Texas Tech Prepares For Baylor
May 09, 2001 | Baseball
May 9, 2001
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The Baylor Bears will bring a 34-18 overall record and a 16-9 mark in the Big 12 to the series with Texas Tech this weekend at the Baylor Ballpark in Waco.
The Bears come into the series fresh off an extra inning win over Southwest Texas. The Bears erased a 12-7 deficit and hung on to beat the Bobcats in 10 innings on Wednesday in Waco.
Baylor has maintained appearances in most of the major college baseball polls throughout the entire season and have been ranked as high as fifth. The Bears currently sit in second place behind league leader Nebraska. Baylor was the regular-season Big 12 Champions last year but must hope for a sweep of Texas Tech and for an Iowa State sweep of Nebraska to repeat.
Catcher Kelly Shoppach has made a strong case for Big 12 Player of the Year honors as he is hitting an impressive .409 overall and .379 in Big 12 games. Shoppach was a second-team all-Big 12 selection in 2000 and was named to the Big 12 All-Tournament team.
Defensively, the Bears are among the top five fielding teams in the Big 12 with a fielding percentage of .965 having committed 68 errors on the year.
Leading the Bear pitching staff, that currently ranks 20th in the nation, is Steven White who tallies an ERA of 2.09 and is 10-1.