SB Makes Louisiana Road Trip to Lafayette, Ruston

BAYLOR on a LOUISIANA ROAD TRIP
Thursday, March 4
• Baylor at No. 13 Louisiana - 6 p.m.
Saturday, March 6
• Baylor vs. Tarleton State - noon
• Baylor at Louisiana Tech - 2:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 7
• Baylor at Louisiana Tech - 11 a.m.
• Baylor vs. Tarleton State - 1:30 p.m.
Site: Lafayette, La. / Lamson Park
Ruston, La. / Dr. Billy Bundrick Field
TV: Louisiana on ESPN+
Louisiana Tech games on CUSA.tv
Radio: 101.3 FM | Stream
Live Stats: BaylorStats.com
Twitter Updates: @BaylorSoftball
Series History
• Louisiana: Louisiana leads, 17-11
• Louisiana Tech: La. Tech leads, 30-18
• Tarleton State: Never met

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Besides the obvious attraction of Cajun food, Baylor softball coach Glenn Moore and the Lady Bears (5-3) are headed back to Louisiana to continue fine-tuning a team that went 3-2 in the opening weekend at Getterman Stadium.
            Baylor will face 13^th-ranked Louisiana (10-3) at 6 p.m. Thursday in Lafayette before playing Louisiana Tech (2-5) and Tarleton State (5-7) twice each on Saturday and Sunday at the Louisiana Tech Invitational in Ruston.
            "That environment will make you tougher," Moore said of Thursday's game at Lamson Park. "You need to have all your tools available when you head down there and compete in that environment. When you play weaker teams, you don't get a fair assessment of where you are always. So, playing teams like Louisiana-Lafayette will certainly let you know where your weaknesses are, and hopefully we'll let them know where theirs are."
            Louisiana leads the all-time series, 17-11, and has won eight of 12 previous meetings in Lafayette. The Ragin' Cajuns dropped out of the top 10 after losing three games at the LSU Crossover last weekend before rallying from a three-run deficit to beat McNeese State, 5-4, Wednesday night in Lake Charles, La.
            Summer Ellyson (4-2, 2.16 ERA) is their leader in the circle, while Ciara Bryant is hitting .462 with two homers and eight RBI. Louisiana has also been aggressive on the base paths with 27 stolen bases on 32 attempts.
            "They're traditionally a power-hitting team. You know they're going to have that," Moore said of the Ragin' Cajuns, who have hit 11 homers in their first 13 games. "At the same time, they're going to try to be aggressive. They're unpredictable. (Gary) Glasco is that type of coach. He's going to try your arms out. And we've got a couple young arms behind the plate that are itching to see that."
            The Lady Bears fell out of the national polls after losses to UConn and Ole Miss, but ended the weekend with an impressive 10-6 win over then-No. 25 Mississippi State. Baylor is hitting .295 as a team with 20 extra-base hits through the first eight games.
            "We're going to produce runs this year – more doubles, triples and home runs, and a little less short game," Moore said. "We're going to see tons of lineups with fifth-year seniors. That's going to make it tough on every pitching staff, and we're no different. We have the arms, we just have to get better there, and we've already identified that."
            Baylor's pitchers have a team ERA of 4.20, allowing 33 earned runs, 55 hits and 27 walks in 55.0 innings. Sixth-year senior ace Gia Rodoni (1-2) had a nice bounce-back effort with three shutout innings in the win over Mississippi State, but still has an inflated 4.43 ERA.
            "Having seen her in my freshman and sophomore year, before she got hurt," said fifth-year senior first baseman Goose McGlaun, "just seeing the competitor that she is, to finish the weekend out like that was awesome. It was big, especially to build her confidence up and to build our confidence up behind her as a team going into the rest of the season."
            The Lady Bears are hitting .357 in the 1-4 spots in the lineup, with Nicky Dawson (.391) and Lou Gilbert (.320) consistently in the leadoff spots and some combination of McGlaun (.385), Josie Bower (.474) and Aliyah Binford (.280) at 3-5.
            "Right now, I can put together seven, eight, nine hitters out of this group that are capable of doing damage throughout the lineup," Moore said. "I'm going to move the ones that are producing up toward the front. We've kind of solidified 1 through 5 . . . but 6 through 9 can be pretty good as well. So, there are no concerns with me right now. And then we have a couple on the bench that if (the starters) are not getting the job done, we can pinch-hit."
            On the weekend, Baylor will play Tarleton State at 12 p.m. and Louisiana Tech at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, and then reverse the schedule on Sunday with games against the Lady Techsters at 11 a.m. and the Texans at 1:30 p.m.
            "We're not in midseason form yet. We're still going to take those hits in the chin early on," McGlaun said. "But hopefully, we take less and less as the year goes along."

STORY LINES
• Baylor hits the road for a 11-game road stretch as the Lady Bears return to the state of Louisiana this weekend. BU will face No. 13 Louisiana in Lafayette on Thursday before taking part in the Louisiana Tech Invitational over the weekend, facing the Lady Techsters and Tarleton State.
• The top four hitters in the Baylor lineup have showed some pop eight games into the 2021 season. So far, the four spots have combined to hit .357. Nicky Dawson has been a constant in the leadoff spot, while Lou Gilbert has backed her up for a back-to-back lefty attack. The trio of Goose McGlaun, Aliyah Binford and Josie Bower have rotated through the three and four spots in the lineup.
• This weekend marks the first games at Dr. Billy Bundrick Field for Louisiana Tech. The softball field, along with the baseball and soccer facilities, were destroyed after a tornado tore through Ruston, La., in April 2019. Construction began nearly a year ago on March 11.
• Goose McGlaun was named one of 30 candidates for the 2021 Senior CLASS Award. McGlaun is the fourth selection to the preliminary list by a Lady Bear, joining Carlee Wallace, Heather Stearns and Kaitlyn Thumann.
• After 20 seasons as an assistant coach for the Lady Bears, Mark Lumley retired in October before he passed away in December after his fourth bout with cancer. The Baylor players and coaching staff will all be wearing blue ribbons in his honor. This season is for Lum.

SB Makes Louisiana Road Trip to Lafayette, Ruston

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Players Mentioned

Aliyah Binford

Josie Bower

Nicky Dawson

Lou Gilbert

Goose McGlaun

Gia Rodoni

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