CHRISTMAS IN FEBRUARY
#12 Baseball Opening Season Against Holy Cross
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation
Christmas day is here . . . in February.
"It feels like Christmas day," Baylor senior closer Kyle Hill said of the Bears' season-opening series against Holy Cross, which begins with a 6:35 p.m. game Friday at Baylor Ballpark. "Everyone has been waiting since last season. Each day it gets closer and closer until you wake up that first morning and it feels like Christmas day."
With all nine everyday starters returning, plus the weekend pitching rotation, "the excitement level has pretty much been on 10 for a couple weeks now," said fourth-year head coach Steve Rodriguez.
Even with 11 newcomers on the roster, that familiarity has helped the 12th-ranked Bears hit the ground running in the fall and last month when official practices began.
"It makes my job a lot easier knowing that some of the things that we have to refine and just make sure that we pay attention to the details, it's a little easier," Rodriguez said. "They've been here, they've gone through it, they know what our expectations are. And they understand it, because they've seen the results of paying attention to those things."
Junior third baseman Davis Wendzel, one of three preseason All-Americans, said the experience factor makes practices that much easier.
"Instead of running through the drills, and everybody's doing it for the first time, we've done it for three years now and everybody is on the same page," said Wendzel, who hit .310 last year with eight homers and a team-high 49 RBI. "Everyone knows where everyone is."
The only real turnover from last year's 37-21 team that won the program's first Big 12 Championship title and advanced to a second straight NCAA regional is the "Old Guys" bullpen that included three-year closer Troy Montemayor and fellow seniors Alex Phillips, Drew Robertson and Joe Heineman.
Hill, who was 4-1 with a 2.62 ERA and one save last season, is the lone holdover from that group and is expect to fill the closer role for the first time.
"What I love is that he's embraced it, and I'm excited to see what he's going to do for us this year," Rodriguez said.
Hill said the coaches told him he would end the baseball games, so "I'm assuming that's the closer role. But, whatever they need me to do, I'm cool to do it. Doesn't matter to me."
In addition to Wendzel, the infield returns intact with junior Andy Thomas (.324) at first base, senior Josh Bissonette (.269, 7 homers, 39 RBI) at second and sophomore Nick Loftin (.308) at shortstop. Loftin, Wendzel, junior left-handed pitcher Cody Bradford (7-6, 2.51 ERA) and junior catcher Shea Langeliers (.252, 11 homers, 44 RBI) are preseason All-Big 12 selections.
"I don't know if anything puts my mind at ease, to be honest," Rodriguez said. "There's always going to be something different that's going to come at them every year. For some of the older guys, it could be the draft, it could be graduation. It could be any number of things that can lead to a distraction that cause them to take their mind off of what they're supposed to do. Our goal is just to make sure that we continue to focus on executing, continue to focus on what we have control over, and just make sure I get the effort we're looking for."
The starting outfield is a little bit more of a question, but fifth-year senior Richard Cunningham is coming off Tommy John surgery and should be back in center field after spending most of last season in the DH role, hitting .342 with nine homers and 38 RBI.
Also back are Davion Downey (.274), Cole Haring (.255) and T.J. Raguse (.324), along with senior utility player Cole Weaver and juco transfer Mack Mueller.
"We have a couple kids sick, a couple kids that have been dinged-up," Rodriguez said. "But like I told our guys, it's just a great way to get an opportunity for some of the younger kids to be able to come in and perform. So that when everybody's healthy, that means they're going to have a lot of experience under their belts to help make a great push toward the end of the season. Everybody goes through it, so I'm not overly concerned about it. The biggest thing is making sure they get back as quickly as they can."
The weekend rotation will have junior Hayden Kettler (8-4, 3.81) starting Friday's game, sophomore Tyler Thomas (3-3, 3.38) and Bradford in Saturday's 1:05 p.m. doubleheader and freshman Anderson Needham going in Sunday's 12:05 p.m. series finale.
"We're not going to push anybody past a pitch limit that we feel comfortable with," Rodriguez said. "All of them have been built up to a point that they should be healthy enough to go into a certain inning or a certain pitch count. Then, it's just a matter of finding the right matchups as the games develop."
Projected to finish fourth in the Patriot League, Holy Cross returns a pair of all-league picks in Austin Masel (.322) and Chris Rinaldi (.320) and its top three starters in Pat McGowan (2-6, 3.22), Liam Dvorak (3-4, 3.40) and Decian Cronin (4-5, 4.16). The Crusaders won the Patriot League tournament two years ago and made an NCAA regional.
"They're going to come down and they're going to see 80 degrees on Friday and be pretty excited," Rodriguez said. "For us, it doesn't really matter if we're playing Oregon State, Holy Cross, Radford, Wofford. We need to play well, our pitchers need to throw strikes, we need to play good defense and we need to get some two-out hits. Hopefully, it loosens us up and lets us play free this weekend."
All four games this weekend will be streamed on Facebook Live, with Derek Smith and Steve Johnigan calling the games on the radio broadcasts.
"There are a lot of rankings and stuff for the team, but we can't get our heads too big," Hill said. "We've just got to go out there and play and do our thing, and I think we'll be fine."
STORY LINES
• Bears welcome Holy Cross to Baylor Ballpark to open up play on the 115th season of Baylor Baseball. This is the first meeting in program history between Holy Cross and the Bears.
• The Bears enter the 2019 season with the highest preseason rankings since they were ranked No. 8 to start the 2009 season. They are ranked No. 12 in the Perfect Game preseason rankings and No. 15 in the D1Baseball Rankings.
• Projected Pitching Matchups
Fri., Feb. 15 • 6:35 p.m. CT • RHP Hayden Kettler vs. RHP Zane Hedaya
Sat., Feb 16 • 1:05 p.m. CT • LHP Tyler Thomas vs. RHP Liam Dvorak
Sat., Feb. 16 • 4:05 p.m. CT • LHP Cody Bradford vs. RHP Declan Cronin
Sun., Feb. 17 • 12:05 p.m. CT • RHP Anderson Needham vs. TBA
• Overall the Bears enter the 2019 season ranked in all the major preseason rankings. In addition to the No. 12 ranking by Perfect Game and No. 15 by D1Baseball, the Bears are No. 16 in the Baseball America poll, No. 16 in the NCBWA Poll, No. 18 in the USA Today Coaches Poll and No. 21 in the Collegiate Baseball Poll.
• The Bears are the preseason No. 2 pick in the Big 12 and earned two first place votes, collected 58 total points, behind No. 1 Texas Tech's 61 points. The second place finish ties the highest in program history, first time since 2004 the Bears were picked second and fifth time in program history.
• Baylor is 74-24 all-time in home openers, has won 6 of last 7 and 11 of last 13.
• Baylor is 62-34 all-time in season openers and has won 4 of last 5.
• Baylor returns 20 letterwinners after losing eight from the 2018 squad, including Preseason All-Big 12 selections Cody Bradford, Shea Langeliers, Davis Wendzel and Nick Loftin.
• Baylor welcomes 11 newcomers to the 2019 team. Seven of those are pitchers, including true freshmen in RHP Ryan Segner, RHP Anderson Needham, RHP Blake Helton, RHP Branson Wilson, sophomore RHP William Gilbert and junior junior college transfers LHP Paul Dickens and RHP Logan Freeman. One newcomer, Brooks Helmer is a two-way guy, first baseman in the field and a RHP on the mound. The Bears then have three position player newcomers in freshman infielder Ricky Martinez, freshman catcher Jake Walsh and junior college transfer outfielder/first baseman Mack Mueller.
• Baylor returns all nine position starters, plus the entire pitching rotation from 2018. On the mount the Bears return 95 percent of their starts (55 of 58) from 2018 and 73 percent of their wins.
• The Bears are coming off the 2018 season where they collected 37 wins (37-21), improving upon 2017's 34 wins, the most since 2012. The Bears finished with 13 wins in Big 12 play (13-11), the most since 2013.
