Friday, April 26
Waco, Texas
6:30 PM CT
Baylor
vs
LSU
Photo by: LSU Athletics
LSU IS WHERE IT ALL STARTED
4/26/2019 11:07:00 AM | Softball
Moore, Newman Reflect on Path That Led them to Baylor
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
More than 20 years later, Glenn Moore still remembers recruiting an All-American pitcher out of Cy-Fair High School in the Houston area.
"Mild-mannered off the field, very polite, just like she is now; not a bit different," Moore said of Britni Sneed Newman, a three-time All-American at LSU who is now in her 16th season at Baylor as the Lady Bears' pitching coach.
"I've never seen anybody that could flip the switch the way she did, to go from having that demeanor off the field, to being incredibly competitive on the field. I used to say horns and smoke would come out (when she was on the field). And if someone was lucky enough to get a hit off of her, the other ones might as well just go on back to the dugout, because she was just dominant."
With Baylor softball (17-27) hosting No. 7/10 LSU (38-11) for a three-game series this weekend at Getterman Stadium, Moore and Newman reflected on their time in Baton Rouge and the paths that brought them both to Waco.
"The rest of the team around her was good, but they were better because we didn't have to score but one run to win a ballgame," Moore said of Newman, who was LSU softball's first Hall of Fame inductee in 2009 after a career that saw her win 120 games with a 0.89 ERA and 1,370 strikeouts. "That gave them the freedom to be themselves and score six. I've always said I could call her third-best pitch in any situation and still beat the batter. She made me look good."
Moore jokes that he took a 6-foot-1 left-handed shortstop and turned her into an All-American pitcher. Not true. As the Baylor head coach tells that story, Britni sits back and just shakes her head.
"He just recruited his butt off to get me to go to school there. And I loved it," she said. I think the first game he saw me pitch, I was a freshman in high school. Nowadays, that's common, but back then you didn't see it as much. He was just persistent. That was back in the days when you had hand-written letters, and it seemed like every other day I had a new letter from him."
As a Houston, Texas, native, Newman was recruited by Texas and Texas A&M and really wanted to be an Aggie. When it didn't work out at A&M, "my heart was crushed, but I stayed focused and said I'm going to keep pursuing my dream."
Chasing that dream landed her at LSU. Newman had originally signed with then-head coach Cathy Compton, so when Moore took over at the end of the 1998 season, "I had to go over and make sure she didn't back out," he said.
Paired with A&M transfer Ashley Lewis as a freshman, Newman gave LSU a potent 1-2 punch in the circle that led the Lady Tigers to their first SEC championship, a 56-10 record and hosting for an NCAA regional won by Southern Miss.
"Ashley was a year older, had a year of experience, but Brit was more polished and threw harder. She was more of a true pitcher," Moore said. "SEC (softball) was kind of new back then, but not a lot of teams had two great pitchers."
As a sophomore, Newman took the loss when LSU fell to Southern Miss again in the region finals, 1-0 in nine innings, a step away from the Women's College World Series.
With Baylor softball's Paula Young retiring from coaching at the end of the 2000 season, she recommended that the search committee take a look at a 34-year-old with only three years' experience as a head coach.
Initially, Moore's interest in the Baylor job was to give him leverage at LSU and push the administration to fulfill promises for new facilities for a softball program that had won two SEC titles and 115 games in his first two full seasons.
"We were still in aluminum bleachers," Moore said. "I grew up playing in cow pastures, but I knew how to recruit and I knew what we needed to recruit."
Jerry Stovall, the former LSU football coach and Louisiana Tech athletic director, was one of Moore's mentors and told him that if he came to Baylor he would likely stay.
"That's how high he was on Baylor. He had two sons that came to Baylor," Moore said of Stovall. "He encouraged me to come check it out. (My wife) Janice and I flew over here, and within six hours of being on campus, we knew. We had spent some time in prayer, too. We just didn't want to go where our heart was. We also had a heck of a team returning (at LSU).
"We just felt it in when we were here and, obviously, 19 years later, we're thinking it might work out."
What Moore saw was a faith-based institution where "we were free to express our faith and were encouraged to do that. I know that they knew it was important to me on my interview. It just felt like a very family-oriented place and it just all fell together."
Just a few months earlier, Moore had actually visited Waco and the Baylor campus to look at the school's new softball stadium that was being completed.
"I remember coming down University Parks Drive and saying, 'Holy cow!''' Moore said. "Nowadays, there's a lot of nice stadiums. But at that point, Fresno State and what Baylor was doing here were the top two. (Getterman Stadium) was an incredible commitment. To see that, at a school that wasn't putting 90,000 football fans in their stadium like LSU was at the time, to have that kind of commitment for a non-revenue sport was impressive to me."
While Moore and longtime assistant Mark Lumley had some early successes in building the Baylor softball program, winning a then-record 46 games in 2002, Newman pitched two more years for LSU and led the Lady Tigers to the World Series as a junior in 2001.
"Since I came around in the second era of schools bringing their softball programs back, I didn't really grow up watching the World Series on TV like kids now and dreaming about pitching in Oklahoma City," she said. "But, that was our ultimate goal was getting there. And I'll never forget, I remember seeing Coach Moore and Lum up there watching. Essentially, this was the team they built. I know they were excited for us, but I was wishing they were on the field with us."
Moore said his faith is what kept him from being too emotional about not being with the Lady Tigers when they made it the year after he left.
"We're competitors, we wanted to be there. But, I had no doubt that God sent me to Baylor," he said. "And then, (Newman) just really stuck it to Oklahoma in the first game and dominated their lineup. I remember fist-pumping a few times up in the stands."
Two years later, Moore asked Newman to follow him and Lumley to Waco and become the Lady Bears' pitching coach.
"I'll never forget the phone call when Coach Moore called me," said Newman, who had stayed on as a student assistant after finishing her playing career at LSU. "I think I said two words – "Hello" and "Goodbye" – because when he was telling me about the job, I was in shock. I was excited about coming back to Texas, knowing Baylor is an awesome university. I was just excited to get the pitching part of it going and just doing what I could, based off my experiences and what I learned and just try to incorporate it and teach the athletes here."
Newman did just that, developing a string of outstanding pitchers that included Lisa Ferguson, Cristin Vitek, All-American Whitney Canion, Heather Stearns, Kelsee Selman and Gia Rodoni. The Lady Bears made their first NCAA regional in Newman's first season in 2004 and have made four trips to the World Series, the last one coming in 2017.
While getting to the World Series as a coach has been rewarding, Britni says, "The difference is I can't get out on the field and do it. I don't have as much control anymore."
With the entire staff together for the last 16 years, Baylor has the fourth-longest tenured staff in the country behind Missouri State (23), Michigan (21) and Jacksonville State (17).
Moore attributes that to "the environment here at Baylor," because Lumley and Newman have had multiple opportunities to leave. "People have come at them pretty hard, and Baylor has made this a place where they want to live and raise a family," he said.
Even in the midst of his first losing season as a coach, the community has remained "incredibly supportive," Moore said.
"I can't think of a better place. I know I've never lived in a place any more supportive and family-oriented and just good people than Waco, Texas."
Baylor, which has lost 10 straight in conference play, will play LSU in a single game at 6:30 p.m. Friday and a doubleheader at 5 p.m. Saturday. Moore is 0-4 against the Lady Tigers, but two of the games went extra innings and the other two were one-run decisions.
"The way I look at it is when it's game day, it's competition, it's 'get after it,'" Newman said. "I don't think it really matters who we're playing, but I've been far enough removed and we've played them multiple times."
While Moore left there 19 years ago, "we still know a lot of people there. There's a lot of the same fans that were there. So, it's a little bit of a homecoming feeling when we go back down there. We haven't beaten them since we've been here, other than fall competition, but they've all been great games."
Baylor Bear Insider
More than 20 years later, Glenn Moore still remembers recruiting an All-American pitcher out of Cy-Fair High School in the Houston area.
"Mild-mannered off the field, very polite, just like she is now; not a bit different," Moore said of Britni Sneed Newman, a three-time All-American at LSU who is now in her 16th season at Baylor as the Lady Bears' pitching coach.
"I've never seen anybody that could flip the switch the way she did, to go from having that demeanor off the field, to being incredibly competitive on the field. I used to say horns and smoke would come out (when she was on the field). And if someone was lucky enough to get a hit off of her, the other ones might as well just go on back to the dugout, because she was just dominant."
With Baylor softball (17-27) hosting No. 7/10 LSU (38-11) for a three-game series this weekend at Getterman Stadium, Moore and Newman reflected on their time in Baton Rouge and the paths that brought them both to Waco.
"The rest of the team around her was good, but they were better because we didn't have to score but one run to win a ballgame," Moore said of Newman, who was LSU softball's first Hall of Fame inductee in 2009 after a career that saw her win 120 games with a 0.89 ERA and 1,370 strikeouts. "That gave them the freedom to be themselves and score six. I've always said I could call her third-best pitch in any situation and still beat the batter. She made me look good."
Moore jokes that he took a 6-foot-1 left-handed shortstop and turned her into an All-American pitcher. Not true. As the Baylor head coach tells that story, Britni sits back and just shakes her head.
"He just recruited his butt off to get me to go to school there. And I loved it," she said. I think the first game he saw me pitch, I was a freshman in high school. Nowadays, that's common, but back then you didn't see it as much. He was just persistent. That was back in the days when you had hand-written letters, and it seemed like every other day I had a new letter from him."
As a Houston, Texas, native, Newman was recruited by Texas and Texas A&M and really wanted to be an Aggie. When it didn't work out at A&M, "my heart was crushed, but I stayed focused and said I'm going to keep pursuing my dream."
Chasing that dream landed her at LSU. Newman had originally signed with then-head coach Cathy Compton, so when Moore took over at the end of the 1998 season, "I had to go over and make sure she didn't back out," he said.
Paired with A&M transfer Ashley Lewis as a freshman, Newman gave LSU a potent 1-2 punch in the circle that led the Lady Tigers to their first SEC championship, a 56-10 record and hosting for an NCAA regional won by Southern Miss.
"Ashley was a year older, had a year of experience, but Brit was more polished and threw harder. She was more of a true pitcher," Moore said. "SEC (softball) was kind of new back then, but not a lot of teams had two great pitchers."
As a sophomore, Newman took the loss when LSU fell to Southern Miss again in the region finals, 1-0 in nine innings, a step away from the Women's College World Series.
With Baylor softball's Paula Young retiring from coaching at the end of the 2000 season, she recommended that the search committee take a look at a 34-year-old with only three years' experience as a head coach.
Initially, Moore's interest in the Baylor job was to give him leverage at LSU and push the administration to fulfill promises for new facilities for a softball program that had won two SEC titles and 115 games in his first two full seasons.
"We were still in aluminum bleachers," Moore said. "I grew up playing in cow pastures, but I knew how to recruit and I knew what we needed to recruit."
Jerry Stovall, the former LSU football coach and Louisiana Tech athletic director, was one of Moore's mentors and told him that if he came to Baylor he would likely stay.
"That's how high he was on Baylor. He had two sons that came to Baylor," Moore said of Stovall. "He encouraged me to come check it out. (My wife) Janice and I flew over here, and within six hours of being on campus, we knew. We had spent some time in prayer, too. We just didn't want to go where our heart was. We also had a heck of a team returning (at LSU).
"We just felt it in when we were here and, obviously, 19 years later, we're thinking it might work out."
What Moore saw was a faith-based institution where "we were free to express our faith and were encouraged to do that. I know that they knew it was important to me on my interview. It just felt like a very family-oriented place and it just all fell together."
Just a few months earlier, Moore had actually visited Waco and the Baylor campus to look at the school's new softball stadium that was being completed.
"I remember coming down University Parks Drive and saying, 'Holy cow!''' Moore said. "Nowadays, there's a lot of nice stadiums. But at that point, Fresno State and what Baylor was doing here were the top two. (Getterman Stadium) was an incredible commitment. To see that, at a school that wasn't putting 90,000 football fans in their stadium like LSU was at the time, to have that kind of commitment for a non-revenue sport was impressive to me."
While Moore and longtime assistant Mark Lumley had some early successes in building the Baylor softball program, winning a then-record 46 games in 2002, Newman pitched two more years for LSU and led the Lady Tigers to the World Series as a junior in 2001.
"Since I came around in the second era of schools bringing their softball programs back, I didn't really grow up watching the World Series on TV like kids now and dreaming about pitching in Oklahoma City," she said. "But, that was our ultimate goal was getting there. And I'll never forget, I remember seeing Coach Moore and Lum up there watching. Essentially, this was the team they built. I know they were excited for us, but I was wishing they were on the field with us."
Moore said his faith is what kept him from being too emotional about not being with the Lady Tigers when they made it the year after he left.
"We're competitors, we wanted to be there. But, I had no doubt that God sent me to Baylor," he said. "And then, (Newman) just really stuck it to Oklahoma in the first game and dominated their lineup. I remember fist-pumping a few times up in the stands."
Two years later, Moore asked Newman to follow him and Lumley to Waco and become the Lady Bears' pitching coach.
"I'll never forget the phone call when Coach Moore called me," said Newman, who had stayed on as a student assistant after finishing her playing career at LSU. "I think I said two words – "Hello" and "Goodbye" – because when he was telling me about the job, I was in shock. I was excited about coming back to Texas, knowing Baylor is an awesome university. I was just excited to get the pitching part of it going and just doing what I could, based off my experiences and what I learned and just try to incorporate it and teach the athletes here."
Newman did just that, developing a string of outstanding pitchers that included Lisa Ferguson, Cristin Vitek, All-American Whitney Canion, Heather Stearns, Kelsee Selman and Gia Rodoni. The Lady Bears made their first NCAA regional in Newman's first season in 2004 and have made four trips to the World Series, the last one coming in 2017.
While getting to the World Series as a coach has been rewarding, Britni says, "The difference is I can't get out on the field and do it. I don't have as much control anymore."
With the entire staff together for the last 16 years, Baylor has the fourth-longest tenured staff in the country behind Missouri State (23), Michigan (21) and Jacksonville State (17).
Moore attributes that to "the environment here at Baylor," because Lumley and Newman have had multiple opportunities to leave. "People have come at them pretty hard, and Baylor has made this a place where they want to live and raise a family," he said.
Even in the midst of his first losing season as a coach, the community has remained "incredibly supportive," Moore said.
"I can't think of a better place. I know I've never lived in a place any more supportive and family-oriented and just good people than Waco, Texas."
Baylor, which has lost 10 straight in conference play, will play LSU in a single game at 6:30 p.m. Friday and a doubleheader at 5 p.m. Saturday. Moore is 0-4 against the Lady Tigers, but two of the games went extra innings and the other two were one-run decisions.
"The way I look at it is when it's game day, it's competition, it's 'get after it,'" Newman said. "I don't think it really matters who we're playing, but I've been far enough removed and we've played them multiple times."
While Moore left there 19 years ago, "we still know a lot of people there. There's a lot of the same fans that were there. So, it's a little bit of a homecoming feeling when we go back down there. We haven't beaten them since we've been here, other than fall competition, but they've all been great games."
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