By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Even coming off his first losing season in 22 years as a college head coach, Glenn Moore wasn't shy about setting up a challenging schedule that will test Baylor softball right out of the box.
The Lady Bears open this weekend at the NFCA Leadoff Classic in Clearwater Fla., facing 23rd-ranked Auburn and Louisville on Friday, Missouri and the U.S. Women's National Team on Saturday and closing out with Missouri State on Sunday at the Eddie C. Moore Softball Complex.
"We know that with this type of schedule, there's going to be adversity," said Moore, whose 52-game schedule includes 12 against top-10 teams.
"So, our goal will be to get better every weekend. We play a schedule that you'll either get better or die trying, because it's relentless, the schedule we put together. We have a team that's capable of competing, I just don't want our expectations to be so high out of the starting block that we have a big letdown."
Part of the objective in this opening weekend is to "get a better taste in our mouth," said senior catcher/shortstop Taylor Ellis, who hit .261 last year with four homers and 14 RBI. With injuries sidelining ace pitcher Gia Rodoni, career batting average leader Kyla Walker (.422) and outfielder Maddison Kettler, Baylor was 18-31 overall and last in the Big 12 at 2-16.
"We are excited to turn a new page," Ellis said. "A lot of us are feeling energized and ready to go. We have a lot of competitors on our team, and I think we're looking forward to getting on the field and ready to go."
It helps, of course, having Rodoni and Walker back as fifth-year seniors. Rodoni was 47-17 with a 2.20 ERA and three no-hitters before sitting out last year following knee surgery in the fall of 2018.
"Rehab has been going good and I feel healthier than I've ever felt before," Rodoni said, "so I'm just excited to get this season started with the team."
Moore admits that the tendency will be to keep Rodoni in the circle as long as possible, "but we have to discipline ourselves and get her out of there when we see anything."
"We don't expect any of our pitchers to go the distance," he said. "If they look good and we don't see any arm slide issues, and they are efficient, then we can leave them in there maybe an entire game. . . . We've got to get our bullpen in shape and we've got to get our middle reliever/closer type pitchers coming in and performing. Sometimes, you have to risk losing a game to win a game down the road or be much better down the road."
With Rodoni out last season, sophomore transfer Sidney Holman-Mansell had to carry the load and then some. She pitched in 37 of the team's 49 games, compiling a 10-18 record with a 4.69 ERA and 130 strikeouts in 170.2 innings.
"She's an outstanding pitcher, we just weren't able to let her get her head above water at all last year," Moore said. "What she did was phenomenal. I'll never forget that throughout my career that I had to call on her three times in a weekend against top-10 competition over and over. It was unfair to her."
With sophomore Madison Lindsey returning, plus freshmen Aliyah Pritchett and Erin Talley added to the mix, this is one of the deepest pitching staffs Moore has had in his 20 years at Baylor.
"We've yet to see how good Sidney can be, but we have to be able to manage her in the bullpen as well," Moore said. "That's going to require a different Madison Lindsey than we saw last year. And then Aliyah Pritchett is coming on strong. We are expecting her to be a solid 2-3 type pitcher for us eventually."
Walker, returning from hip surgery, is back at the top of the lineup with senior second baseman Nicky Dawson. One of the few bright spots last season, Dawson hit .336 with two triples and 12 stolen bases to earn second-team All-Big 12 honors.
"Knowing there was nothing I could do to really change it or help, (last season) was really tough to go through," said Walker, who has hit over .400 in each of her first three seasons, including .433 two years ago as a junior. "I did the best I could just trying to lead the team on the sidelines, but it's hard to do when you're not out there going through it with them."
Also returning is senior first baseman Goose McGlaun, who hit a team-best .341 last season. But, after double-digit home run totals her first two years, her power numbers dropped dramatically last year with three homers and 13 RBI.
"She had been protected by Shelby Friudenberg (her first two years), and then we didn't really have anybody that was protecting her to that degree where she could see pitches," Moore said. "That's going to be the role of Taylor Ellis and Aliyah Pritchett. They're going to have to swing the bats well enough so that they will have to pitch to Goose for us to have the power numbers we want."
Sophomore Lou Gilbert, who rotated between centerfield and shortstop last season, is moving to third base this year. Pritchett will man the shortstop position when she's not pitching, with Walker, Kettler and freshman Emily Hott in the outfield.
"I have tremendous middle infield leaders that have helped me transition from the grass (outfield) to the dirt," Gilbert said. "They have made it an extremely smooth transition that could have been extremely rocky without them there behind me."
Friday's tournament schedule has Baylor facing 23rd-ranked Auburn at 11 a.m. CT, followed by Louisville at 1:30. Both teams advanced to region finals last season, with Auburn losing at Arizona and Louisville at Northwestern.
On Saturday, the Lady Bears play Missouri at 9 a.m. and then Team USA at 2 p.m. before closing it out against Missouri State at 8 a.m. Sunday. Mizzou was a 35-game winner last season and lost in the finals of the UCLA regional.
Moore said it's an honor to compete against the USA team, "but also to prepare them for representing our country."
At the end of the game, Baylor will present the Team USA players with green and gold armbands with scriptures on them. "We looked at getting red, white and blue," Moore said. "but we figured they had enough of that."
Baylor returns home to face Abilene Christian in the home opener at 6 p.m. Tuesday and will host Prairie View A&M, Grand Canyon and Western Illinois in the Getterman Classic next weekend.
STORY LINES
• Baylor will open the 2020 season by traveling to Clearwater, Fla., to take part in the NFCA Leadoff, running Feb. 7-9 at the Eddie C. Moore Softball Complex.
• All five games will be streamed on the NFCA Youtube channel by Sportzcast.
• The Lady Bears will open their season against a ranked opponent for the second straight season for the first time since 2011. BU opened 2019 with a 4-1 win over then-No. 9 South Carolina in the Puerto Vallarta Challenge. Baylor previously opened consecutive seasons against ranked foes in 2009 (No. 1 Florida), 2010 (No. 21 Louisville) and 2011 (No. 24 Illinois).
• Friday marks the sixth time in the Glenn Moore era that Baylor has opened its season against a ranked opponent - 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014 (No. 3 Washington), 2019 and 2020).
• Baylor is 1-0 all-time vs. Auburn. The Lady Bears won, 2-0, on Feb. 7, 2004, in the Getterman Classic.
• Louisville has won the only match-up vs. BU with a 6-5 victory on Feb. 13, 2010.
• Baylor will face former Big 12 foe Missouri on the diamond for the first time since 2016 when BU fell to the Tigers in the Judi Garman Classic, 10-4.
• BU will face Missouri State for the first time in the Moore era. All five matchups against the Bears came in the 1980s and 1990s.
• Missouri State leads the country as its coaching staff has been together for 25 years. Baylor is third as the trio of Moore, Mark Lumley and Britni Newman have served together at Baylor for 17 years.
• Saturday afternoon will mark the first time that the Lady Bears will take the field against the US Women's National Team as part of the "Stand By Her Tour." The contest will count as an exhibition for Baylor.
• After this weekend's tournament in Clearwater, the Lady Bears will play 13-straight games at home in Getterman Stadium over a two-week period.
• 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 defeated four ranked opponents in 2019.
• Baylor sported the second-toughest schedule in the country in 2019.
• Baylor will play 10 games against four programs that advanced to the 2019 Women's College World Series - Oklahoma, Florida, Minnesota and Oklahoma State).
• Baylor is 284-128 over the last 7 seasons, averaging 36 wins per season since 2013.
• 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 (756).
• Moore is five wins shy of 900 in his career that enters 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.
2019 SEASON IN REVIEW
• In 2019, the Lady Bears played the second-toughest schedule in the country with one of the youngest lineups in the nation. At most, six freshmen would be on the starting lineup for a game. Freshmen accounted for 45 percent of the team's at-bats.
• Gia Rodoni, Kyla Walker and Maddison Kettler each received medical redshirts and return for the 2020 season.
• With their absence, Baylor returned only three starters from 2018 - Goose McGlaun, Nicky Dawson and Taylor Ellis. McGlaun and Dawson were Second Team All-Big 12 members, while Ellis played a major role for the Lady Bears at shortstop and behind the plate.
• Sidney Holman-Mansell did most of the work in the circle for the Lady Bears as she made appearances in 37 of BU's 49 games with 170.2 innings of work and a 3.65 ERA.
FIFTH-YEAR SENIOR STANDOUTS RETURN FOR 2020 SEASON
• Gia Rodoni and Kyla Walker return to the diamond after redshirting the 2019 season due to injury.
• Rodoni, the 2018 NFCA All-Central Region selection, made 42 appearances with 34 starts in the circle, posting eight shutouts and two no-hitters. Her 268 strikeouts on the season led the Big 12 and ranked 13th in the country.
• Rodoni worked a 2.32 ERA with a 23-12 record, holding opposing hitters to a .215 batting average over 223.2 innings of work.
• Walker, a College Sports Madness Second Team All-American, played in 45 games and made 44 starts, limited by injury for a portion of the season.
• Walker topped her previous career-high with a .433 batting average in 2018, good for second all-time in program history and giving her three of the top five single-season batting averages on Baylor's career leaderboard.
• She maintains a large lead in the program's career batting average record book, entering her senior season with a .422 career hitting clip, good for the fifth-highest career mark in all of NCAA Division I softball, the second-highest among non-freshmen hitters.
