Friday, Feb. 28 • vs. North Texas • Waco, Texas | Getterman Stadium • Radio: 101.3 FM • Watch: ESPN+
Friday, Feb. 28 • vs. California Baptist • Waco, Texas | Getterman Stadium • Radio: 101.3 FM • Watch: ESPN+
Saturday, Mar. 1 • vs. Sam Houston • Waco, Texas | Getterman Stadium • Radio: 101.3 FM • Watch: ESPN+
Saturday, Mar. 1 • vs. TBD • Waco, Texas | Getterman Stadium • Radio: 101.3 FM • Watch: ESPN+
Sunday, Mar. 2 • vs. TBD • Waco, Texas | Getterman Stadium • Radio: 101.3 FM • Watch: ESPN+
 
Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
WACO, Texas – As strange as it might sound, Glenn Moore feels better about the Baylor softball team after a 1-4 finish at last weekend's Mary Nutter Classic than he did when the Bears went 5-0 in the Palm Springs, Calif., tournament last year.
 
"A year ago, we were 5-0 coming out of that tournament, but not in a good place because of the people we lost that weekend," Moore said of losing shortstop Amber Toven and pitchers Dariana Orme and Lexie Warncke to season-ending injuries.
 
"What you have to worry about as a coach is making sure you don't lose too much confidence after being dominated, pitching and the whole ball of wax. . . . . We were beaten by really good teams, but we were soundly beaten. We've gone back to work this week and tried to brush up on some things that were revealed by playing a tougher schedule."
 
After a 5-4, walk-off win over Nevada and four-consecutive losses to top-20 teams, the Bears (7-8) will try to regain some of their confidence when they host North Texas (13-2), Sam Houston State (7-7) and Cal Baptist (7-10) in the Baylor Invitational at Getterman Stadium.
 
"The biggest difference is these teams don't have three or four, five arms, but they have one or two," Moore said. "They have arms that can beat you. Depth in the bullpen, similar to our situation, is not there right now. But they are all quality, top-100 RPI teams, I believe, and I think they can match up that way. We just saw North Texas knock off a top-15 Texas Tech team (6-5 on walk-off grand slam). I think all four teams are very comparable in many ways."
 
Seven of Baylor's eight losses have come against ranked teams, including a 10-7 loss to then-No. 7 Texas A&M, when the Bears had a 7-1 lead through the first four innings. They trailed 2-0 going into the sixth inning of a 4-1 loss to 16^th-ranked Nebraska; No. 22 Missouri was clinging to a one-run lead before scoring four runs in the last two frames; and No. 4 UCLA had a 2-1 lead after four in the Bruins' 6-2 victory.
 
"I feel like where we can go from here is up," said senior catcher Carson Frier, a UCF transfer who has a .333 on-base percentage with a double and two RBIs. "It pointed out a lot of our weaknesses. And to get where we want to go, whether it's Regionals, Super Regionals or World Series, we have to fix those things. That's the type of teams we're going to face, so I feel like getting hit now instead of later in the season is always better."
 
One of the bright spots in California was two-time All-American Shaylon Govan hitting homers in three of the five games, including a sixth-inning solo shot off UCLA pitcher Addisen Fisher. After getting off to a slow start, Govan is hitting .333 for the season with five extra-base hits and a .741 slugging percentage.
 
"And she did it without (Houston transfer Turiya) Coleman in our lineup," Moore said of Coleman, who was hit in the face by a foul ball. "Not having her protect Shaylon says a lot more for what Shaylon did. I thought Abi (Flores had some quality at-bats and was very determined to represent that position (4-hole) in a big way. You put Coleman in the 4 spot, now you've got 3, 4 and 5 that are better than they would have been. I think it'll pay off in the long run."
 
Baylor's biggest struggles have come in the circle, where the team ERA is 5.33 with a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 1.2-1.0, with 49 strikeouts and 41 walks. Orme, expected to be the staff ace, is 2-2 with a bloated 8.14 ERA and only 11 strikeouts in 16.1 innings.
 
"I keep calling her the Golden Arm, because she does have that if she's healthy, if she gets closer to what she was in the past," Moore said. "My dream is not necessarily that she comes back to that 70-, 72-mph pitcher. But because she's lost some velocity, that she becomes more of a pitcher and more of a thinker and smart pitcher, where she can get batters out without having to strike out three in an inning. She doesn't have to do that with this defense."
 
On the flip side, the most pleasant surprise on the pitching staff has been redshirt freshman right-hander Lexie Warncke, who is 3-1 with a 2.93 ERA and 20 strikeouts in 28.2 innings. She has pitched at least 4.0 innings in five games, including 4.0 as the starter versus UCLA.
 
"Being a perfectionist, I don't know if I would say that it's been a good start," Werncke said. "I think it's been hard coming back from an injury, but I didn't expect for it to get better this fast. I expected to struggle a little bit more, which I have struggled a little bit. But I think I'm moving along pretty well."
 
In the round-robin portion of the tournament, the Bears will face UNT at 3 p.m. and Cal Baptist at 5;30 p.m. Friday and Sam Houston State at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, with the bracketed semifinals at 3 and 5:30 p.m. Saturday, the consolation game at 9 a.m. Sunday and the championship at 11:30 a.m.
 
All of Baylor's games this weekend will be streamed by ESPN+.



STORY LINES
• Baylor Softball is returning home to host its second tournament of the season, the Baylor Invitational, where they will welcome North Texas, Sam Houston and California Baptist to town. 
• The tournament will feature each team playing each other once until the One Seed vs Four Seed and Two Seed vs Three Seed games on Saturday afternoon. After play on Saturday the winning and losing teams will face off in a consolation and championship game before a winner is announced at the end of the tournament. 
• During the 2025 season, the team comes back to the diamond with a veteran squad that consists of 12 seniors and 15 upperclassmen.
• After ending the 2024 campaign back in a Super Regional for the first time since 2017, the Bears are looking to build on last year's season while returning 15 off of the 2024 squad, while adding four transfers and seven freshmen. 
• The Bears four transfers include Brooklyn Carter (Washington), Turiya Coleman (Houston), Carson Frier (UCF) and Lillie Walker (Duke). Coleman and Frier add depth to the Bears infield/catching position, while Carter adds speed to the outfield and Walker tosses left-handed in the circle. 
• After starting with a five-game tournament at Texas A&M, the Bears hosted a three-team tournament during the second week of play, the Getterman Classic, where they welcomed No. 3 Oklahoma and Hofstra to town. the Bears went 3-2 at the Getterman Classic defeating Hofstra three times and falling against the defending National Champions, Oklahoma, twice. 
• At the Bears' third tournament of the season the Mary Nutter Classic, the Bears recorded a walk-off win over Nevada before falling in four-straight games against ranked opponents. 
• Baylor leads North Texas 30-9 in the all-time record books, with the Bears last facing the Mean Green during the 2019 season, when Baylor won 5-2. 
• BU has never faced off against California Baptist. 
• Baylor lead the all-time record of Sam Houston, 57-30, including a 32-12 lead in Waco. The Bear last faced the Bearkats during the 2024 season when they picked up the 8-0 run-rule on the road in Huntsville. 
• The Bears will face six opponents in the month of February who are either ranked or receiving votes in the preseason ESPN poll for a total of seven games. Those teams include: No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 6 UCLA, No. 7 Texas A&M, No. 13 Arkansas, No. 15 Missouri and No. 16 Nebraska. Seven of Baylor's eight losses on the season have come against opponents ranked in the Top 25. 
• Leading Baylor offensively so far this season, Brooklyn Carter is hitting .348 with 16 hits, three doubles, a home run and eight RBIs. 
• Baylor's leading hitter last year, Shaylon Govan, is back for her senior season for the Bears after being named a unanimous First-Team All-American last year. The two-time All-American hit .444 last season while setting Baylor single-season records in walks (48) and on base percentage (.579). Her on base percentage led the nation, while her batting average was top-7 in the nation. 
• Picking up All-Big 12 Preseason honors this season were Shaylon Govan and Turiya Coleman. Both Coleman and Govan we also named to D1Softball's Preseason D100 Player rankings at No. 9 and No. 79, respectively. They were also both in the preseason D1Softball individual position rankings with Govan as the No.1 first baseman in the country and Coleman as the No.6 catcher in the country. 
• Shaylon Govan was also names a preseason All-American by Softball America and D1Softball and was named to the USA Softball Top 50 Player of the Year watchlist. 
• Govan was named as the preseason No. 11 player in the country and Dariana Orme came in at No. 96 in Softball America's Preseason Top 100 Player Rankings
• Freshman Karynton Dawson was named as to D1Softball's D100 Freshman watchlist, while her and Gigi Lindsey were on Softball America's Freshman watchlist. 
• Head coach Glenn Moore is in his 25th season at the helm of the Baylor Softball program. In a quarter of a century, Moore is Baylor Athletics' active all-time wins leader across all sports. He has progressed up the active NCAA coaching ranks, now ranking No. 17 in total victories among active Division I head coaches.