Bipolar Bears

The past week has been a wild ride for the Baylor Bears

■ Wednesday, 7/8 - Dallas Baptist rips Baylor baseball, 16-3

After going batty for a couple of games, the Baylor baseball team had to watch an opponent have a crazy good night at the plate on Wednesday.

Dallas Baptist came out swinging for an upset and landed an early knockout blow in
taking out the seventh-ranked Bears, 16-3, at Baylor Ballpark.

■ Tuesday, 4/7 - Bears crush Northwestern State pitching, 18-1 (WacoTrib.com):

After scoring 39 runs in their last two games, the Bears probably believe they could hit Cy Young right now.

“The most important thing you can have at the plate is confidence,” Hansen said. “If you know you’re going to get a hit, then you’re probably get a hit.”

■ Sunday, 4/5 - Baylor baseball rocks Kansas with 8 homers in 21-9 victory (WacoTrib.com):

With its win in the opener Friday against Kansas, Baylor became the first opposing team to win at Hoglund Ballpark this year. But the Bears were even more satisfied to take the series.

“Of course we wanted to sweep,” Hansen said. “But to come out Sunday when it’s freezing cold and get a win, that’s a good thing.”

■ Baylor is ranked #7 by Baseball America:

The Bears won a series at Kansas' Hoglund Park, where the Jayhawks had been a perfect 14-0 heading into the weekend. Baylor scored three in the ninth Friday to make Jr. LHP/OF Aaron Miller (4 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K) a winner in relief of Jr. RHP Kendal Volz (4.2 IP, 6 H, 6 ER, 7 BB, 5 K). The Bears mustered just three hits Saturday as Fr. LHP Logan Verrett (5.1 IP, 7 H, 5 ER) took his first career loss. Baylor's bats atoned with the wind howling out Sunday, tying a school record with eight home runs, led by Jr. 3B Shaver Hansen (3-for-5, 4 R, 4 RBI), who became the fifth Bear to swat three homers in a game.

■ A profile of Baylor shortstop Shaver Hansen is in the Waco Tribune this morning:

The way that Hansen, who has started the last nine games at shortstop after playing the first 18 at third base, is hitting lately, it would be hard to imagine that he was never anything but a blue-chip, top-rung prospect. Heading into this weekend’s series against Missouri, Hansen is tied with Oklahoma’s J.T. Wise for the Big 12 home run lead with 11, and also leads the seventh-ranked Bears in runs (31), RBIs (31), total bases (83) and slugging percentage (.709).

Hansen comes by his competitive streak naturally. His father is Stan “the Lariat” Hansen, a former professional wrestler who now considers “baseball fan” his full-time job. Shaver’s brother Sam is a senior infielder at Midway.

■ Kyle Mach, quoted in the Columbia Missourian, regarding Baylor:

"It's a team we've always played well against," Mach said. "Hopefully, we can
keep the offense going."

■ PowerMizzou.com: Tigers look to keep bats hot against Baylor:

"I think it's a team we have always played well against, and it's a series that our guys will be excited about," coach Tim Jamieson said. We will play our best baseball and find out if we are as good as Baylor. It will be nice to get through this run of ranked teams and play some teams and come back down to earth a little bit."

■ The College Baseball Blog has a preview of the MU-BU series:

Last year, Missouri was enjoying their dominant pitching staff led by 1st round draft pick Aaron Crow, and current starters Kyle gibson and Ian Berger. This year, the're looking back at last year.

■ Look here for a handful of random photos from the Minnesota series.