No. 15 SB Heads to OKC for Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship

No. 15 BAYLOR (38-15, 8-10 Big 12) at PHILLIPS 66 BIG 12 SOFTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

Thursday, May 11 • vs. Iowa State • Oklahoma City, Okla. |USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium • Radio: 101.3 FM • Watch: ESPN+
Friday, May 12 • vs. Oklahoma • Oklahoma City, Okla. |USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium • Radio: 101.3 FM • Watch: ESPNU
Saturday, May 13 • vs. TBD • Oklahoma City, Okla. |USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium • Radio: 101.3 FM • Watch: ESPN2

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Ranked anywhere from 13^th to 16^th in the various national polls and 17^th in RPI after a three-game sweep of then-No. 5 Texas, Baylor softball is "in a real good position to be a national seed" and host one of 16 NCAA regionals next weekend.
            But Glenn Moore would rather not leave anything to chance.
            The 15^th-ranked and fourth-seeded Bears (39-15) get one last chance to sway the selection committee with the Big 12 Championship that begins Thursday with a 10 a.m. matchup against fifth-seeded Iowa State (24-29) at USA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.
            "I think it's important that we play well, and I think we need to win a game," said Moore, who was named the Co-Coach of the Year in the Big 12 with Oklahoma's Patty Gasso. "But I certainly feel like, even at this point, what we did this past weekend put us in a real good position to be a national seed."
            What was most impressive was that Baylor did it without Dariana Orme or Aliyah Binford – the Nos. 1 and 2 pitchers coming into the season – throwing a single pitch against the Longhorns. Binford suffered a season-ending knee injury in February, while Moore took a "calculated risk" in resting Orme to get the junior right-hander ready for postseason play.
            "We felt that if we were going to be as strong as possible in the postseason, then we needed to rest her," Moore said of Orme (14-8, 1.70 ERA), who has thrown the most innings (148.0) of any pitcher in the Big 12. "Her velocity had dropped enough to where it was concerning to us that we felt like she needed to bring her arm back."
            Freshman RyLee Crandall (15-4, 2.86) and sophomore Kaci West (8-3, 2.51) stepped up in a big way, holding Texas to a combined four runs in the three-game series. Named Big 12 Pitcher of the Week, Crandall tossed bookend five-hitters and also closed out the 5-2 win in Game 2 on Saturday.
            "We didn't expect Aliyah to get hurt and, obviously, Dari didn't throw any this weekend," said junior catcher/third baseman Sydney Collazos. "But instead of letting that worry them, they really stepped up and did their job and limited the No. 5 team in the country to four runs, which is fantastic for such a young staff."
            Moore described Orme's status as "the elephant in the room," but the plan is to throw her this week.
            "A lot of questions that she could be out for good. That's not the case at all," Moore said. "We rested her intentionally . . . and we hope to throw her this week. That's our plan. Whether we start her or not, that's still up in the air. It depends on how she looks in her bullpen."
            Not only are the Bears trying to pad their NCAA tournament resume, they are also looking to gain a bit of revenge. Iowa State took two of three from Baylor two weeks ago in Ames and has won 10 of the last 14 meetings, including a 2-1 victory at last year's Big 12 Championship that essentially knocked BU out of a potential NCAA regional bid.
            "I don't know that we play as poorly as the outcome has been," Moore said. "I think we played pretty decent ball, they just played a bit better. They made some outstanding plays that kept runs off the plate at key times. They put hits together a little better than we did. I respect what Coach (Jamie) Pinkerton does up there and I just think they have a better team than probably what they look like on paper."
            In the rubber-match finale in the series at Iowa State, Baylor took a 5-1 lead in the fourth inning only to see the Cyclones score five in the bottom of the frame and win it 6-5 on Camille Marin's three-run blast, her first homer of the season.
            "My skin's crawling to get back out on the field," said centerfielder McKenzie Wilson, who's hitting .337 with a Big 12-best 21 stolen bases, "because we lost some tough games out there in Ames. And Iowa State, I'm sure they know that we're hungry. And they're not going to back down, either."
            Collazos said the Bears are "not hanging on to those losses."
            "We're coming into this game fresh, just ready to compete," she said. "It's the Big 12 tournament, it's 0-0 record for everyone going into this tournament. And we're going in there to win it."
            If Baylor advances, the Bears would face top-ranked Oklahoma (49-1) in the semifinals at 1 p.m. Saturday. OU has won 41-straight games since falling 4-3 to BU on Feb. 19 at the Getterman Classic.
            "This team has a lot of momentum and a lot of confidence," Wilson said, "but I don't think it just came from this past weekend. . . . Early on, we faced very competitive teams and built our confidence there. Just coming off this weekend, we definitely have a lot of confidence.
            "Everyone knows what field we're about to play on – Hall of Fame Stadium. Everyone knows what happens there in June (Women's College World Series). Champs are crowned there. A champ will be crowned this weekend. It's just an exciting environment and what a great opportunity."
            In addition to Moore as Co-Coach of the Year, Baylor had sophomore first baseman Shaylon Govan named to the All-Big 12 first team, Orme on second team and Crandall on the All-Big 12 Freshman Team. Iowa State's lone pick was junior outfielder Milaysia Ochoa on the all-conference second team.
            "We're still riding the high," Moore said of the Texas sweep. "There's no way to finish the season on any bigger note than that. So, there's some momentum there and we need to make sure that we capture that and allow it to propel us as we move into the Big 12 tournament."

STORY LINES
• Baylor Softball heads to the Phillips 66 Big 12 Softball Championship at the No. 4 seed and will face No. 5 seed Iowa State in game one of the tournament. The winner of Baylor/Iowa State will play No. 1 seed Oklahoma Friday, May 12 at 1 p.m. CT.
• BU is facing Iowa State in the opening game for the second-straight year, falling to the Cyclones in game one last year 2-1.
• The Bears finished the regular season with 39 wins, the most for BU since the 2017 season, a year that ended in the College World Series with a 48-15 record and a final No. 7 national ranking.
• Baylor recorded six top-5 wins as a program this year, the most in school history. Those wins include a non-conference win over No. 1 Oklahoma, two-game sweep of No. 4 Tennessee and a three-game sweep of No. 5 Texas.
• Jumping in the polls this week after a sweep of Texas, Baylor is ranked 13 in the Softball America Poll and 14 in the D1Softball poll. They are also ranked 15 in the NFCA poll and 16 in the ESPN poll. The Bears 16th rank in the ESPN poll ties a season high, while the 15th rank in the NFCA is a season high.
• BU jumped five spots in the NCAA RPI rankings and currently sits at No. 17.
• The Bears three-game sweep over No. 5 Texas marked the first time in program history the bears have swept a top-5 team and was the first time since 2018 that the Bears were able to sweep the Longhorns.
• Head Coach Glenn Moore picked up Big 12 Co-Coach of the Year honors this week, the first conference coach of the year award for Moore in his 27-year head coaching stint.
• Shaylon Govan was a unanimous selection to the All-Big 12 First Team, while Dariana Orme was named to the All-Big 12 Second Team. Freshman RyLee Crandall was honored as a unanimous selection to the All-Big 12 Freshman Team.
• Baylor has turned the most double plays in a season (26), since the 2007 season when the Bears set a single-season high with 28 double plays turned. BU has only turned 20 or more double plays in a season three times in Baylor softball history.
• Baylor is 3-1 in extra-inning games on the season, with their one loss in extras coming against No. 2 Oklahoma State in an 11-inning showdown to open conference play. The Bears also have 11 shutouts on the season.
• Shaylon Govan is now tied for first in sacrifice flies in a single season with seven so far this season, which is good for third nationally. She is also second all-time in walks in a season with 43, which is good for seventh nationally.
• BU also leads the Big 12 in sacrifice bunts (36), sacrifice flies (20) and stolen bases (77) on the season.
• McKenzie Wilson moved to third place in consecutive reached base streaks earlier this season with a 35 game-record.
• Josie Bower is now second all-time in Baylor softball history in hit by pitches (27), passing Kelley Levesque, after she was hit against Oklahoma.
• The Bears recorded their first ever run-rule over the Texas Longhorns, defeating them 9-1 in the series opener, before defeating them 5-2 in game two and winning on a walk-off error in game three.
• Shaylon Govan leads the Bears with 11 home runs and 50 RBIs. She is the first Bears since 2019 to record double-digit home runs in a single season.
• Govan is one of nine Bears to have double digit RBIs on the season. Amber Toven follows her with 33, Emily Hott has 30, Ana Watson has 29, Sydney Collazos has 23, McKenzie Wilson has 22, Presleigh Pilon has 21, Josie Bower has 19 and Taylor Strain has 14.
• Dariana Orme leads the Bears with 126 strikeouts and leads the conference in innings pitched (148.0).
• RyLee Crandall and Josie Bower picked up the last Big 12 weekly awards as Crandall won for her pitching performance and Josie Bower won for her offense.
• Crandall is tied for second in the conference with 15 wins (15-4) and has picked up three top-5 wins on the season.
• 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. 15 SB Heads to OKC for Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship

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Players Mentioned

Aliyah Binford

Josie Bower

Sydney Collazos

RyLee Crandall

Shaylon Govan

Dariana Orme

Presleigh Pilon

Taylor Strain

Amber Toven

Ana Watson

Kaci West

McKenzie Wilson

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