No. 18 Baseball Heads to TCU

MEDIA INFORMATION

Game 40: HFTV - https://gofrogs.com/watch/?Live=190&type=Live
Game 41: FSSW -https://www.foxsportsgo.com/program/573729/college-baseball-baylor-at-tcu
Game 42: HFTV - https://gofrogs.com/watch/?Live=192&type=Live
Radio: 1660am/93.2fm
Radio Stream: https://listen.tunein.com/baylor18schedule ($)
Live Stats: https://gofrogs.com/sidearmstats/baseball/summary
All-Time Series Baylor, 147-123
Waco: Baylor, 77-45
Fort Worth: TCU, 61-51
Neutral: TCU, 8-5
Rodriguez: 7-4
First Meeting: April 21, 1904
Last Meeting: May 27, 2018

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            For the second time in as many weeks, the No. 20/21 Baylor baseball team (27-12, 9-5) is facing a seemingly desperate team on the road.
            Last weekend, the Bears lost two of three at Texas Tech when the Red Raiders were floundering in the middle of the Big 12 pack and had lost three of their last four games.
            Now, they get a TCU team (23-16, 6-6) that has dropped five of its last six games and fallen to 76^thin the latest RPI rankings going into a series that starts with Friday's 6:30 p.m. game at Lupton Stadium in Fort Worth.
            "They're hungry," Baylor coach Steve Rodriguez said of the Horned Frogs, who are in jeopardy of missing postseason play for the second straight year after making four consecutive trips to the World Series under coach Jim Schlossnagle. "I think everybody knows it, and I think Coach Schloss would say the same thing. They're kind of in the middle of the pack right now, and they've got to win some games."
            In some ways, though, everyone in the league is in a similar boat. Oklahoma State (25-13, 10-5) moved atop the standings with a sweep of Texas last weekend, but the Cowboys are just a half-game ahead of Baylor. A total of five game separates the first-place Cowboys and last-place Kansas Jayhawks (20-19, 5-10).
            "Right now, if you look at our Big 12 race, every game is going to be important," Rodriguez said. "You look from the bottom of the standings to the top, there's not a whole lot separating us. Every team right now is feeling the pinch and wanting to play well."
            Other than giving up nine runs the first two innings in Saturday's 13-3, run-rule loss, Baylor actually played well at Tech. The Bears won the opener, 11-10, in 11 innings on Richard Cunningham's two-out single in the 11^thinning, then dropped Game 2, 3-2, on a walk-off hit by Tech in the ninth.
            "We gave up some big numbers early, and we had a hard time fighting back from it," Rodriguez said. "In Tuesday's game (10-0, run-rule victory over SFA), it was good to get our guys back out there and get a winning feeling, for sure."
            Davis Wendzel said Tuesday's game "just shows that if you throw strikes and play good defensively, and our bats are really good, we're fine."
            Wendzel, hitting a team-best .386 with eight homers and 39 RBI, said it feels like every team the Bears face these days "comes out firing for us."
            "We've just got a target on our backs and we know it," he said. "So, we're just going to have to come out and do something special."
            The Bears did just that in their last meeting with TCU about 11 months ago. Playing the Horned Frogs in last year's Big 12 Championship final, Baylor survived a pair of potential game-ending fly balls in the ninth inning and then won it, 6-5, in the bottom of the 11^thon a bases-loaded walk by Andy Thomas and Shea Langeliers' walk-off RBI single.
            "I don't try to look back at things that happened in the past, because it's a totally different team, a totally different environment," Rodriguez said. "The big thing for me is that we go out and play well. I don't worry about individual games and what they were, because it's kind of a different setting."
            Junior Paul Dickens (4-1, 3.33 ERA) is back in the Friday night role and will be opposed by TCU left-hander Nick Lodolo (5-3, 2.20). Sophomore righty Jimmy Winston (3-1, 3.15) is slated to start Saturday's 3 p.m. game, opposed by Charles King (3-1, 2.66), with Jacob Ashkinos (1-2, 3.56) possibly getting the nod for Sunday's 1 p.m. series finale.
            Dickens said Baylor's first conference road series at Kansas "felt like a high school game" because of the bad weather and light attendance. But last weekend, Tech had a couple sellouts, "and it's always fun playing with that kind of atmosphere, with those kinds of fans. They're really rowdy. We kind of expect the same thing at TCU, so it will be fun for all of us to come together and compete against a good team."

STORY LINES
• The Bears head back out on the road this weekend for another key Big 12 series, this time they visit TCU for three, April 26-28. Game one of the series is set for 6:30 p.m. CT on Friday, April 26, game two on Saturday, April 27 at 3 p.m. and game three on Sunday, April 28 at 1 p.m. CT.
• The Bears coming off a big midweek victory over SFA, where they run-ruled the Lumberjacks in a 10-0 victory, the team's sixth shutout of the year.
• The Tuesday victory snapped a two-game losing streak after the Bears dropped the final two games of a series at Texas Tech. The series loss in Lubbock was the first Big 12 series loss for the Bears, who sit in second place in the conference.

HOW TO WATCH AND STREAM
The Friday and Sunday contests will be streamed live on HFTV, while Saturday's game will be televised live on FSSW and will be streamed on the FOX Sports Go App.

PROJECTED PITCHING MATCHUPS
Fri., April 26 • 6:30 p.m. CT • LHP Paul Dickens (4-1, 3.33 ERA) vs. LHP Nick Lodolo (5-3, 2.20 ERA)
Sat., April 27 • 3:00 p.m. CT • RHP Jimmy Winston (3-1, 3.15 ERA) vs. RHP Charles King (3-1, 2.66 ERA)
Sun., April 28 • 1:00 p.m. CT • TBD vs. LHP Brandon Williamson (3-2, 4.63 ERA)

AGAINST TCU
• The Bears have won four-straight contests against TCU entering this weekend. The last time the Bears and Horned Frogs met on the diamond, the Bears won the Big 12 Tournament title by talking the championship contest 6-5 in 11 innings. The Bears also swept TCU at Baylor Ballpark last season. The Bears are looking for their first conference series win over the Horned Frogs in Ft. Worth since TCU joined the Big 12. In 2017, the last time the two squads met at Lupton Stadium, the Bears dropped game one, took game two, but fell in the rubber match. Head Coach Steve Rodriguez is 1-5 when in Fort Worth against the Horned Frogs. He has won both series against the Horned Frogs at Baylor Ballpark (2016 and 2018.

IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
• The Bears boast the sixth-highest batting average in the nation (.314), 14th in total hits (437), 12th with 2.26 doubles per game, 16th with 88 total doubles, 12th in slugging percentage (.483) and 26th in on-base percentage (0.399). The Bears' fielding percentage of 0.98 ranks 12th nationally. On the mound the Bears rank 29th in ERA (3.61) and 14th with just 7.31 hits allowed per nine innings. Also, the Bears' six shutouts on the year rank fifth nationally.

INDIVIDUALS IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
• Davis Wendzel ranks 37th nationally with 59 hits on the year. Andy Thomas ranks third with 0.53 doubles per game, while Thomas and Davis Wendzel are tied for 13th with 17.0 doubles on the year. Richard Cunningham ranks 28th with four triples on the year. Davis Wendzel ranks 24th nationally with an on-base percentage of 0.497.

No. 18 Baseball Heads to TCU

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Players Mentioned

Jacob Ashkinos

Richard Cunningham

Paul Dickens

Shea Langeliers

Andy Thomas

Davis Wendzel

Jimmy Winston

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