By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
For the first time this season, the 12th-ranked Baylor baseball team will get a chance to see if their hot bats travel when the Bears (8-0) play in the Shriner College Classic this weekend at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
Through the first eight games, the Bears are hitting .375 as a team with 11 home runs and averaging 10.4 runs per game. They lead the Big 12 in pretty much every offensive category and are ranked third nationally in batting average.
"You want to start off hot and you want guys to stay aggressive and stay hot, but we understand that baseball is baseball," coach Steve Rodriguez said. "I like the fact that our guys are continuing to just have good at-bats and control their portion of the game. The results may not always be what they want, but they're controlling what they can. That's what I like to see."
That's even with preseason All-American catcher Shea Langeliers out with a broken hamate bone in his right wrist. In his absence, redshirt freshman Kyle Harper has stepped up to hit .421 with one homer, two doubles and six RBI in the last five games.
Wielding the hottest bats are junior third baseman Davis Wendzel (.516, 2 homers, 10 RBI) and sophomore outfielder Davion Downey (.481, 3 homers, 10 RBI). They combined for four homers and five RBI in Tuesday's 10-4 win over Dallas Baptist.
"It's been really fun watching those two develop," Rodriguez said. "They've come out and done an amazing job. They've worked hard, they're constantly learning. . . . I just like the fact that they're going out there and competing and getting better every day. I was just really happy with the overall performance (against DBU), but those two did something pretty special."
Baylor gets the chance to do something special this weekend, playing in the Shriners College Classic. In an all-Texas field that also includes 23rd-ranked TCU and Houston, the Bears face Texas A&M (8-2) at 7 p.m. Friday, Rice (3-6) at 3 p.m. Saturday and Texas State (5-3) at 11 a.m. Sunday at the home of the 2017 World Series champion Houston Astros.
"Anytime you get to play on a big-league field, that's awesome," Wendzel said. "And then you get to play against the best teams in Texas, that's awesome. We get to compete with the best, so we love that."
Much like last year's Frisco College Classic, when over 10,000 fans showed up for a Saturday night matchup between Baylor and A&M at the Texas Rangers' Double-A affiliate stadium, this will have an NCAA regional-type feel.
"I love taking our guys to (these types of tournaments), because we're going to be playing great competition in great venues," Rodriguez said. "I tell our guys, when you're out there on defense or you're in the dugout and you get a chance to look and there's not a lot of empty seats around, that's pretty fun to be involved with, just because the environment gets the testosterone and aggressiveness going. It's pretty easy to get hyped up for those games."
The team visited the Shriners Hospital for Children Thursday afternoon before an evening practice.
"You might be in a slump or go 0-for-4 and think that's an issue, but there are some people who are battling for some bigger things," Rodriguez said. "I just love the fact that our guys really embrace that. . . . We had a young lady named Savannah come out to one of our practices. And watching our guys react to young ladies like Savannah and be able to go into a hospital and just embrace that moment and make those kids feel special and have fun with them, that's what makes my job really worth it. Baseball is baseball, but it's those extra things that really kind of separate us from a lot of people."
Baylor junior right-hander Hayden Kettler (2-0, 0.00 ERA) is scheduled to start Friday's game opposite A&M lefty John Doxakis (2-0, 0.0), who has struck out 20 batters in 13.0 innings and allowed one unearned run.
The rest of the weekend rotation is tentative, but potential starters are Cody Bradford, Tyler Thomas, Paul Dickens and Anderson Needham. The Bears' 2.22 ERA is second in the Big 12 and ranked in the top 25 nationally.
After missing the first seven games, junior first baseman/catcher Andy Thomas returned to the lineup Tuesday night as the designated hitter and had two walks and a sac fly in four plate appearances. Like Harper at catcher, redshirt freshman Chase Wehsener has been a nice fill-in at first base, hitting .345 with a 1.000 fielding percentage in 53 chances.
"He's close to being ready (to play in the field)," Rodriguez said of Thomas. "I probably could have put him in there (Tuesday), but just being the overly cautious guy I am, I don't want to overstep any bounds. . . He has to get his timing back. He's missed a couple of weeks due to illness. The biggest thing is to make sure to put him in situations where he has a chance to succeed."
Live video streaming for all three games is available at Astros.com, with the Friday and Sunday games being broadcast on ESPN 1660 and Saturday's at 1590 AM.
Story lines
• The No. 12 Bears head to Houston this week for the Shriners College Baseball Classic at Minute Maid Ballpark. The Bears will face Texas A&M at 7 p.m. CT on Friday, Rice at 3 p.m. CT on Saturday and Texas State at 11 a.m. CT on Sunday.
HOW TO WATCH AND STREAM
All three games this weekend will be televised by AT&T SportsNet, the television home of the Houston Astros, and streamed on the AT&T SportsNet app. There are also many ways to stream all nine games live and for free. The games will be streamed on MLB.com, Astros.com and the MLB At Bat app. Additionally, the games will be available live on the Astros YouTube channel and the official social media accounts of the Astros, including Facebook Live and Twitter.
Direct links to the Astros streams on MLB.com are below:
Friday, March 1 - https://www.mlb.com/astros/video/shriners-college-classic/c-2523055283
Saturday, March 2 - https://www.mlb.com/astros/video/shriners-college-classic/c-2523056483
Sunday, March 3 - https://www.mlb.com/astros/video/shriners-college-classic/c-2523057183
• Tuesday
The Bears came from behind to defeat DBU 10-4 on Tuesday evening in Waco. After trailing 2-0 after the top of the first, the Bears went to work to tie things up and more. Davion Downey and Davis Wendzel each hit two home runs on the day, including hitting back-to-back homer runs in the eighth inning. A combined effort by the pitching staff got things done as LHP Paul Dickens went three innings in his first Baylor start, followed by one inning from Jimmy Winston, two from Ryan Leckich who got his second win of the year, two from Luke Boyd and one from Kyle Hill. The Bears plated two in the sixth inning to take the lead back and never relinquished it.
• Last Weekend Recap
The Bears are 7-0 on the season after sweeping visiting Cornell, 3-0. The Bears tallied double-digit run totals in all three games, including a 17-0 shutout on Friday. Overall, the Bears outscored the Big Red, 39-7 on the weekend.
• In game one, Hayden Kettler was once again outstanding, collecting a career-high nine strikeouts in six innings of shutout ball. He earned the win to improve to 2-0 on the season. At the plate, Chase Wehsener had a career day, driving in a career-high 5 runs on 3 hits with one walk. All in all, the entire starting lineup had at least one hit on the day, with six Bears collecting multi-hit games. Josh Bissonette, Cole Haring and Mack Mueller each launched their first home runs of the season.
• In game two of the series, Paul Dickens entered in relief in the fourth inning with the bases loaded and two outs and got a pop out to end the inning. He would cruise through three more scoreless innings en route to his first Baylor victory. Richard Cunningham had 3 hits on the day, while Nick Loftin led the team with 3 RBI. Both Bissonette and Wendzel had two doubles on the day, tying their career-high marks.
