Baylor
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Kansas
BSB Takes On Kansas For Three in Lawrence
3/30/2023 4:45:00 PM | Baseball
Bears looking to snap a four-game losing skid
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BAYLOR BEARS (9-16, 2-4 Big 12) Location: Waco, Texas Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Mitch Thompson (Fort Hays St., 1988) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
BAYLOR (9-16, 2-4) at KANSAS (9-14, 0-3) March 31, 2023 • 6:00 p.m. CT April 1, 2023 • 12:00 p.m. CT April 2, 2023 • 1:00 p.m. CT Lawrence, Kan. • Hoglund Ballpark (2,500) LIVE STATS: BaylorStats.com WATCH: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ LISTEN: ESPN Central Texas 1660 AM & 92.3 FM Talent: Derek Smith (play-by-play), Max Calderone (analyst) Baylor Social Media:    |
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KANSAS JAYHAWKS (9-14, 0-3 Big 12) Location: Lawrence, Kan. Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Dan Fitzgerald (Minnesota, 2000) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Sophomore infielder Hunter Teplanszky, who saw limited action for TCU's Big 12 championship team last season, sees Baylor baseball's weekend series at Kansas as a "must win."
First-year Baylor head coach Mitch Thompson just treats it as the "next, most important one of the year."
Trying to snap a four-game losing streak that included getting swept by Oklahoma State last weekend, the Bears (9-16, 2-4) face the last-place Jayhawks (9-14, 0-3) in a pivotal three-game series that starts with Friday's 6 p.m. game at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence, Kan.
"You just play one week at a time, one game at a time," Thompson said. "And yeah, these are important games, but no more important than any other game we're going to play in conference the rest of the season."
While this is just the third weekend road series for Baylor (0-6 on the road), Kansas has only played two of first 23 games at home and is hosting its first weekend series. The Jayhawks opened the season with seven neutral-site games in Texas and just beat Creighton, 3-1, on Wednesday to remain unbeaten at home (2-0).
"They're a team that's hungry to win, a team that's hungry to change their fortunes," Thompson said of Kansas, which also has a first-year head coach in Dan Fitzgerald. "They're probably very excited to be at home. This will be their first real home weekend at Hoglund, so it'll be a new deal for them as well. They've got some good arms, got some guys in the lineup that can swing the bat. So yeah, they'll be a challenge for us."
After fifth-year senior Blake Helton (0-3, 8.16) couldn't hold an early 7-0 lead in last Friday's 11-9, 11-inning loss at 15th-ranked Oklahoma State, Thompson has changed up his weekend rotation for the Kansas series.
Sophomore Mason Marriott (1-3, 8.23) will get his first Friday night start, followed by redshirt junior Will Rigney (2-1, 2.16) on a limited pitch count in Saturday's 12 p.m. game. Thompson hasn't decided on a starter for Sunday's 1 p.m. series finale, but will likely piece it together like he did in Tuesday's 5-2, 11-inning loss to ACU, when he threw nine different pitchers.
"That's probably where I'm going to have to make some adjustments and not leave some starting pitchers out there nearly as long as I have in trying to get them deeper into the game to save our bullpen," Thompson said. "I'm going to need to make moves when the time comes. That's exactly how we're going planning on doing it is piece that thing together."
Rigney, who's had three season-ending injuries, will still be on a limited pitch count for Saturday's game but "will go as long as he can," Thompson said.
"He's still on a pitch count, which we're working up, and we'll see where he's at and how he's feeling," he said.
Junior reliever Hambleton Oliver (2-2, 4.76), who pitched 1.1 innings of scoreless relief on Tuesday, said the pitching staff is "trying to build off each other."
"Out of the bullpen, we're all just trying to help each other out," Oliver said. "If somebody doesn't have it that game, we're trying to back them up as soon as we go in, and trying to do everything we possibly can to help our team win, whether that's in the third inning, seventh inning, the ninth inning or even the 11th."
The Bears have shown they can be a "really good team," taking two of three in the opening conference series against Kansas State and beating Dallas Baptist, Rice and Sam Houston in consecutive midweek games.
"You just have to go back and kind of dive into what was really working for us," said Teplanszky, who's hitting .324, hitting his first two homers in Saturday's 15-8 loss at OSU. "Just continue to be competitive at the plate, continue to string together (at-bats). We showed that we can be a really good team when we put it all together."
Thompson said he wasn't sure if the Bears lost any momentum in the weekend series at Oklahoma State, "we just ran into a buzzsaw."
"Momentum is only as good as the next day's starting pitcher," he said. "So, for us to go up there and be successful, we're just going to need to pitch well, we need to play well, we need the bats to continue to swing, take good at-bats. The whole idea is to score one more than they do."
All three games will be streamed by Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
STORYLINES
LEADING OFF
• Baylor Baseball hits the road for the second time in as many weekends to face Kansas in a three-game series at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence, Kan.
• The Bears are looking to snap a four-game losing skid after previously winning four of their last five.
• BU opened conference play with a series win over K-State, but now finds itself in the middle of the pack in the league standings after the second weekend of Big 12 action.
• Last weekend, home teams swept all three Big 12 series as an interesting flow chart emerged: Texas swept Texas Tech, who holds a series win over Oklahoma State, who swept Baylor, who won the series over K-State, who swept Oklahoma, who won the series over TCU, who swept Kansas. West Virginia is the only Big 12 team yet to play a conference game.
• Last week, the Bears won a wild Tuesday night game over Sam Houston, 7-6, after an hour and 10-minute rain delay before the start of the eighth inning.
• Freshman OF Caleb Bergman delivered the go-ahead RBI single in the bottom of the eighth as a pinch hitter, then started an 8-6-2-5 double play with no outs in the top of the ninth to prevent SHSU from scoring.
• Baylor pitchers struck out a season-high 18 batters on Friday at Oklahoma State, setting a program record for strikeouts in a Big 12 game.
• BU produced its first four-HR game of the year on Saturday at OSU, as sophomore C Cortlan Castle and sophomore INF Hunter Teplanszky each launched their first-career homers.
• The Bears are 9-2 this season when scoring six or more runs, 7-2 when out-hitting their opponents and 7-0 when leading the ballgame after six innings.
• After freshman INF Kolby Branch's on-base streak was snapped at 23 games, Teplanszky's 13-game on-base streak now leads the team, while junior INF/OF Cole Posey's nine-game hitting streak is a team high.
ADD IT TO THE K-COUNTER
• The Bears have eclipsed double-digit strikeouts on the mound in 17 of their 25 games so far this season.
• BU has punched out at least 13 opposing hitters in 10 games this year.
• Furthermore, Baylor has racked up 15 or more K's in four games this season, including a program record for Big 12 games with 18 at Oklahoma State on March 24.
• Baylor ranks second in the Big 12 and 13th nationally with 267 strikeouts.
• BU's 10.60 strikeouts per nine innings also ranks second the conference and 29th nationally.
OFFENSE HEATING UP
• Over the last 10 games, Baylor's offense is hitting .282 and has raised its batting average 13 points, from .239 to .252.
• During conference games, BU is hitting .295 as a team, the fourth-best mark in the league.
• Baylor's offense has produced 10 double-digit hitting outputs this season, including five in its last seven games.
• Four Bears (min. 2 PA/gm and 75% of games played) are hitting over .300 in Kolby Branch (.347), Hunter Teplanszky (.324), Cole Posey (.313) and Hunter Simmons (.310).
SERIES HISTORY VS KU
• Baylor leads the all-time series, 61-23, over Kansas.
• BU has won each of its last three series over KU.
• The Bears haven't swept the Jayhawks since 2012.
PROBABLE STARTERS
• Friday, March 31 • 6:00 p.m. • RHP Mason Marriott (1-3, 8.23 ERA) vs. RHP Collin Baumgartner (2-0, 3.62 ERA)
• Saturday, April 1 • 12:00 p.m. • RHP Will Rigney (2-1, 2.16 ERA) vs. RHP Sam Ireland (2-3, 4.17 ERA)
• Sunday, April 2 • 1:00 p.m. • TBD vs. TBD
BROADCAST INFORMATION
• All three games this weekend will be televised on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
• Fans can also tune in to the Baylor radio broadcast on ESPN Central Texas 1660 AM/92.3 FM, featuring Derek Smith (play-by-play) and Max Calderone (analyst) on the call.
To stay up to date on all things Baylor baseball, follow the team on its official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts: @BaylorBaseball.
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