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BAYLOR
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UTA COLLEGE CLASSIC
Feb. 8-10, 2002
Mike Lewis Park
Grand Prairie, Texas
Baylor returns to action this weekend at the UTA College Classic, hosted by Texas-Arlington at Mike Lewis Park in Grand Prairie, Texas. Baylor will play in Pool B along with Louisiana-Monroe, Oklahoma State and Texas-San Antonio. Oklahoma, Stephen F. Austin, UTA and Utah will play in Pool A. The Lady Bears see their first action of the weekend Friday at 1:00 p.m. CST against Louisiana-Monroe. Pool play continues through Saturday afternoon with tournament play beginning that afternoon at 4.
HEAD COACH GLENN MOORE
Glenn Moore is in his second season as head coach at Baylor, coming to Waco after a stellar three-year tenure at Louisiana State. In his first season at Baylor, Moore led the Lady Bears to a 38-22 overall record and a sixth-place, 7-9 mark in the Big 12 Conference. Along the way, Baylor established school season records for wins, home runs (24), fielding percentage (.963), on base percentage (.329), shutouts (17) and saves (7). The Lady Bears also enjoyed a school-record 11-game winning streak in February. While at LSU, Moore amassed a 117-25 (.820) record in two-plus seasons as the head coach. In that time, he led the Tigers to consecutive Southeastern Conference titles and back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Regionals. He was named head coach at LSU just prior to the 1998 Regionals, giving him three NCAA postseason appearances as a head coach. The Tigers went 56-10 in 1999 en route to the SEC regular season title and the conference tournament championship. Last season, the Tigers finished 59-13, one game shy of the College World Series. LSU finished eighth nationally in team batting average (.310) and ninth in team ERA (1.11). Moore has a career record of 183-64 (.741), he posted a 22-17 mark in his first year as a collegiate head coach at William Carey in Mississippi.
UTA COLLEGE CLASSIC SCHEDULE
Friday, Feb. 8, 2002
Louisiana-Monroe vs. Baylor, 1 p.m.
Baylor vs. Oklahoma State, 4 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 9, 2002
Baylor vs. Texas-San Antonio, 10 a.m.
Baylor vs. Utah, 1 p.m.
Quarterfinals, 4 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 10, 2002
Semifinals, 9 a.m.
Championship, Noon
UTA COLLEGE CLASSIC FIELD
Baylor is 79-94-1 all-time against the seven other teams participating in the UTA College Classic. Nearly half of that has come against the host Lady Mavs, Baylor leads that series 39-25-1. The Lady Bears are also quite familiar with Stephen F. Austin State (15-16), Oklahoma (2-20), Texas-San Antonio (10-12) and Oklahoma State (6-15). Baylor is 6-5 all-time against Louisiana-Monroe and 1-1 all-time against Utah. The Lady Bears are 18-19 against these teams in games played at neutral sites, including a 4-0 mark against ULM and a 3-0 mark against SFA.
MOORE vs. UTA COLLEGE CLASSIC FIELD
Baylor head coach Glenn Moore is 14-7 during his career against the teams participating in the UTA College Classic, 12-6 while at Baylor. The only team Moore-coached teams faced before he came to Baylor is Oklahoma, against whom Moore's Louisiana State teams were 2-1. Moore has never faced Louisiana-Monroe or Utah.
BAYLOR'S UTA COLLEGE CLASSIC HISTORY
This is the third straight season and sixth in seven years in which Baylor has participated in the UTA College Classic, formerly called the UTA/Isuzu Motors Invitational. Baylor is 17-8 all-time at the College Classic, posting perfect records in 1997 and in 2001. Last season, the Lady Bears were quad-champions along with Louisiana-Monroe, Oklahoma and Texas-A&M. The four teams entered Sunday's semifinals with identical 5-0 records on the weekend before continuous rains and cold temperatures forced cancellation of play. In 1997, Baylor outscored its opponents 26-8 en route to a 5-0 record, the Lady Bears defeated host UTA 7-2 in the championship.
LAST TIME OUT ... BAYLOR 5, TEXAS-ARLINGTON 0
Baylor made use of eight hits and a pair of Texas-Arlington errors to defeat the Lady Mavs 5-0 in the Getterman Classic finale last Sunday. The Lady Bears got a run in the first on a throwing error by UTA. The Lady Mavs committed another error with two outs and the bases empty in the second inning, and Baylor made them pay. OF/IF Kelly Levesque followed with a home run to center field, giving the Lady Bears a commanding 3-0 lead. BU tacked on two more runs in the sixth on a two-run single by OF Sarah Caudle. Cristin Vitek picked up the win, allowing no runs on one hit with a walk and four strike outs in five innings of work. Joni Miller yielded one hit and struck out two over two innings for her first save of the season. At the plate, Caudle went 2-for-4, Levesque's lone hit was the home run as she walked in each of her other three plate appearances.
LADY BEARS MATCH BEST 6-GAME START EVER
With six straight wins, Baylor is off to one of the hottest starts in school history. Only the 1997 squad, which began 7-0, opened the season with a longer winning streak. Last season, the Lady Bears established a school record for the best 23-game start at 19-3. Baylor's current six-game winning streak already ties for the ninth-longest run of success in school history.
BAYLOR CLAIMS GETTERMAN TITLE WITH EASE
The Lady Bears outscored their opponents 56-6 en route to a 6-0 record and the team title in last weekend's inaugural Getterman Classic. Baylor hit .429 as a team, while the trio of Katie Decker, Joni Miller and Cristin Vitek combined for a 0.92 staff ERA. The Bears hit five home runs, including a grand slam by senior IF Holly Fields against Texas-Arlington. The Lady Mavs tied Northwestern State for second, both finishing 3-3. Southern was fourth at 0-6. Four Bears were named to the all-tournament team. Vitek joined OF Sarah Caudle, OF/C Carrie Leerberg and OF/IF Kelly Levesque on the 10-member squad.
RECORDS FALL AS BU SLAMS SU
Several records were rewritten last Friday afternoon when Baylor pounded Southern 21-1, however, some of them fell again two days later when the Lady Bears upended the Lady Jaguars 18-1. The 20-run winning margin in the first game is the largest in the program's history. It was also a school record for runs in a season-opener, shattering the previous mark of eight established last season against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Lady Bears tallied a school-record 27 total bases Friday against Southern, that record stood for less than 48 hours as Baylor racked up 38 total bases with a school-record eight extra base hits in the Sunday meeting. The Lady Bears also tied the school record for home runs in a game as SS Stephanie Pomes, C Danelle Arnold and OF Nan Wilkins all went deep.
NEWCOMERS SHINE IN FIRST WEEKEND
Baylor saw immediate impact from several first-year members of the Green and Gold squad last weekend. Most noteable was the play of OF/IF Kelly Levesque and OF/C Carrie Leerberg. Levesque leads the team with a .700 batting average to go along with three doubles, a home run, five walks and an .800 on base percentage. Leerberg is second on the team with a .625 average, she leads the team with 10 hits after tying the school record for hits in a game with four in her collegiate debut Friday against Southern. In all, first-year Lady Bears have produced 47 of Baylor's 72 hits on the weekend. Pitching wise, Katie Decker and Cristin Vitek are both 2-0 with 0.78 and 0.95 ERAs, respectively. Decker has struck out 12 batters in 9.0 innings of work, while Vitek has fanned 17 batters in 14.2 innings. Decker is holding opponents to a .107 batting average, opponents are hitting just .167 against Vitek.
EARLY BEARS GET THE RUNS
Quick starters is a good way to describe the 2002 Lady Bears. Through the first six games, Baylor is averaging 2.2 runs per first inning, having scored in the opening frame in five of six games. The Lady Bears erupted for five runs in the first inning of their 6-1 victory Saturday over Texas-Arlington. However, Baylor has been just as tough on opponents in the second inning, averaging 2.3 runs per second frame. In all, Baylor has out-scored its opponents 49-5 over the first four innings.
SUCCESS AT THE TOP
Success starts at the top ... or at least at the top of the order for Baylor. Through six games this season, Lady Bears hitting out of the No. 1 spot in the batting order carry a .643 batting average with nine runs scored, three doubles, one home run, a 1.071 slugging percentage and a .737 on base percentage. OF/IF Kelly Levesque has done most of that damage, hitting .700 (7-for-10) with seven runs, three doubles and a homer out of the 1-hole. SS Kim Wilmoth went 2-for-2 with two runs in her lone appearance as the Baylor leadoff batter.
CAUDLE CLOSING IN ON TRIPLES MARK
With two triples over the weekend, junior CF Sarah Caudle moved into third place all-time at Baylor with five career triples. She now trails only Lyn Hill (7, 1996-1999) and Naomi Fitzgerald (6, 1998-2001) in the career category. ... Meanwhile, Caudle and senior IF Holly Fields both cracked BU's all-time top 10 list in career RBI over the weekend. Fields is now ninth all-time at Baylor with 45 runs driven in, while Caudle is 10th with 44. ... Caudle currently ranks in the top 10 on 11 career offensive lists at Baylor.
LADY BEARS NEARING MILESTONES
Baylor is just 10 wins shy of the program's 500th all-time victory, including games played from 1974 to 1988. The Lady Bears' program currently has an all-time record of 490-486-3 (.502), meaning Baylor will play its 1,000th game by the end of February. Since the program's reinstatement in 1996, the Lady Bears are 194-161 (.546). Statistically, With her run-scoring ground out in the bottom of the first inning last Friday against Northwestern State, junior CF Sarah Caudle collected the 1,000th Baylor RBI since the program's re-instatement in 1996. Baylor is 701 at bats shy of No. 10,000 since 1996.
BIG 12 COACHES TAB BAYLOR SIXTH
Baylor was picked to finished sixth in the Big 12 Conference this season, according to the preseason coaches' poll. The Lady Bears were 38-22 overall last season, finishing sixth in the Big 12 with a 7-9 league mark. Defending champion Nebraska was the overwhelming favorite in the preseason poll, garnering 78 total points and seven of 10 first-place votes. Oklahoma, which claimed the Big 12 Tournament title last year, was picked second with 72 total points and two first-place nods. Texas was third with 65 points and the final first-place selection. Kansas (52 points) was picked fourth, followed by Texas A&M (49), Baylor (42), Oklahoma State (32), Texas Tech (28), Missouri (23) and Iowa State (9).
TRANSFERS FIND HOME AT BAYLOR
Four members of the 2002 Lady Bears' squad transferred to Baylor from other schools, three coming in this season and all three from four-year schools. Last season, Kourtny Westerfeld joined the Baylor program after spending one season at nearby McLennan Community College. This season, the Lady Bears welcome sophomores Danelle Arnold and Katie Decker from fellow Big 12 Conference institution Nebraska, and sophomore Kelly Levesque from Southeastern Conference power Louisiana State.
Player Prev. School StatusDanelle Arnold Nebraska sophomore CKatie Decker Nebraska sophomore RHPKelly Levesque Louisiana State sophomore SSKourtny Westerfeld McLennan CC junior 1B
BAYLOR ADDS 3 EARLY SIGNEES
Head coach Glenn Moore signed four players to National Letters of Intent last fall during the early signing period. Joining the Lady Bears' program next year will be 3B/C Amber Daniel, SS Kelly Osburn and SS/OF Harmony Schwethelm. Daniel, a 1999 graduate of Vanguard High School in Waco, Texas, will come to Baylor from Temple (Texas) College. Osburn preps at Elkins High School in Missouri City, Texas, and Schwethelm attends Smithson Valley High School in San Antonio, Texas.
GOBAYLORBEARS.COM
Baylor's official athletic web site can be found at www.GoBaylorBears.com. The comprehensive site, which includes releases, photos, biographical sketches and audio broadcasts, is part of the FANSonly Network. FANSonly currently hosts sites for more than 100 universities, including eight Big 12 schools.
OVER THE AIR
Selected Baylor softball games can be heard live on KRZI-AM (1660/1580) in Waco this season. John Morris, "Voice of the Bears" and a veteran broadcaster of all sports, will handle play-by-play duties, while Baylor assistant director of media relations Larry Little, a veteran broadcaster of baseball, softball, basketball and soccer, will provide color analysis. Baylor's broadcast schedule for the 2002 season is as follows:
Date Day Opponent TimeMarch 20 Wed. at Texas Tech (DH) 2:00 p.m.March 27 Wed. TEXAS 6:30 p.m.April 6 Sat. at Missouri 7:00 p.m.April 14 Sun. IOWA STATE NoonApril 20 Sat. at Oklahoma State 2:00 p.m.May 1-3 Wed.-Fri. at Big 12 Tournament TBAMay 16-20 Thurs.-Mon. at NCAA Regionals TBA
BAYLOR GAMES ON THE NET
Live stats for all Baylor home games can be accessed by visiting www.GoBaylorBears.com, the official website of Baylor athletics.
INSIDE BAYLOR SPORTS TV SHOW
Inside Baylor Sports, a half-hour look at the world of Baylor athletics, airs weekly throughout Central Texas and the region. The program, co-hosted by John Morris and Lori Scott-Fogleman, airs on KCEN-TV Channel 6, Fox Sports Net Southwest and the College Channel (Waco cable channel 18). KCEN carries the show at 10:30 p.m. Sundays, and it airs at 1 p.m. Wednesdays on FSN Southwest.
UP NEXT...
The Lady Bears return to action next weekend, Feb. 15-17, at the Houston Invitational, hosted by the University of Houston at the Cougar Softball Complex. Action begins Friday as Baylor faces Ohio State at 9:00 a.m. CST and Stephen F. Austin State at 4:00 p.m. CST. Saturday, the Lady Bears play McNeese State at 1:00 p.m. CST, followed by a 7:00 p.m. CST game against the host Cougars. Tournament play begins Sunday morning.
