By Foster Nicholas | Sports Editor
Riding high behind head coach Mitch Thompson’s first series win over a ranked opponent and a walk-off home run on Tuesday, Baylor baseball is finding ways to win games in different ways.
Whether it be a dominant six-inning appearance for a starting pitcher or scoring a run in each inning, the battle-tested Bears (20-8, 4-5 Big 12) have seen it all. However, the late-inning heroics displayed by redshirt sophomore Travis Sanders against HCU marked the first one-run win of the season. And as Thompson put it, Sanders couldn’t have pulled it off without pitching.
“When you can win games when you pitch well — you can win them 3-2, you can win them 12-11 if you have to,” Thompson said. “If we can keep making just small little improvements there, then we’re going to be great and have a really good ball club. I think our offense is still not clicking 100 percent yet. There are days where you see some of it really start to happen, and it’s exciting, but there’s still room for improvement.”
Gearing up for a three-game series against Houston (16-12, 3-6 Big 12), the Bears aim to keep their hot stretch alive. Senior shortstop Tyriq Kemp, who has 10 multi-hit games and a team-high .394 batting average in Big 12 play, said staying positive will be key to building more momentum.
“This is a big series coming up, everyone is excited about it,” Kemp said. “We’ve been working hard for it, too, so what I told the guys is just ‘Go out there and have fun, play hard and let everything come to you.’”
The Cougars sit middle of the pack in runs scored (205) among Big 12 teams, but come into the series with the third most runs allowed (173) and the second lowest team batting average (.269). Houston has allowed 10 or more runs in four of their nine conference matches, including two last weekend against TCU.
Despite the pedestrian numbers, the Bears know any Big 12 team is still stiff competition and all 30 conference games count toward the playoff tally.
“They have some really good arms, they have some speed and athleticism in the lineup,” Thompson said. “They have a club that can compete, so it’ll be a big challenge for us.”
Thompson slightly altered the rotation for this weekend, keeping junior left-handed pitcher Ethan Calder on Friday and bumping freshman lefty Carson Bailey to Saturday. The Bears will wait to see how the early part of the weekend goes before determining the Sunday starter. Junior left-handed pitcher Stafan Stahl earned the Saturday start against Arizona on a bullpen day, and has been encouraged by the reliever’s success on such occasions.
“You could tell everybody was coming in there with a ton of confidence,” Stahl said. “I just really feel like at this point, too, everyone is really pulling for each other. It doesn’t matter how we get the job done, but we’re going too. It’s cool to watch the confidence.”
The Bears will be back on the diamond, opening a three-game series against Houston beginning at 6 p.m. Friday at Baylor Ballpark.
