BAYLOR LADY BEARS (2-2) Location: Waco, Texas   Conference: Big 12 Head Coach: Glenn Moore (Northwestern St., 1993) Roster | Stats | Game Notes	BAYLOR (2-2) vs. ABILENE CHRISTIAN (1-3) February 13, 2020 • 5 p.m. CT Waco, Texas • Getterman Stadium Live Stats: baylorstats.com WATCH: N/A Baylor Social Media:
	ACU WILDCATS (1-3) Location: Abilene, Texas Conference: Southland Head Coach: Abigail Farler (Marshall, 2007) Roster | Stats | Game Notes

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Playing six games in the next four days, Baylor softball (2-2) begins a 13-game homestand with a matchup against Abilene Christian (1-3) at 5 p.m. Thursday in the home opener at Getterman Stadium. 
             "It's nice to be home and get to play in front of our fans," said coach Glenn Moore, who needs three wins this weekend to pick up his 900^th career victory (897-416). "But right now, you just need to get games under your belt. I also want to enjoy the sport a little bit, enjoy and have some fun and play some games where you're able to use your bench a little bit, test your depth. Hopefully, we're going to be able to do all those things this weekend."
            The Lady Bears are coming off an opening weekend that saw them knock off 23^rd-ranked Auburn, 8-0, and rally for a 7-4 victory over Louisville on the opening day of the NFCA Leadoff Classic in Clearwater, Fla. They struggled the next two days, though, getting run-ruled by Missouri and Team USA by identical 9-1 scores and shut out by Missouri State, 3-0. 
            Baylor collected at least seven hits in the first three games, hit .312 for the tournament and got home runs from senior catcher Taylor Ellis and freshman shortstop Aliyah Pritchett. 
            "We learned that we're potentially a good team, but we also learned that we're not there yet. We've got a lot of work to do," Moore said. "That type of field was able to show us what we're capable of doing and also show us what we need to do. We had the mindset going into the weekend that we weren't going to define this team by the outcome. Regardless of whether it was a great weekend or we fell on our face, we were just going to get better from it."
            Ellis, who hit .417 with a team-high four RBIs, said the key is not getting too high or too low. 
            "We're trying not to read into the winds or read into the losses too much," she said. "It's always exciting to start out with zero wins and zero losses, everybody's equal. That's the awesome part of the season. We're looking, obviously, to get more wins this weekend."
            One of the highlights of the weekend was playing against Team USA in Saturday's exhibition game. Baylor became the first team to score off the national team on its "Stand Beside Her" tour when freshman Emily Hott drove in Lou Gilbert with an RBI single up the middle in the second inning. 
            "That was so incredible," Ellis said. "I have so much respect for each one of those players representing our country. It was an awesome opportunity. I remember I had an at-bat against Cat Osterman, and that's someone that every softball player looks up to. And that was just an incredible moment for me and everybody on this team."
            Another highlight was the return to the circle by ace pitcher Gia Rodoni, who missed all of the 2019 season with an injury. She allowed just two hits in four shutout innings to pick up the win against Auburn, closed out the Louisville game to record her fourth career save and came back to toss three shutout innings in Sunday's game against Missouri State. 
            "It's hard to ask anything more from her in that opening game (against Auburn)," Moore said. "The second day, bringing her back out, she's going to be sore and her speeds are going to be down. And you're facing a Missouri team that ended up 5-0 and swings the bat really well. She ran into that buzz saw. She wasn't on top of her game, but I have no concern about where she'll be. When we get her in midseason form, she'll be good."
            Baylor's pitching depth will be tested with Thursday's game against ACU and five more games in this weekend's Getterman Classic. The Lady Bears face Prairie View A&M (1-4) at 3 p.m. and Grand Canyon (1-5) at 5:30 p.m. Friday, then Western Illinois (1-4) at 12:30 p.m. Saturday in the three-day, four-team tournament. 
            "Throughout the weekend, it's more about us than it is about them," Moore said. "That's the focus we typically teach our kids is to worry more about the name on our jersey than the name on the jerseys on the other side of the field. We've got to get better every time we go out there. ACU is going to run a little bit more than the teams we faced this past weekend, so we've got to be prepared for a little bit more of a run game out of them."
            In Thursday's home opener, which was moved from Tuesday because of heavy rain and cold weather, Baylor will unveil a new state-of-the-art video board. A new artificial turf and LED fixtures in the stadium lighting were added last year. 
            Moore said the 21-year-old stadium was "getting a little age on it, but it's still considered one of the top five or six stadiums in the country."
            "Just needs a little upgrade now and then, and we've been able to do a few things with the help of some generous boosters and people that love our program," he said. "We're very grateful for those people. Now, we're keeping this stadium at the top of its game as well."
 
 STORY LINES
• Baylor returns home after going 2-2 over opening weekend at the NFCA Leadoff Classic.
• Thursday's contest vs. Abilene Christian will be Baylor's home opener. Fans will get their first look at the 2020 team, along with the new videoboard in center field.
• Originally scheduled for Tuesday, Baylor's contest vs. the Wildcats was postponed until Thursday due to expected inclement weather in the area.
• Fans can listen to the game on 101.3 FM with Dan Ingham (pxp).
• Baylor head coach Glenn Moore is three wins away from 900 career victories (897-416).
• Baylor has recorded four double plays this season. Only one has been the conventional 6-4-3. BU has turned an 8-3 double play against Auburn, a 7-6-5-2 double play against Louisville and a 9-6-2-1 double play against Missouri State. That total leads the Big 12.
• Baylor recorded the first season-opening shutout victory over a ranked opponent in program history when the Lady Bears shut out No. 23 Auburn 8-0 on Friday. 
• The Tigers were held to just two hits on the game. The Baylor defense retired nine of the first 10 Auburn batters.
• Goose McGlaun recorded a career-high two doubles in the win over Auburn.
• McGlaun is No. 8 in the Big 12 with two doubles.
• With the win over Louisville, Baylor started its season 2-0 for the fifth time since 2011.
• Taylor Ellis (7, Louisville) and Aliyah Pritchett (1, Missouri) each homered over the weekend. At the time, Pritchett was only the second freshman in the Big 12 to hit a home run.
• Baylor played an exhibition contest vs. Team USA as part of the "Stand Beside Her" tour. In the second inning, Baylor became the first team to score against the US National Team on the tour when Emily Hott hit an RBI single up the middle to score Lou Gilbert from third base.
• On Sunday, two of the three longest tenured coaching staffs in the country faced off against each other. Baylor's coaching staff has been together for 17 years (third-longest in the country), while Missouri State's staff has been together for 23 years, a mark that is No. 1 in the nation.
• Taylor Ellis was named to the NFCA All-Tournament team after she hit .417 with five hits, a home run and four RBI.
• Gia Rodoni is eighth in the Big 12 with nine strikeouts. She's third in the league with five strikeouts looking.
• After opening weekend, Baylor is third in the league with a .312 batting average. 
• Baylor is 6-0 all-time vs. Abilene Christian, including a 2-0 mark in Waco.
• The last home game against ACU was a 7-0 win on March 29, 2017.
• This will be the first time since 2018 that the two teams will meet on the diamond. BU went 3-0 against ACU in 2018 with every contest on the road.
• Redshirt junior pitcher Sidney Holman-Mansell attended ACU as a freshman. Her husband, Peyton Mansell, recently transferred from Iowa to ACU to play quarterback.
• Baylor welcomes back 17 returners and six starters from a year ago. That does not include Gia Rodoni, Kyla Walker and Maddison Kettler who are back after missing the 2019 season due to injury.

QUICK HITS 
• Baylor will play five opponents ranked in the preseason Coaches Top 10 and four opponents in the preseason Coaches Top 25. In all, the Lady Bears play 12 games against Top 10 foes and eight games against Top 25 foes. 
• Of the 20 games against teams ranked the preseason Coaches Top 25, only six of them are at home (3 vs. No. 3 Oklahoma, 1 vs. No. 8 Minnesota, 2 vs. No. 6 Texas). Three are neutral-site games (2 vs. No. 9 Florida State, 1 vs. No. 23 Auburn), and the remaining 10 are true road games (1 at No. 6 Texas, 3 at No. 7 Florida, 3 at No. 13 Oklahoma State, 3 at No. 18 Texas Tech, 1 at No. 24 Arkansas). 
• Baylor will play 10 games against four programs that advanced to the 2019 Women's College World Series - Oklahoma, Florida, Minnesota and Oklahoma State). 
• BU was picked fifth in the Big 12 preseason coaches poll behind Oklahoma, Texas, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. 

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS 
• Glenn Moore is in his 20th season at Baylor and is the school's all-time active wins leader across all sports (758). 
• Moore is three wins shy of 900 in his career that is in its 24th season. 
• Baylor's four WCWS appearances since 2007 are second in the Big 12, trailing only Oklahoma (6). 
• In Moore's 23 previous years as a collegiate head softball coach, his teams have posted a winning record in 22. 
• Baylor's four WCWS appearances tied for the second-most by a private school, trailing only Northwestern and Creighton (5) for the top spot. 
• BU has gone 198-161 in Big 12 play in Moore's 19 seasons at the helm after going 18-44-1 before his tenure. 
• Baylor has ranked in the Top 25 for average attendance in each of Moore's 19 seasons at Baylor, including a Top 20 ranking every year since 2003. The Lady Bears finished 20th in the country in attendance last season. 

NEARING 900 
• Moore is three wins away from 900 career wins. 
• He will be the 21st person who is still coaching to hit the 900-mark. 
• His .684 winning percentage is better than 11 of the coaches who have 900+ career wins.