bears were put away for the night on the next batter.
Goold secured the one-hit win in her season debut, as the Bulldogs run-ruled the Bears in five innings to spoil the season opener.
“Going out there, my only mindset was, ‘There’s absolutely no chance I let someone get a no-hitter on us,’” Piper said. “This team is way too competitive to give her [Goold] something like that.”
The Bears’ next matchup will come against New Mexico at 3 p.m. Friday at Getterman Stadium. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
