Game Day: Baylor Bears @ Simmons Field

■ The Bears have seen a 5-game losing streak, followed by a 7-game winning streak, then the weather cancelled 2 of 3 against the Sooners. In their last 4 games, they beat UT-San Antonio, then lost 2 of 3 to the Jayhawks. The Bears have been idle this week since the KU series.

■ Parking: MU Track & Field and MU Softball both have contests scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Walton Stadium and University Field, next to Taylor Stadium. Parking may be at a premium.

■ Weather: The latest forecasts show the rainstorms arriving at Columbia sometime Friday evening and being gone from the area entirely by noon Saturday.

■ TV: Are You Watching This? MU vs. BU on TV Saturday

■ 36 unearned runs in 22 games (BaylorFans.com)

Yuck. 36 unearned runs on only 32 errors. So there have been some big errors, and not too many insignificant ones.

Furthermore, in the 9 losses, Baylor has given up 26 unearned runs on only 15 errors, almost 3 unearned runs allowed per game. Very frustrating

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■ The BU-KU series, according to the Waco Tribune:

Sunday: L, 12-6: Of all things, a severe power outage cost the Baylor baseball team its series with Kansas.

While Baylor’s pitching had been suspect at times over the course of the weekend, runs and hits had rarely been an issue.

But Baylor went a stunning 11 straight innings without a hit Sunday, and Kansas finally did its damage in the top of the 14th to win, 12-6, and take the series from Baylor.

Saturday, W, 9-8: For the second straight game, the Baylor baseball team put up five runs in the third inning to grab hold of an early lead.

And for the second straight time, the Bears couldn’t hold on to it.
. . .
Baylor has now surrendered 24 runs and 32 hits in its first three Big 12 games, but the offensive numbers — 23 runs on 34 hits — have been nearly as good.

Friday, L, 9-8: If its first two Big 12 contests are any indication, the Baylor baseball team is in for some slugfests in conference play this year.

But the Bears ended the second one Friday the same way they ended the first — on the wrong end of a one-run game.

After a torrid start, Baylor had trouble mustering any offense late and fell to Kansas, 9-8, to open the three-game Big 12 home set — the team’s first of the conference season — on a sour note.
. . .
For as many runs as Baylor put on the board over the first three innings, the Bears’ offense went eerily silent over the next five. The Bears collected just one hit over that span after a five-run third inning gave them a 7-3 advantage, which Kansas (14-8, 1-0) erased two innings later.

■ Baylor ranks #1 on the Boyd's World list of Intended Strength of Schedule for 2010. (Mizzou is 25th)

Baylor, with a record of 13-9, is ranked 52nd on the Boyd's World Pseudo-RPI rankings, in large part because of that Strength of Schedule.

■ Johnny Wholebear pitches for Baylor (Waco Tribune, 3/10)

Coming off a busy four-game series with Oral Roberts last weekend, Baylor coach Steve Smith opted for the pitcher-an-inning game plan to keep his guys fresh for the team’s next series against Illinois-Chicago.
“I didn’t have any choice tonight, because of the situation we were in,” Smith said. “But it works out good, if your pitchers will throw strikes. It’s not an easy thing for an opposing group of hitters to ever settle in. (Louisiana Tech) had their opportunities. I don’t know how many they left on, but they had their opportunities. But the guys did a nice job.”

■ Baylor Baseball Season Preview (Waco Tribune, 2/19/10)

More so than in recent years, Baylor has a foundation of key seniors on which it can lean, including Kempf, Campbell and Glime, a group of leaders who can “make all the difference in the world,” Smith said.

“All we have to play for is winning,” Kempf said. “That’s all we’re worried about. I’ve heard Coach Smith comment in the past about how important he thinks senior leadership is, and we take that on ourselves to be that for this team.”

And a few more words about MU vs. PU . . .

■ Tiger offense is left flailing (Columbia Tribune)

“I haven’t seen an offensive performance like this since we played Xavier at home,” said Jamieson, referring to a 5-1 loss to the Musketeers on March 14. “Down at A&M, we faced a really good pitcher on Friday night and competed well, but this is the first time that we were panicking during the at-bats and just not taking good at-bats and in some cases taking it out in the field."