MEDIA INFORMATION
Game 36: FSSW (https://a.fsgo.com/8AVfJBDaWV)
Game 37: FS1 (https://a.fsgo.com/BtWxtPNaWV)
Game 38: FSSW (https://a.fsgo.com/tEeyylSaWV)
Radio: 1660am/93.2fm
Radio Stream: https://listen.tunein.com/baylor18schedule
Live Stats: https://texastech.com/sidearmstats/baseball/summary
All-Time Series: Texas Tech, 87-82
Waco: Baylor, 51-29
Lubbock: Texas Tech, 54-26
Neutral: Baylor, 5-4
Rodriguez: 4-6
First Meeting: 1928
Last Meeting: March 18, 2018
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Going on the road for just the second time in conference play, the 18th-ranked Baylor baseball team (25-10, 8-3) will take a chip on the shoulder with it.
Picked second in the preseason coaches' poll behind Texas Tech, the league-leading Bears play the No. 22 Red Raiders (23-12, 6-6) in a three-game series at Rip Griffin Park in Lubbock that opens with a 6:30 p.m. game Thursday.
"They were picked to win it and we were second, but honestly we're just focusing on one game at a time right now," said junior DH Andy Thomas, who's hitting .336. "Thursday is going to be a huge, huge day. We're going to go out and play the best we can and hope for the best the rest of the weekend."
Despite losing Big 12 Pitcher of the Year Cody Bradford to a season-ending injury, Baylor has been able to piece the pitching staff together enough to rank 17thnationally in ERA (3.30) and seventh in hits allowed per nine innings (6.94).
Sophomore Jimmy Winston (3-1, 0.98 ERA) and junior Paul Dickens (4-1, 3.56) have developed into solid weekend starters, but the biggest key to the success is a deep bullpen that has a 16-5 record and 2.93 ERA with 189 strikeouts and just 84 walks in 187.1 innings.
"The big thing for me is those guys who are really kind of anchoring down that bullpen are the older guys, who in my opinion have now earned this position in the spot they're in right now," coach Steve Rodriguez said. I think they've learned a lot from the guys we've had in the past and how they go about their business."
Anchored by senior closer Kyle Hill (5-0, 0.00, five saves), the bullpen staff includes juniors Ryan Lekich and Luke Boyd and redshirt sophomores Daniel Caruso and Jacob Ashkinos. Hill is working on an 18-game, 21.0-inning scoreless streak, with the game streak being the Bears' longest since Jake Weghorst had an 18-game stretch in 2006.
"That's just because of the guys behind me," Hill said. "You look at my strikeouts – 23 strikeouts in 21 innings – it's because of the defense behind me, just to put the ball over the plate and let 'em hit it."
Hill is actually the lone holdover from last year's "Old Guys" bullpen that included senior closer Troy Montemayor and transfers Drew Robertson, Alex Phillips and Joe Heineman. Coming into this year, he heard the whispers that the bullpen would be the weak link.
"Even back then, I knew we had the talent, it was just the lack of experience," he said. "Now, we're 35 games in, and there's plenty of experience under their belts. So, I'm very proud of what they've done. I knew they were capable of it, it was just getting out there and proving it to everybody else."
The bullpen got a boost this weekend with the season debut of Logan Freeman, a transfer from McLennan Community College who suffered a broken foot two weeks before the opening game. In his two relief stints, he threw 1.2 scoreless innings in Sunday's 3-2 win over Oklahoma and allowed a run in two innings in Tuesday's 9-6 win over Sam Houston.
"Logan Freeman has just been a huge lift for the bullpen," Rodriguez said. "if he can come in and help our bullpen, that's great. If he can start getting extended a little bit and maybe pushing the ability to possibly start, that would be nice, too. I think it's really going to depend on where our needs are, in that moment."
Tech, which made it to the College World Series for the third time in five years last season, has been somewhat consistent. The Red Raiders lost two of three against both Texas and West Virginia and are coming off Tuesday's 13-6 loss at Duke in a rematch of last year's Super Regional.
But, Tech leads the league in conference-only games with a 3.48 ERA while hitting .299 for the season with 33 homers and a .406 slugging percentage.
"Tech's going to be a great team – great starting pitching, great hitting," Rodriguez said. "They've got some veterans on their team, which is pretty good. So, we're going to have our work cut out for us. We just have to play well."
In a schedule adjusted for the Easter weekend, the teams will play at 6:30 p.m. Friday and wrap up the series with a 2 p.m. game Saturday.
STORY LINES
• The Bears head out on the road this weekend, visiting Texas Tech for three starting on Thursday, April 18 at 6:30 p.m. Game two follows on Friday, April 19 at 6:30 p.m. and game three is on Saturday, April 20 at 2 p.m.
• The Bears carry a three-game winning streak into Tuesday's contest after defeating Sam Houston State 9-6 on Tuesday after taking two-of-three against visiting Oklahoma on the weekend. The Bears took the rubber game in the bottom of the 12th inning as Josh Bissonette delivered the game-winning hit with two outs to score Shea Langeliers from third to give the Bears the 3-2 win and the series victory. The Bears won their first series over Oklahoma in the Steve Rodriguez era. Tuesday's victory over Sam Houston State was the first over the Bearkats at Baylor Ballpark since 2012.
• The Bears have tallied 25 wins through 35 games, the quickest Baylor has reached the 25-win mark since 2012, when the Bears won 25 of their first 32 games.
HOW TO WATCH AND STREAM
The Thursday and Saturday games will be televised live on FOX Sports Southwest and the FOX Sports Go app. Friday's game will be televised nationally on FS1.
PROJECTED PITCHING MATCHUPS
Thur., April 18 • 6:30 p.m. CT • RHP Jimmy Winston (3-1, 1.98 ERA) vs. LHP Erickson Lanning (0-1, 3.34 ERA)
Friday, April 19 • 6:30 p.m. CT • LHP Paul Dickens (4-1, 3.56 ERA) vs. RHP Micah Dallas (3-0, 3.66 ERA)
Saturday, April 20 • 2:00 p.m. CT • TBD vs. RHP Caleb Killian (5-2, 4.53 ERA)
AGAINST TEXAS TECH
• The Bears are 4-6 against the Red Raiders under the direction of fourth-year head coach Steve Rodriguez. The Bears took two-of-three in 2018 from the Red Raiders in Waco last season, but in Rod's one trip to Lubbock in 2017 the Bears dropped the first two before salvaging the weekend with a game three victory. Overall the Bears have not won a series in Lubbock since 2010 and are 4-8 in conference series in Lubbock since 2009. In 2010 the Bears won game one, 6-2, lost game two, 5-3, before taking the rubber game, 12-5.
TOPS IN THE CONFERENCE
• The Bears remain in first place in the Big 12 with a record of 8-3 and have won three-of-four series so far (the fourth series was a two-game split with Texas). The Bears started conference play 5-1, the best start to conference under Coach Rodriguez and the best over the first two weekends of the season since starting 6-0 in 2012.
IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
• The Bears rank 32nd in scoring (7.1) and boast a top 25 pitching staff (17th in ERA). The Bears boast the seventh-highest batting average in the nation (.313), 16th in total hits (391), ninth with 2.31 doubles per game, ninth with 81 total doubles, 11th in slugging percentage (.482), 25th in on-base percentage (0.399) and 32nd in scoring (7.1). The Bears' fielding percentage of 0.98 ranks 15th nationally. On the mound the Bears rank 17th in ERA (3.3), seventh with just 6.94 hits allowed per nine innings and 29th with a WHIP of 1.28.
