SB Enters Big 12 Tournament Play as No. 3 Seed

May 10, 2018

GAME 50

BAYLOR vs. OKLAHOMA STATE

GAME 51

BAYLOR vs. TEXAS TECH

GAME 52

BAYLOR vs. TBD

MEDIA INFORMATION

GAME 50 | OKLAHOMA STATE | MAY 10:
TV: FOX College Sports
Talent: Chad McKee, Brenda VanLangen, Erin Miller
Radio: ESPN Central Texas (101.3 FM)
Talent: Dan Ingham (pxp)
Live Stats/In-Game Home: Big12Sports.com
Twitter: @BaylorSoftball | #SicOSU

GAME 51 | TEXAS TECH | MAY 10:
TV: FloSoftball
Radio: ESPN Central Texas (101.3 FM)
Talent: Dan Ingham (pxp)
Live Stats/In-Game Home:Big12Sports.com
Twitter:@BaylorSoftball | #SicOSU

GAME 52 | OKLAHOMA STATE | MAY 11:
TV: TBD
Talent: Chad McKee, Brenda VanLangen, Erin Miller
Radio: ESPN Central Texas (101.3 FM)
Talent: Dan Ingham (pxp)
Live Stats/In-Game Home:Big12Sports.com
Twitter:@BaylorSoftball | #SicEm

MATCHUP

BAYLOR

35-14, 12-6 Big 12
Ranking: 17 - Coaches, 16 - ESPN, 16 - RPI
Head Coach: Glenn Moore (Northwestern State, 1993)
Career Record: 874-379 (21st season)
BU Record: 735-338 (18th season)
Big 12 Tourney: 13-23

OKLAHOMA STATE

36-19, 12-6 Big 12
All-Time Series: OSU leads, 37-30
Neutral: OSU leads, 8-4
Moore Era: BU leads, 26-22
Ranking: RV - Coaches, 24 - ESPN, 26 - RPI

TEXAS TECH

28-24, 5-13 Big 12
All-Time Series: BU leads, 53-14
Neutral: BU leads, 2-1
Moore Era: BU leads, 36-9
Ranking: NR - Coaches, NR - ESPN, 65 - RPI

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation

Baylor junior pitcher Gia Rodoni doesn't believe Oklahoma State saw the real Baylor softball when the Cowgirls swept the Lady Bears last month in Stillwater, Okla.

Seeded third for the Big 12 Championship in Oklahoma City, No. 17/18 Baylor (35-14) will get a second chance when the Lady Bears face second-seeded Oklahoma State (36-19) at 11 a.m. Friday in the first round of pool play at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium.

"We're really looking forward to getting back out there and hopefully have some redemption against them and play Baylor softball the way we know we can," said Rodoni, a first-team All-Big 12 pick who is 21-9 with a 2.04 ERA and a league-high 237 strikeouts. "We're ready to rock and roll."

Baylor coach Glenn Moore said it's a chance for the Lady Bears to prove "we're a better team than we were up in Stillwater," when they were outscored 21-8 in a three-game sweep and got run-ruled in the series opener, 14-6.

"We know we're a lot better than we played up there and performed that weekend," Moore said. "A lot of adversity led into that weekend, and we still didn't play very well and didn't respond to it very well. So, it's nice to have another shot at them, and hopefully we'll do better."

Since returning from that trip, the Lady Bears have won 10 of their last 11 games and swept series against Kansas, Iowa State and Texas.

"I'm not saying (we needed) a bad weekend like that, but I do think we needed a weekend like that to realize we're not all the way there and there's still work to be done," Rodoni said. "So, I think it was a good learning weekend for us."

Baylor finished the season on a power surge, ending a 14-game homer-less stretch at Getterman Stadium with Jessie Scroggins' first career home run at her home park and two by Goose McGlaun in a 7-5 win over Texas last Saturday.

"Down the stretch, we've gotten together and it looks more like the team we projected we would have," Moore said. "We didn't perform as well as we should have or could have earlier in the year, but this past weekend I thought you saw the team that we thought we were going to have from the beginning. We haven't peaked yet, we still have room to improve. And if we're headed in the right direction, there's no better time to be hot."

McGlaun, who's hitting .333 with a team-high 14 home runs and 47 RBI, was named to the All-Big 12 first team along with Rodoni, Scroggins and junior outfielder Kyla Walker.

After senior third baseman Caitlin Charlton suffered a season-ending knee injury, McGlaun made a smooth transition from first to third and played near-flawless down the stretch.

"I think we just need to let her get as comfortable as possible, and that's why I haven't moved her a lot," Moore said. "Goose has done fine so far. I've been very pleased, with the exception of the Stillwater weekend, when we had just moved her over there."

Another must-see aspect of Friday's game and this weekend is the intense batting-title race between Walker (.461), Scroggins (.458) and Oklahoma State's Vanessa Shippy (.460), a two-time Big 12 Player of the Year and a finalist for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year.

Just a year after Lindsey Cargill broke Walker's program record for single-season batting average when she hit .430, both Walker and Scroggins are on pace to rewrite that mark.

"It's pretty phenomenal. I hope people realize how special that is," Moore said of having two players hitting that well. "I don't know if they're competing against each other, challenging each other. They love each other and they're great teammates. So, it's a healthy competition. But, it's pretty phenomenal. If one gets a hit, the next one steps her game and gets a hit, too."

Scroggins said it's more a matter of Baylor's No. 1 and 2 hitters "pushing each other."

"I know we're all neck-and-neck, but hopefully me and Kyla can pull forward," she said. "Hopefully, we can both be All-American, because that would be fun, too."

Baylor plays fifth-seeded Texas Tech (28-24) at 2 p.m. Friday in the other pool-play matchup, with the two pool winners advancing to Saturday's 4 p.m. nationally televised final. Third-ranked Oklahoma (47-3) is in the other pool with fourth-seeded Texas (30-23) and No. 6 seed Iowa State (23-30).

Moore said the tournament gives the Lady Bears a chance to pad their postseason resume and another shot at winning a Big 12 title, but "whether or not you win it, you need to be headed in the right direction when you leave there and feeling pretty good about your team."

"We're going up there with expectations to win it," he said, "but we're going to focus on Oklahoma State right away and just being a better ball team than the last time we played them."

STORY LINES
• Baylor enters the second Big 12 Softball Championship since the tournament was reinstated in 2017.
• Baylor went 2-1 in the 2017 tournament, falling to Oklahoma State before collecting wins over Iowa State and Texas.
• Baylor is 13-23 all-time in Big 12 tournament play.
• Baylor won the final nine games of Big 12 play, sweeping series over Iowa State, Kansas, and Texas. The Lady Bears finished the regular season tied for second with Oklahoma State in the Big 12 standings.
• Baylor is the only team in the country with two batters in the Top 15 of the nation's batting averages rankings, with Kyla Walker (.461) and Jessie Scroggins (.458) leading the way for BU's offense.
• Walker and Scroggins continue to stay in lock-step in battle for the program's single-season batting average record, set in 2017 by Lindsey Cargill (.430).
• Baylor closed the regular season by finishing off a three-game sweep over Texas, the first time either program has taken all three games in the season series since the conference moved to the three-game series format in 2012.
• Shelby Friudenberg punched her way to the top of Baylor's career leaderboard, drilling her 45th career home run in Sunday's series finale at Texas Tech, passing Chelsi Lake (44, 2004-2007) as the program's all-time record holder in base knocks.
• Friudenberg passed Lake's career RBI mark (184, 2004-2007) on a two-RBI single in the first inning of the series finale at Iowa State on April 29.
• After missing 11 games due to an ankle injury, Kyla Walker is back in the lineup, a huge boost for the Lady Bears as the program's career batting average leader and the fifth-highest career hitting mark among all active student-athletes in Division I softball, the second-highest among non-freshmen. She leads the team with a .461 effort on the year.
• Jessie Scroggins is making a strong case for consideration as the nation's top centerfielder, holding the eighth-highest batting average in the nation (.458) entering the weekend, the second-highest among the country's centerfielders and the highest among CFs from Power 5 conferences.
• Scroggins also leads the Big 12 in stolen bases per game (0.37) and ranks sixth nationally with 76 hits on the year, good for first among the conference's hitters.
• Scroggins now sits atop the program's record book for career hits, passing Lindsey Cargill (253, 2014-2017) for the top spot with a single vs. Kansas on April 20.
• A 2-for-3 performance by Scroggins against BYU on March 24 marked the 70th career multi-hit game of her career, passing Naomi Fitzgerald (69, 1998-2001) to set a new Baylor program record.
• Scroggins became the ninth Lady Bear in program history taken in the National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) College Draft, selected by the Chicago Bandits as the No. 15 overall pick in the third round.
• Scroggins added to her impressive accolade collection, named a Top 25 Finalist for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, the only centerfielder in the country named to the list.
• Gia Rodoni made it seven-straight seasons that a BU pitcher has notched 200-plus strikeouts in a season, leading the Big 12 in both strikeouts and strikeouts per seven innings, ranking in the Top 20 in the country in both categories.
• Rodoni also made it six-straight seasons that a BU pitcher has posted 20 or more victories in the circle.
• Baylor had seven named to the Academic All-Big 12 teams, marking 11-straight seasons with six or more selections, and five or more for the 16th-straight year.
• Baylor had four All-Big 12 first team selections, with Gia Rodoni, Kyla Walker, Goose McGlaun, and Jessie Scroggins all earning top conference honors.

Season tickets, softball flex plans, and the Baylor All Sport Season passes are available, and single-game tickets are currently on sale. Get your tickets on BaylorBears.com/tickets or by calling 254-710-1000.

The Diamond Club is an exclusive support club that enhances the Baylor Softball program. Joining the Diamond Club allows you to get an insider look at Baylor softball. For more information on the Diamond Club, visit Baylor.edu/bearfoundation or call 254-710-2582.

Keep up with the team all season long by following Baylor Softball on the team's official Twitter (@BaylorSoftball), Facebook (Baylor Softball), and Instagram (@BaylorSoftball).

#SicEm