Baylor
TCU
No. 8 Seed BSB Begins Run at Big 12 Championship
5/24/2022 3:15:00 PM | Baseball
Bears face top-seeded TCU on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. at Globe Life Field in Arlington
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BAYLOR BEARS (26-26, 7-17 Big 12) Location: Waco, Texas Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Steve Rodriguez (Pepperdine, 2001) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
Game 2: No. 8 BAYLOR (26-26, 7-17) vs No. 1 TCU (35-18, 16-8) May 25, 2022 • 12:30 p.m. CT Game 5 (with loss on Wed.): vs. Loser of No. 4 Oklahoma State/No. 5 Texas May 26, 2022 • 9:00 a.m. CT Game 7 (with win on Wed.): vs Winner of No. 4 Oklahoma State/No. 5 Texas May 26, 2022 • 4:00 p.m. CT Arlington, Texas • Globe Life Field (40,300) LIVE STATS: BaylorStats.com WATCH: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ / ESPNU Talent: Joey Zanaboni, Mike Rooney LISTEN: Learfield / ESPN Central Texas 1660 AM & 92.3 FM & SiriusXM 375 Talent: Derek Smith, Max Calderone Baylor Social Media:    |
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2022 PHILLIPS 66 BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP Location: Arlington, Texas Stadium: Globe Life Field |
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
For Baylor baseball, there is one path to its first NCAA regional in three years. At 76th in the latest RPI rankings, anything short of a Big 12 Championship title will leave the Bears at home for the second-straight year.
That road begins Wednesday, when the eighth-seeded Bears (26-26) face top-seeded and 18th-ranked TCU (35-18) in a first-round matchup at 12:30 p.m. at Globe Life Field in Arlington. Baylor has to win four and possibly five games in a tournament that includes four other top-25 teams, led by eighth-ranked Texas Tech (36-18).
"To win this tournament, we're going to have to pitch better than we've been pitching, as a whole staff," said fourth-year junior right-hander Blake Helton (0-1, 2.51 ERA), who's scheduled to start Wednesday's tournament opener. "We're just going to need to execute on offense and play some good baseball. It's going to take a lot, but I think we can do it."
Baylor coach Steve Rodriguez, who won the 2018 tournament in Oklahoma City, said the starting pitching "is going to be a big part of it." With Tyler Thomas and Will Rigney both lost for the season, the Bears have to turn to a rotation of grad transfer Jake Jackson (4-4, 8.35) and sophomores Kobe Andrade (3-3, 5.88), Grant Golomb (0-0, 3.92) and Cam Caley (4-0, 6.68).
"Some teams are going to be pitching their guys in a way to keep them on schedule for regional week," Helton said. "So, I think that gives us an advantage early in the tournament, being able to throw everything we have into these first couple of games, hopefully come up with some wins, make it deep in the tournament and do something special."
To Helton's point, the Horned Frogs are starting Oregon grad transfer Brett Walker (5-2, 4.87), who picked up the win in relief in last Thursday's 7-6 victory over Santa Clara. Walker also lasted just 2.1 innings in a 11-9 win over Baylor on March 19 in Game 2 of the conference-opening series, giving up four runs on six hits.
Baylor gave up a three-run lead in the ninth and then three unearned runs in the 11th of that game, but bounced back to win the series finale, 7-3.
"Honestly, I like our odds with TCU," said third-year sophomore outfielder Jared McKenzie, a second-team All-Big 12 pick who is hitting .298 with 11 home runs and 42 RBI. "I thought we played really well against them. They're not a bad ballclub at all, and they've got some quality pitching. But, I'll take our quality lineup against their quality pitching. We're going to have to go out there and score runs. And if we do that, I think we have a good chance."
First-year head coach Kirk Saarloos earned Big 12 Coach of the Year honors after leading the Horned Frogs to their second-straight regular-season title, finishing a game ahead of Tech, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma.
Headlined by a pair of first-team picks in senior shortstop Tommy Sacco and sophomore pitcher Luke Savage, TCU had a total of 11 players earn all-conference honors. Sacco is hitting .359 with 21 doubles, one triple, 12 homers and 51 RBI, while Savage made 21 appearances out of the bullpen and is 1-1 with a 1.82 ERA and two saves.
"They're a really good team, obviously, they won our conference," Rodriguez said. "It doesn't really matter at this point who we're playing, if we play well, we have a chance to beat anybody. I just know with the way our guys are swinging the bat, if we can get some timely pitching from our staff, I like our chances."
Baylor's bats came alive last week, scoring a combined 35 runs with 41 hits and seven homers in a 12-0 midweek win over SFA and a three-game series against Oklahoma State. Junior shortstop Jack Pineda earned Co-Big 12 Player of the Week honors, hitting .471 with three homers, including leadoff blasts against SFA and OSU.
In last Thursday's 13-11 win over the Cowboys, when the Bears rallied from an 11-3 deficit, McKenzie hit a solo homer in the sixth and a grand-slam shot in a seven-run seventh inning. Antonio Valdez, who came in as a pinch-hitter in the seventh, hit a walk-off two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth.
"Knowing how competitive the Big 12 is, to say, 'Hey, this team was the eighth-ranked team in the country, and we just came out here and gave them a run for their money,' gives us a lot of confidence across the board," McKenzie said.
Rodriguez said the Bears "battled really well at the plate, from start to finish, from the first inning to the ninth inning."
"Even in the rainout that we had," Rodriguez said of Thursday's 9-5 loss that was rained out after eight innings, "you could kind of tell there was a momentum shift that was happening, which was exciting. Unfortunately, the skies opened up pretty bad on us. But, I was really excited about where we were headed in that inning, but that's just the way the weather is."
Wednesday's schedule starts with fourth-seeded Oklahoma State (36-18) versus fifth-seeded Texas (39-17) at 9 a.m., followed by Baylor facing TCU at 12:30 p.m. In the bottom half of the bracket, second-seeded Tech (36-18) plays seventh-seeded Kansas State (27-27) at 4 p.m., followed by third-seeded Oklahoma (33-20) versus West Virginia (33-20) at 7:30.
"We haven't had a great year, but I know we're a better team than our record shows," Helton said. "We're starting off as the 8 seed, but I think we can pull it off."
STORYLINES
LEADING OFF
• No. 8 seed Baylor opens its run at the 2022 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship against No. 1 seed TCU.
• The Bears will face either No. 4 Oklahoma State or No. 5 Texas on Thursday, depending on Wednesday's results.
• Baylor finished the regular season as the nation's leader in double plays turned with 61 and 1.17 per game.
• BU has recorded at least one extra-base hit in each of its last 31 games and have notched at least two XBH in 19 of its last 21 games.
• The Bears scored a season-high nine runs in the third inning against Stephen F. Austin on Tuesday, their most in a single inning since breaking the Big 12 record with 17 runs in the fifth on May 9, 2021 against K-State.
• BU erased an eight-run deficit to No. 8 Oklahoma State on Thursday, coming from down 11-3 to win 13-11 via Antonio Valdez's walk-off, two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth.
• The walk-off long ball was Baylor's first since Ryan Bertelsman went deep to give the Bears the win over Holy Cross on Feb. 16, 2019.
• As part of the comeback, Jared McKenzie hit BU's first grand slame since Cole Haring did so on March 30, 2019 vs. Kansas.
• Junior shortstop Jack Pineda was named the Big 12 Co-Player of the Week after hitting .471 with 3 HR and 18 total bases. He also led the conference with seven runs scored. Two of his HR were leadoff blasts, increasing his career total to four leadoff homers.
• Pineda is Baylor's fifth weekly Big 12 award recipient, BU's most in a season since 2018 (8).
• Jared McKenzie (Second Team) led the Bears on the All-Big 12 Awards list. Cam Caley, Kyle Nevin, Jack Pineda, Tre Richardson and Tyler Thomas each garnered honorable mention recognition as well.
BY THE NUMBERS
• BU is 37-41 all-time at the Big 12 Championship, including a 5-8 record under seventh-year head coach Steve Rodriguez.
• As the No. 8 seed, Baylor is 4-3 at the tournament (2009, 2015).
• The Bears are 2-4 against TCU at the Big 12 Championship, 2-5 against OSU and 4-6 against UT.
• Baylor leads the all-time series over TCU, 151-129, including an 11-10 record under Rodriguez, though the Horned Frogs took two of three from the Bears in Waco earlier this year.
PROBABLE STARTERS
Wednesday, May 25 • 12:30 p.m. CT • RHP Blake Helton (0-1, 2.51 ERA) vs. RHP Brett Walker (5-2, 4.87 ERA)
BROADCAST INFORMATION
• This week's games will be carried on the ESPN family of networks, including Big 12 Now and ESPNU. Joey Zanaboni and Mike Rooney will call the morning games, while Clay Matvick and Greg Swindell will provide the afternoon commentary.
• Fans can also tune in to ESPN Central Texas 1660 AM, 92.3 FM or SiriusXM 375 for the Baylor radio broadcast, featuring Derek Smith (play-by-play) and Max Calderone on the call.
TURNING TWO
• Baylor leads the country with 61 double plays turned in 2022 (1.17 per game).
• Third-year sophomore 2B Tre Richardson leads the team with an assist in 44 of the Bears' double plays.
• The Bears rolled just 33 double plays in all of 2021 (0.65 per game).
• The last time Baylor led the nation in any statistical category as a team was in 2015, when BU was tied for the country's top mark with 16 teams that turned a triple play.
-BaylorBears.com-
