PROVO, Utah — BYU baseball is back on the road again this weekend with its fourth Big 12 series of the year. The Cougars travel to Waco, Texas, for a three-game series with the Baylor Bears April 2-4.
DATES & TIMES. Currently the Thursday and Friday games are currently set for 6:30 p.m. CT with Saturday’s contest scheduled for 1:00 p.m. CT. Due to possible inclement weather in Waco this weekend, dates and start times might be adjusted accordingly.
BROADCAST PLANS. The three-game, Big 12 baseball series will be broadcast live on ESPN+ and will also be available on the BYU Radio app, BYUradio.org, SiriusXM 143 and 107.9 FM in Utah County.
SERIES HISTORY. Thursday marks just the sixth all-time meeting between BYU and Baylor. The Bears lead the all-time series 4-1, including a 3-0 sweep of the Cougars in Provo April 11-13, 2024. In the two previous meetings in Waco, Baylor got the better of BYU, 7-6, in the first meeting on Feb. 23, 2009, while BYU left town with a 7-5 win at Baylor on March 2, 2010.
BYU-BAYLOR MATCHUP. BYU is 13-14 and 4-5 in Big 12 play while Baylor is 16-12 and 5-4 in conference games. The Bears are in a four-way tie for fourth place with ASU, TCU and Utah, while BYU is one game back in the standings and tied with Cincinnati, KSU and Texas Tech for eighth. Eight of the 14 Big 12 baseball teams are separated by just one game in the current conference standings.
BIG 12 TEAM STATS. BYU enters Thursday’s game hitting .283 as a team, good for eighth in the Big 12. The Cougars are sixth in hits (265) and 10th in runs scored (184). Baylor checks in at .265, good for 13th, and is also 13th in hits (240) and 12th in runs scored (181). On the hill, the Wildcats are fifth in earned run average at 5.20, while the Cougars are 13th at 6.79.
COUGAR RECAP. BYU dropped a midweek game on Tuesday to Kansas State, 16-3, in a non-Big 12 contest. The Cougars are coming off a previous 3-1 week with a non-conference midweek victory over Utah in Salt Lake (6-5) on March 24 and two-of-three wins over Oklahoma State (6-5, 5-12, 5-4) March 26-28 in a Big 12 series in Provo.
All three Cougar victories came in dramatic fashion with a diving catch on the warning track in right center at Utah for the final out of the game to cement BYU’s 6-5 win. Two nights later in game one with OSU at Miller Park, third baseman Easton Jones wrapped up a come-from-behind 6-5 victory with a 10th inning walk-off home run for a 6-5 BYU win. In Saturday’s rubber match, Painter hit a two-run, walk-off home run to straight-away center in the bottom of the ninth for a 5-4 Cougar victory.
BAT CATS. BYU is led offensively by Ezra McNaughton and Ryder Robinson. Both have started all 26 games and are in the top three in nearly every offensive category. McNaughton is the team leader in average (.390), hits (46), runs (25), RBI (31), slugging (.695) and OBP (.455), and is second in HRs (9) and doubles (9). Robinson is hitting .301 and leads BYU in stolen bases (7) and walks (13) and is top three in average (.301), runs (23), hits (34) and OBP (.392). BYU centerfielder Crew McChesney is hitting .309 and is top three for the Cougars in several offensive categories was injured in the OSU series and will miss the Baylor series.
In week five of the season, Robinson was recognized as the Brooks Wallace Award National Player of the Week by the College Baseball Foundation. Presented by the College Baseball Hall of Fame, the Brooks Wallace Award recognizes one shortstop each week as the national player of the week. Robinson was 8 for 16 (.500) with three home runs, a triple, four RBI, four walks and six runs scored the week of March 9-15.
ON THE HILL. Nate Gray leads BYU with four wins on the year in nine appearances. Over 31.0 innings he has 30 strikeouts and holding opposing batters to a .254 average. Gray appeared in two games in the BYU-OSU series leading BYU to two victories while picking up two wins. In two games, Gray pitched 7.2 innings, threw 111 pitches, faced 27 hitters, striking out 7 with an era of 1.17.
Ashton Johnson is second on the team with two wins in 23.1 innings over 11 outings with 23 strikeouts and a save. Seven other Cougars enter the Baylor series with one win including Garrison Sumner, Cayson Bell, Austin Park, Jaxon Clayton, Dan Brousseau, Ethan Zufall and Nate Wochner.