Baylor head coach Glenn Moore and the senior-heavy Bears know exactly what’s at stake as the stretch run of the regular season begins.
The Bears earned their first series sweep over a conference foe with three wins against UCF over the weekend.
With seven games left until the Big 12 Tournament, they need one more win to clinch a record above .500, which is required to clinch a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
A strong finish, which begins this week with four games out west — one against Utah on Wednesday and a three-game series at BYU beginning Friday — would give Baylor a chance to host an NCAA Regional after its tough schedule and high RPI.
“I think we’ve been close to the frustration levels building to a point where it stagnates us a little bit, but we didn’t get there,” Moore said.
People are also reading…
The Baylor pitching staff showed up big time against the Knights.
Aliyah Binford had four strikeouts in a 2-1 win on Friday night and finished off the series sweep with nine strikeouts in a complete-game shutout in the second game of a Sunday doubleheader.
RyLee Crandall, who had lost her last three outings, also tossed a complete-game shutout on Sunday, finishing with four strikeouts.
“I feel like when you get to this part of the season, you have to hit the reboot button and just get some new energy from the bottom of the tank,” Crandall said. “This weekend kind of refueled us and gave us a new, fully-charged battery.”
The defense also showed up in a big way for the Bears.
Shortstop Presleigh Pilon made a few impressive plays in the win over the Knights on Friday to keep the Bears from letting things out of hand, and Emily Hott made a diving catch in left field to preserve the shutout in the finale on Sunday.
“Defense builds confidence for the pitcher, and vice versa,” Moore said. “When we’re at our best, we work in tandem there.”
The Bears have been battling the injury bug since the early stages of the season.
Senior pitcher Dari Orme, a preseason top 50 player in the nation, has only played in three games as she recovers from surgery to fix thoracic outlet syndrome and isn’t expected to return this season.
Starting shortstop Amber Toven tore her ACL after just seven games while starting centerfielder McKenzie Wilson was suspended after 11 games after getting arrested for shoplifting.
Additionally, Shannon Vivoda has been dealing with a rib injury and Abi Flores has missed time with a concision. Both infielders hope to return by the end of the season.
“I think we’re at 11 players right now out of our 25 that are available,” Moore said. “It would be nice to see a few of those come back from things that are possible.”
Much like they did against UCF, which had won 10 straight before playing the Bears last weekend, both opponents this week have played well of late.
Utah is on a seven-game win streak and is just one game removed from a trip to the Women’s College World Series.
Big 12 newcomers BYU swept Iowa State over the weekend to push its winning streak to four games. Sophomore Hailey Morrow was named Big 12 Player of the Week after hitting four home runs and finishing with 10 RBIs last week for the Cougars.
Baylor, meanwhile, is the only Big 12 team with a road win in conference play this season.
“We’d like to get some more offense, but we’re facing good teams and everybody is trying to win right now, so it’s hard to get some breaks go our way,” Moore said. “We’d like to see more, and we know we’re capable of it.”
Baylor’s roster is loaded with experience, featuring seven seniors and 17 upperclassmen.
Most of them were on the team that won 40 games last year and made it to the NCAA Tournament. That season came to an end in the same stadium where they begin the final stretch of the season this week.
The momentum is back and the Bears are feeling good.
“I don’t think (the momentum) ever wavered as we’ve gone through the season, even the tough times,” junior infielder Shaylon Govan said. “But seeing some ‘Ws’ on the board gives us that extra confidence that we didn’t have before.”