No. 7 Softball Travels to Face Texas Tech
3/25/2005 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 25, 2005
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# 7 BAYLOR (29-4, 0-1) at TEXAS TECH (18-9, 0-0)
Game 1 - March 25, 2005, 6:00 p.m. - Rocky Johnson Field - Lubbock, Texas
Game 2 - March 26, 2005, 2:00 p.m. - Rocky Johnson Field - Lubbock, Texas
THE SERIES
Baylor vs. Texas Tech: Baylor leads 25-7
Waco, Texas: Baylor leads 10-4
Lubbock, Texas: Baylor leads 7-2
Neutral: Baylor leads 8-1
Streak: Baylor won 2
Last Meeting: Baylor 7, Texas Tech 3 (4/10/2004)
LIVE COVERAGE
Radio: None
Live Audio: None
Live Stats: www.BaylorBears.com
Television: None
No. 7 Baylor (29-4, 0-1) returns to action this weekend when the Lady Bears open a two-game series against Texas Tech (18-9, 0-0) on Friday, March 25, at 6:00 p.m.
The Lady Bears enter the contest after falling to No. 7 Texas A&M 7-1 to open conference play on Wednesday. Baylor has won five of six in the series against the Red Raiders, including a two-game series sweep over Texas Tech last year at Getterman Stadium.
Texas Tech enters the contest, its first of conference play, riding a seven-game winning streak. The Red Raiders are coming off a doubleheader sweep of Oklahoma City as Texas Tech is off to one of its best starts in program history under first-year head coach Teresa Wilson.
Baylor owns a 25-7 edge in the series, including a 7-2 record at Texas Tech's Rocky Johnson Field. Texas Tech last defeated Baylor on April 8, 2003, when the Red Raiders defeated the Lady Bears 1-0 at Getterman Stadium.
QUICK NOTES
• Baylor climbed to No. 7 in the latest USA Today/NFCA Top 25 and ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25. The rankings marks the highest for the Lady Bears in school history.
• Baylor is 100-3 over the past four seasons when scoring at least four runs.
• Baylor is 84-8 over the past four seasons when collecting at least eight hits.
• Baylor is 128-12 over the past four seasons when out-hitting its opponent.
• Baylor is 82-21 over the past three seasons at Getterman Stadium, including a 27-4 mark at home last season.
• With its opening win of the season over Louisiana-Monroe, Baylor earned its 100th victory at Getterman Stadium. Baylor is now 105-38 all-time in games played at Getterman Stadium.
• Baylor's Tessa Lynam was named USA Softball National Player of the Week earlier this year, marking the first time in school history a player from Baylor was recognized for the award.
• Baylor players earned the Big 12 Conference Player of the Week honor for three consecutive weeks to start the season (Chelsi Lake, Kim Wilmoth and Tessa Lynam).
• Baylor has established a new school record with 29 home runs this season.
SCOUTING TEXAS TECH
Texas Tech enters their conference opener with the Lady Bears riding a seven-game winning streak after a doubleheader sweep of Oklahoma City University. The Red Raiders, 18-9 on the season, are off to their best start since the 2001 season.
The Red Raiders are lead by freshman Jennifer Corkin who is batting .325 with two home runs and 20 RBI. Corkin also leads the team with 197 putouts as she splits her time at first base and catcher. Also at the plate for Tech is senior Natalie Enderlin who is batting .325 with four homeruns and 11 RBI.
The Red Raiders are lead in the circle by junior Erin Crawford who has an ERA of 2.47 in 76.2 innings of work. Crawford has a 10-4 record and has 66 strikeouts and 17 walks.
HEAD COACH Glenn Moore
Glenn Moore begins his fifth season as head coach at Baylor and his seventh full season as a collegiate head coach. Moore, who was selected to guide the Lady Bear program in June 2000, Moore now has a career record of 331-132 (.711). His teams have won at least 30 games in all six seasons of his Division I career.
The 2004 Baylor softball season saw Moore guide the Lady Bears to unprecedented success. For the first time in the program's history, Baylor was selected to participate in the NCAA Softball Championships and the Lady Bears' home field, Getterman Stadium, was selected as one of eight NCAA host sites.
Along the way, Moore's 2004 version of the Lady Bears established new school records for wins (48), conference victories (11) and winning percentage (.814). In addition, Moore helped the Lady Bears climb to their highest national-ranking in school history, finishing the season ranked 19th in the country.
At one point during the season, Baylor won 27 of 28 games and established a new school record with a 14-game winning streak. During the year, Baylor defeated seven teams ranked in the top 25, including a series sweep of No. 9 Oklahoma, a team that advanced to the NCAA Women's College World Series.
The 2004 season also saw Baylor advance to the Big 12 Conference Tournament semi-finals for the first time ever. After finishing fourth in the conference during the regular season, tying Baylor's highest-ever conference finish, the Lady Bears advanced to the semi-finals of the conference tournament for the first time ever before falling to Nebraska.
During Baylor's historic run at the conference tournament, the Lady Bears helped Moore reach a career milestone. Rallying to defeat rival Texas A&M 2-1 in an elimination game, the Lady Bears gave Moore his 300th career victory, a milestone that was recognized by the NFCA at its annual convention this past winter.
During Moore's tenure, three Lady Bears have received CoSIDA Academic All-America honors (Kim Wilmoth twice), and 10 players have received NFCA All-Midwest Region honors; Cristin Vitek earned all-region accolades twice. 11 Lady Bears have earned 14 all-Big 12 Conference selections (Miller, Levesque and Vitek twice twice), while numerous Lady Bears have earned academic all-conference honors.
Prior to coming to Baylor, Moore spent two-plus seasons as head coach at Louisiana State and four years total with the Tigers' program. Moore led LSU to the Southeastern Conference championship in 1999 and 2000. While at LSU, Moore amassed a 117-25 (.820) record.
Before his stint at LSU, Moore spent one season as the head coach at William Carey College in Hattiesburg, Miss. Moore was 22-17 that season and guided William Carey to a second-place finish in the Gulf South Conference.
LADY BEARS SET ATTENDANCE RECORD
Baylor's match-up with Texas A&M to open conference play established a Getterman Stadium attendance record as a crowd of 1,288 attended to catch a battle between a pair of top 10 teams. The announced crowd surpassed the listed capacity of 1,250, marking the first time in school history Getterman Stadium has been sold out.
The crowd surpassed the previous Getterman Stadium high of 1,136 who watched Baylor take on LSU at last year's NCAA Waco Regional on May 22, 2004. Baylor fell to the Tigers 7-3 in 10 innings in the contest.
The previous high for Baylor in a Big 12 Conference game at Getterman Stadium occurred on May 5, 2004, when 984 fans saw the Lady Bears defeat the Texas Longhorns 7-2.
BAYLOR ECLIPSES HOME RUN MILESTONE
Thirty-three games into the 2005 season, this year's version of the Lady Bears have already established a new school record for most home runs in a season. Through 33 games this season, Baylor has blasted 29 home runs, surpassing the 27 home runs hit by the 2002 squad as the most in a single season. Chelsi Lake leads the team with nine home runs on the season with Stephanie Pomes and Tessa Lynam tied for second on the team with six home runs for the Lady Bears as Baylor is fourth in the conference in the category.
OSBURN SETS HOME RUN MARK
While the team shattered the school single-season home run record, Kelly Osburn established a new Baylor career home run mark with the 21st home run of her career in the 18-3 win over Oklahoma Christian. On a 1-2 pitch from Lindsey Lawson to lead-off the second inning, Osburn drove the ball over the left field wall for her fifth homer run of the season and 21st of her career, surpassing Ryan Stukel, who hit 20 from 2000-03, for most career home runs.
FERGUSON ONE SHY FROM CAREER SAVE MARK
After tossing 1.2 innings of relief in Baylor's 10-2 victory over Massachusetts at the Speedline Classic, Lisa Ferguson earned her second save of the season and 10th of her career, moving her into a tie for the Baylor career mark.
Former Baylor pitcher Joni Miller established the standard with 10 saves from 2000-2003. Ferguson is on pace to shatter the school record after finishing second in the NCAA with eight saves her freshman season.
800TH CAREER STRIKEOUT IN SIGHT FOR VITEK
Senior left-handed pitcher Cristin Vitek continues to climb up the career charts in several categories, including strikeouts where she entered the season as Baylor's career leader with 645. In fact, Vitek has a good shot at becoming Baylor's first-ever 800 strikeout performer as the lefty currently has 732 strikeouts and is now only 68 strikeouts shy of the milestone.
Last season, she became only the second player in school history to record 600 strikeouts in her career when she struck out Tina Boutelle of Texas in the sixth inning at the Big 12 Conference Tournament.
BAYLOR FOURTH IN BIG 12 PRESEASON POLL
Returning seven starters and two pitchers, the Baylor softball team has been tabbed to finish fourth in the Big 12 Conference.
Texas is the Big 12 softball coaches' preseason favorite to win the league title this season. The Longhorns, with 77 points, received six of the possible 10 first-place votes to edge out Oklahoma, which tallied four first-place votes and 75 points. Texas A&M (61 pts.) ranked third followed by Baylor (fourth - 58 pts.), Nebraska (fifth - 48 pts.), Missouri (sixth - 43 pts.), Oklahoma State (seventh - 32 pts.), Kansas (eighth - 24 pts.), Texas Tech (ninth - 20 pts.) and Iowa State (10th -12 pts).
It is the highest Baylor has been picked in the preseason poll since 2002, when the Lady Bears were picked to finish fourth in the conference. The fourth-place preseason selection ties the 2002 squad for the highest predicted league finish in school history.
BAYLOR IN THE NATIONAL POLLS
The Lady Bears entered the season ranked in both of the national polls and have climbed into the top 10 for the first time in school history as Baylor is currently No. 7 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25 and No. 10 in the USA Today/NFCA Top 25.
After sweeping a doubleheader from Northwestern State, the Baylor softball team climbed two spot to No. 7 in the latest ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25.
The Michigan Wolverines, who have won 27-straight since a season-opening loss to Baylor, sit atop this week's poll at No. 1 with 13-of-20 first-place votes.
Baylor is one of six Big 12 Conference teams in this week's rankings as Texas (No. 4), Texas A&M (No. 7), Oklahoma (No. 9), Missouri (No. 16) and Nebraska (No. 19) join Baylor in this week's poll.
Baylor's No. 9 ranking in the latest USA Today/NFCA Top 25 is the highest ranking for the Lady Bears in the NFCA poll in school history.
Michigan, with 15 first-place votes, is ranked No. 1 in the poll released by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.
Oklahoma (No. 7), Texas (No. 6), Texas A&M (No. 12), Nebraska (No. 18) and Missouri (No. 14) join the Lady Bears in this week's rankings.
The USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 poll is voted on by 30 NCAA Division I coaches, representing each conference. The first regular season poll will be released on Wednesday, Feb. 16.
The ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 poll is voted on by NCAA Division I coaches representing 15 different ASA regions and 11 different collegiate conferences. The poll is also voted on by selected softball media members. First-place votes are in parentheses.
UP NEXT...
Baylor continues Big 12 Conference play when the Lady Bears return home to face Texas on Wednesday, March 30, at 6:30 p.m.
