Baseball Earns No. 2 Seed at Stanford Regional
5/28/2018 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Baylor Bear Foundation
€‹Steve Rodriguez, seven of his players and three off the Baylor staff are Going Back to Cali.
€‹Coming off the program's first-ever Big 12 Championship title, Baylor baseball (36-19) is headed to the Stanford Regional as the No. 2 seed and will face the tradition-rich Cal State Fullerton Titans (32-23) at 4 p.m. CDT Friday at Sunken Diamond in Palo Alto, Calif. The fields for the 16 regionals were announced Monday morning.
€‹"I'm really happy for these guys, going to a really fun regional against, obviously, some of the top teams in the country," said Rodriguez, who spent 19 years as a player, assistant and head coach at Pepperdine before coming to Baylor three years ago. "We just have to keep doing what we've been doing these past couple weeks."
€‹The Bears claimed the Big 12's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with a dramatic 6-5, 11-inning win over TCU in Sunday's conference tournament final in Oklahoma City. They were one of five Big 12 teams to make the 64-team field, joining regional hosts Texas Tech and Texas, along with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
€‹"Praise God that we get to go play postseason baseball against incredible competition," said junior designated hitter Richard Cunningham. "California is kind of this team's second home with Coach Rod and all of our players. We're going to play the guys they know best. So, what a treat, what a privilege. We get to go play in beautiful California against great competition."
€‹Sophomore first baseman/catcher Andy Thomas, who hails from Murrieta, is one of the seven native Californians on the Baylor roster. That list also includes sophomore third baseman Davis Wendzel from San Clemente and junior second baseman Josh Bissonette from Anaheim Hills.
€‹"I'm super-pumped," Thomas said. "We got placed in a pretty good regional. We're excited to go and compete our butts off for Baylor Nation and everybody here. . . . We're ready to go to Omaha (for the World Series). We didn't really care where we went. We just knew wherever we would go, we were going to do our best and make Baylor Nation proud and come back with something special."
€‹The Bears already did something special with last week's 4-0 run through the Big 12 tournament. They defeated Kansas once and Oklahoma twice in pool play, then rallied from one-run deficits in the ninth and 11th innings to beat the Frogs in the championship game.
€‹After being picked to finish eighth in the Big 12 by the conference coaches, Rodriguez said, "everything we have right now is a bonus."
€‹"Our guys are playing above and beyond what I actually anticipated at the very beginning of the season," the third-year Baylor head coach said. "We had a mediocre first half (14-16) and we've come on strong the second half (22-3). Right now, we're just playing. As coaches, we get to step back and enjoy what we're doing and stay positive, because we know deep down they're doing everything they can to help this team win. Isn't that what you want as a coach? Just go out there and play hard, and whatever happens, happens."
€‹Sophomore Cody Bradford (7-5, 2.38), the Big 12 Pitcher of the Year and Co-Most Outstanding Player at the Big 12 Tournament with sophomore catcher Shea Langeliers, could be matched against Cal State Fullerton ace Colton Eastman (9-3, 2.26) in Friday's region opener.
€‹Just a year ago, coach Rick Vanderhook led the Titans through the Stanford Regional and a Super Regional at Long Beach State to get back to the College World Series in Omaha.
€‹"Fullerton is one of the winningest teams on the West Coast over the past 10 years," Rodriguez said. "They have a tremendous club, Coach Vanderhook has done a tremendous job with them, they won the Big West. They were literally 50 miles from us at Pepperdine, so we would do home-and-homes with them all the time, we've been to their regional several times. So, I'm very familiar with just the coaching staff and their facilities, and now we get to go to Stanford and play them there."
€‹In the other first-round matchup, the No. 2 national seed Stanford Cardinal (44-10) face Horizon League champion Wright State (39-15) at 9 p.m. CDT Friday. The double-elimination tournament continues through Monday, June 4, with the winner advancing to the Super Regional against the regional winner at No. 15 national seed Coastal Carolina (42-17).
€‹Stanford is hosting a regional for the 17th time and is looking for its 17th trip to the College World Series. Coach David Esquer led the Cardinal to their 18th Pac-12 title and first since 2004 with a 6-5 win over Washington in the final regular-season game.
€‹"At this point, I don't care (who we play), I really don't," Rodriguez said. "We're going to go play a top-quality team, obviously one of the top 16 teams in the country. You have to go and play. No matter where we went, the way we're playing right now, I will put us up against anybody in the country."
WACO, Texas -- After winning the program's first ever Big 12 Championship title, Baylor baseball secured an automatic bid to the 2018 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship. The Bears earned a No. 2 seed in the Stanford Regional in Palo Alto, California, the NCAA announced Monday.
Baylor (36-19) will make back-to-back trips to a regional for the first time since a stretch of four consecutive appearances between 2009-2012. The Bears have won 22 of their last 25 games, including six in a row. This is the 20th regional selection in program history.
BU will open up against No. 3 seed Cal State Fullerton Friday at 4 p.m. CT on ESPN3 at Sunken Diamond. Depending on the result of the first game, BU will face either the winner or loser of the No. 1 Stanford vs. No. 4 Wright State matchup in the regional.
Baylor is 43-41 all-time in the NCAA Championship, 36-28 in regionals, 22-14 in neutral regional games and 4-11 in away regional contests. The Bears have not played any of the four opponents in the Stanford Regional in 2018.
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