By Jeffrey Cohen | Sports Writer
Baylor entered the season with a concrete plan for the starting rotation: Lucas Davenport on Friday, Ethan Calder on Saturday, Cade Hansen on Sunday and a bullpen game on Tuesday.
The Bears have not seen that plan play out often this season. Davenport, the redshirt junior right-hander, was the first domino to fall, missing almost a month after his opening day start against New Mexico State.
Senior left-handed pitcher Stefan Stahl stepped in for Davenport, posting a combined eight innings with only one run allowed against then No. 8 Oregon State and No. 25 Ole Miss. Just as luck would have it, Stahl went down for a whole month after notching a career-high eight strikeouts against the Rebels.
To cap things off, Baylor announced on March 4 that junior left-hander Mason Green would miss the remainder of the season with an arm injury.
The Bears (16-12, 5-4 Big 12) have sought consistency amid the significant injuries to the pitching staff.
Baylor’s pitchers, particularly in the bullpen, were ready to step up, just like Stahl did for Davenport in February.
“We have a good depth, and that’s going to carry us,” sophomore right-handed pitcher Zack Wallace said. “One man goes down, the next man up, and that’s our mentality … We want to do it for that guy, and that’s the way we carry ourselves.”
The Bears have been regaining strength throughout March. Davenport returned March 6 and has dealt 14.1 innings with four runs given up. Stahl made his first appearance in Baylor’s 5-1 loss to Tarleton State on Tuesday, throwing one scoreless inning with a pair of punchouts.
“We’ll be better on the mound when we get him back, and it’ll give us another guy that we can count on,” head coach Mitch Thompson said. “I thought his inning was very efficient. [He] looked sharp, threw the ball well.”
While Stahl will not return to a starting role, he serves as a valuable long-relief option for Thompson’s squad.
“Stefan will give us another guy out of the bullpen that we can count on that could come in and be able to give us a couple innings of work,” Thompson said.
The starting pitchers found a rhythm against Houston. Davenport got the ball rolling with 5.1 one-run innings on Friday night. Wallace made his fourth start of the season, allowing three runs across five frames. Calder completed the sweep, tossing a season-long seven innings.
“Last weekend was the first weekend we’ve had starting pitchers that were lengthened out, ready to go and could stay in the game until we had to come get them,” Thompson said. “We pitched extremely well this weekend, and we’ll need to pitch well again this weekend against BYU, but at least we’ve got guys that are ready to go do that.”
Wallace has begun to cement himself in the weekend rotation. He made his first weekend start against Oklahoma State, giving up four runs on seven hits in 4.2 innings. He has now appeared in a starting role in the past two weekend series and is expected to continue in that spot.
He is willing to step into any role that Baylor needs, especially after an unpredictable first two months of the season.
“Whatever I need to do to get the team on the right track and keep us in all games, I’m going to go out there and do,” Wallace said.
He started his season as a reliever who could eat up multiple innings at a time, going multiple frames in four of his five appearances out of the bullpen. Despite his usage early in the Bears’ campaign, he has had to adjust to his new role.
“I’ve kind of been stretched out,” Wallace said. “In the fall, I went a couple innings. Whatever they need me to do, as many innings, as many pitches, that’s what I’m going to do for the team.”
As the pitching staff has seen guys come and go due to injuries, Thompson wants to emphasize the need for his pitchers to rely on their defense. Even if some of the pitchers do not possess dominating arsenals, their goal is to force weak contact, not pile up Ks.
“The deal is to just go out there and be yourself, trust your stuff, attack, make plays behind them on defense,” Thompson said. “When we’re sharp on defense, that helps. The whole game isn’t limiting base runners. It’s limiting free ones.”
