Saturday, March 5
Waco, Texas
12 PM
Baylor
vs
Texas A&M - Corpus Christi
SB Hosts Texas A&M Corpus Christi in Saturday Doubleheader
3/4/2022 1:11:00 PM | Softball
Bears will face the Islanders for the 15th time
BAYLOR (10-5) vs. TEXAS A&M CORPUS CHRISTI(9-11)
Saturday, March 5 • vs. TAMUCC (DH 1) • Waco, Texas | Getterman Stadium • Radio: 101.3 FM • TV: Big 12 Now ESPN+Saturday, March 5 • vs. TAMUCC (DH 2) • Waco, Texas | Getterman Stadium • Radio: 101.3 FM • TV: Big 12 Now ESPN+
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Even this deep into the season, there's a good chance that Baylor softball coach Glenn Moore will trot out a lineup that he's never used before when the Bears (10-5) play Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (9-11) for a doubleheader at noon Saturday at Getterman Stadium.
At some point, he may run out of combinations, but Moore has used 14 different lineups and rotated two each at catcher, second base and third base, three at first base and left field and four shortstops. The only constants have been McKenzie Wilson and Ana Watson in center and right field, respectively, and even they took a seat for the second game of Tuesday's doubleheader.
"I think the identity of our team may very well be that we're going to use rather than just one set of nine, we're going to have multiple sets of nine," Moore said. "And we're going to ask two or three players, such as Emily Hott, Kaci West, Aliyah Binford and Sydney Collazos, to play multiple positions and be comfortable with being switched from one to the other."
Sophomore Zadie LaValley, who's had 11 starts combined at catcher and first base, said "you have to be ready to play any position, at any time in the game, especially."
"You never know what's going to happen, obviously," she said. "We knew that coming into the season, that we've got to use everybody at any time. I think people are getting used to being ready to go in at any time."
It's the same thing in the circle. Other than Fresno State transfer Dariana Orme, who's made a team-high six starts with a 3-2 record, one save and a 3.26 ERA, none of the other four pitchers have made more than three starts.
"Honestly, it's awesome," said sophomore Maren Judisch, who picked up her first win of the season and fourth career victory in beating Prairie View, 3-2, on Tuesday. "I love having these girls and having a big pitching staff where we're all ready at all times for different styles of pitching. We all bring different tools and have different tools in our toolbox."
Winning four of their last five, the Bears are riding a three-game winning streak going into Saturday's doubleheader against A&M-Corpus Christi. The Islanders have lost five of six true road games this season, but swept a doubleheader from Prairie View A&M as well and have wins over Houston, UTA, Syracuse, Wisconsin-Green Bay and Northern Colorado.
Baylor leaves two days later for a trip to Honolulu, Hawaii, to play California, Hawaii and top-ranked Oklahoma in the Rainbow Wahine Classic.
"We really need to make sure that we're here and being where our feet are and investing into these two games and not getting carried away with the big, flashy stuff in Hawaii," Judisch said. "Just remembering that we still have a job to do and making sure we do our job."
Moore said the key for the Bears is to "stay on the path that we finally got on last weekend," when they split four games at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Palm Springs, Calif.
"It's good to be home and to play in what seems to be a forecast that's conducive to good softball and fan attendance, hopefully," Moore said. "We're on a progression toward, not only finding out what our best nine is out there, but having them develop their skills in those positions to play at a high level."
Freshman Kaci West (3-0), who's also played at second base and left field, pitched the program's first perfect game in a 9-0, five-inning run-rule victory over Prairie View on Tuesday. She struck out five of the 15 batters she faced, allowing no walks, and lowered her ERA to a team-best 2.70.
"Don't sell it short just because it was maybe not the competition we face in the Big 12," Moore said. "Throwing a perfect game is a phenomenal feat. That's why you don't see it very often. It's pretty amazing, with the pitchers we've had, that we hadn't ever had one. We've knocked on the door a few times. For a freshman to do that – we've played teams of that caliber many times, and we didn't have anyone who had done it before that."
Both of Saturday's games will be streamed by Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
STORY LINES
- Baylor Softball will host Texas A&M Corpus Christi for a doubleheader, Saturday March 5 at Getterman Stadium. This will be the 15th time these two teams have met, with Baylor leading the all-time series 12-2. They have met six times in Waco, with Baylor leading at home 5-1.
- This is the first meeting between the two teams since February 7, 2015 when the Bears defeated the Islanders 3-0.
- BU is coming off of a midweek doubleheader matchup where they swept Prairie View A&M, 9-0 in game one and 3-2 in game two.
- Tuesday's game one against the Panthers saw the Bears complete their first ever perfect game, as Kaci West and the Baylor defense combined to strikeout five while allowing no walks, errors, or hit batters.
- Offensively, the Bears have been hot recording 47 hits during their weekend at the Mary Nutter Classic and tacking on 15 more during their midweek contests.
- Leading the charge offensively is McKenzie Wilson who is leading the Big 12 currently in batting average (.510), hits (26), triples (3) and stolen bases (9). She picked up nine of those hits at the Mary Nutter Classic, including going 4-for-4 at the plate against San Diego. She recorded a double, a triple, and a inside the park home run on the weekend while tacking on five RBI.
- Sydney Collazos has been hitting hot recently with a .457 batting average and a team-high five doubles so far this year.
- Aliyah Binford and Dariana Orme both got starts over the weekend with Binford tossing 15 strikeouts over 9.0 innings and picking up a win for her performance against San Diego. Orme picked up 13 strikeouts while only issuing for walks in her 11.2 innings of work, while picking up her first save of the season.
- Binford is currently third in the Big 12 with strikeouts this season with 41, averaging 10.37 strikeouts per game.
- Also getting appearances in the circle this week were Maren Judisch, Rachel Hertengerger and Kaci West
- Trying out different starting lineups, head coach Glenn Moore shuffled lineups during the last couple of games letting different batters and position players have their shot. The differentiating lineups included four different freshmen getting a start while moving around the infield and outfield. This week marked the first of the season that McKenzie Wilson and Emily Hott were not in the first two spots in the batting order.
TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI
BAYLOR LEADS 12-2Waco: Baylor leads 5-1
Corpus Christi, Texas: Baylor leads 3-0
Neutral: Baylor leads 4-1
- BaylorBears.com -
Players Mentioned
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