No. 21 SB Prepares for Tennessee Invitational

No. 21 BAYLOR (27-9, 2-4) at TENNESSEE INVITATIONAL

Thursday, April 6 • vs. Mercer • Knoxville, Tennessee |Sherri Parker Lee Stadium • Radio: 101.3 FM
Thursday, April 6 • vs. Tennessee • Knoxville, Tennessee |Sherri Parker Lee Stadium • Radio: 101.3 FM
Friday, April 7 • vs. Mercer • Knoxville, Tennessee |Sherri Parker Lee Stadium • Radio: 101.3 FM
Friday, April 7 • vs. Tennessee • Knoxville, Tennessee |Sherri Parker Lee Stadium • Radio: 101.3 FM

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Having already played five games against top-10 opponents, No. 21 Baylor softball (27-9) certainly won't be out of its element when the Bears play fifth-ranked Tennessee (29-3) in a break from conference play.
            In the two-day, three-team Tennessee Invitational, Baylor will play Mercer (12-24) at 9 a.m. CT Thursday and Friday at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn., and the host Volunteers (29-3) at 2 p.m. CT Thursday and 11:30 a.m. Friday.
            "Anytime you get to go play high-caliber competition like Tennessee, especially being ranked in the top-5, there's nothing you can do but be excited about it and be ready to step up," said junior outfielder Emily Hott, who's hitting .316 with one homer, 10 RBIs and five stolen bases. "Not only is it out of conference, we get to play an SEC team and kind of show them what the Big 12 is all about."
            Baylor handed No. 1 Oklahoma its only loss of the year, 4-3, in the Getterman Classic, split a pair of games with a top-20 Texas A&M team at the Baylor Invitational and had an early lead on second-ranked Oklahoma State before falling 6-5 in 11 innings.
            "If you want to step out of conference and play a weaker schedule, you have the opportunity to do that," Baylor coach Glenn Moore said of the league's bye week. "It depends on your pitching. I thought we'd have a little deeper pitching than we have right now, but we certainly have competitive pitching. . . . These games can't hurt you at the end of the year. When you play these teams, they can better your team."
            Tennessee is hitting a potent .310 with 39 homers, 48 doubles and 61 stolen bases. Kiki Milloy, the daughter of four-time Pro Bowl safety Lawyer Milloy, is hitting .432 with 14 homers, 22 stolen bases and 35 RBIs.
            "They've got three arms that are as good as anybody in the country," Moore said. "They play better because of their pitching, but they've got a solid hitting lineup with Kiki Milloy. . . . We talked about how exciting it would be to go up there and play in their backyard, being the underdog, a challenge that we're familiar with."
            Ranked third nationally with a 1.01 ERA, Tennessee's pitching staff is led by fifth-year grad student Ashley Rogers, who is 11-0 with a 0.75 ERA and 108 strikeouts in 74.2 innings. Former Bowling Green transfer Payton Gottshall is also undefeated at 7-0, while freshman Karlyn Pickens is 7-3 with a 0.81 ERA.
            "We're always ready for a challenge, especially with our lefty-heavy lineup," Hott said. "Lefty-on-lefty matchups are usually more difficult for us . . . so right there, we have an advantage of just (going against) an all-righty pitching staff. I'm excited to play against (Rogers) and see how it goes, especially see how Shay (Govan) and McKenzie (Wilson) do against her."
            After losing Friday's series opener against Kansas, 2-1, the Bears bounced back to sweep a Saturday doubleheader, 3-1 and 4-0, getting strong pitching performances from Dariana Orme (11-4, 1.06 ERA), freshman RyLee Crandall (9-4, 1.89) and Kaci West (5-1, 2.19).
            "After the loss that we took on Friday, Coach Moore brought it to our attention that we need to start winning in the Big 12 and it needs to start now," said junior centerfielder McKenzie Wilson, who's hitting .348 with a Big 12-best 16 stolen bases. "I think with the maturity of our team, it didn't put pressure on us. It was more of, 'Okay, we're aware, thank you for making us aware, Coach Moore.'''
            Govan has been dealing with a shoulder injury and had to leave Saturday's second game, but Moore said the sophomore first baseman will play "if she feels like she can endure the pain. She wants to play. It's really a matter of pain tolerance."
            The Bears will add some pitching depth this week with Iowa Western Community College transfer Ava Knoll coming back from an injury. She hasn't appeared in a game since Feb. 11, when she tossed 3 1/3 innings of no-hit relief in a 5-2 win over Southern Utah.
            "Her timing was off as expected," Moore said of Knoll's stint in an intrasquad game this week, "but her velocity was pretty good. I was impressed with that. She had good movement, but her timing was off and she stayed up in the zone a little too much. But those are things that are going to happen. That was her first time back in the circle in a couple of months."

STORY LINES
• Baylor Softball is heading to Knoxville, Tenn., to compete in the Tennessee Invitational against the No. 4 ranked Volunteers and the Mercer Bears.
• The Bears lead the all-time record over Mercer, 1-0, having only played them once at a neutral site location. BU is tied 4-4 with Tennessee in their all-time record, defeating then twice in Waco and posting a 2-4 record against them at a neutral site. The Bears and Volunteers haven't previously met in Knoxville.
• Baylor went 4-1 last week, defeating both UTSA and Texas State in midweek matchups before going 2-1 against Kansas on the weekend.
• Falling slightly, Baylor is now ranked No. 24 in the D1Softball and Softball America polls. In the ESPN/USA Today poll the Bears are holding steady at 22, and in the NFCA coaches' poll they are 21.
• BU is currently sitting at 23 in the NCAA Softball RPI standings.
• Baylor is now 3-1 in extra-inning games on the season. Their one loss in extras was an 11-inning showdown with No. 2 Oklahoma State to open conference play.
• Baylor picked up its 10th shutout of the season last week, after a 4-0 win over Kansas in the series finale.
• Overall this season, Baylor ranks second in the Big 12 in pitching ERA during all games, with a 1.73 team ERA. No. 1 Oklahoma is the only team ahead of the Bears.
• BU also leads the Big 12 in sacrifice bunts (27), sacrifice fly's (15) and stolen bases (60).
• McKenzie Wilson moved to third place in consecutive reached base streaks this season with a 35 game-record.
• Josie Bower is now tied for second all-time in Baylor softball history in hit by pitches (25), tying Kelley Levesque.
• Shaylon Govan leads the Bears with a .415 batting average with five doubles, seven home runs and 38 RBIs.
• Govan is one of nine Bears to have double digit RBIs already on the season. Emily Hott follows her with 21, Amber Toven has 20, McKenzie Wilson has 14, Taylor Strain and Sydney Collazos have 13, Ana Watson and Presleigh Pilon have 11 and Josie Bower has 10.
• Dariana Orme has the third best season era in the conference (1.06), leads the Bears with 98 strikeouts and leads the conference in innings pitched (105.1).
• The Bears have already recorded 60 stolen bases on the season, 15 away from last year's season total of 75.
• Head coach Glenn Moore picked up his 1,000th career win against UT Arlington on March 22. He is the winningest coach in Baylor Athletics history and now ranks 11th among active Division I head softball coaches to reach this milestone. 861 of his 1,000 career wins have come at Baylor University.

- BaylorBears.com -

No. 21 SB Prepares for Tennessee Invitational

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Players Mentioned

Josie Bower

Sydney Collazos

RyLee Crandall

Shaylon Govan

Emily Hott

Ava Knoll

Dariana Orme

Presleigh Pilon

Taylor Strain

Amber Toven

Ana Watson

Kaci West

McKenzie Wilson

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