Road to Omaha – Baylor Bears
By Brandon McDermott, KVNO News
May 25th, 2017

Coach Steve Rodriguez (far left) head baseball coach at Baylor University. (photo courtesy D1 Baseball)
On today’s episode of “Road to Omaha,” KVNO’s Brandon McDermott speaks with Baylor University head coach Steve Rodriguez.
Omaha, NE – Rodriguez said there good depth in the Big XII. In the regular season, Texas Tech was first followed by TCU at the top there were five teams vying for the 3-5 spots. He attributes that to the solid depth talent in the conference.
The Bears had won seven straight games before dropping two games to Kansas State to finish off the regular season schedule. In the opening game of the Big XII tournament Wednesday, #5 seed Baylor was beaten by #4 West Virginia 11-1 in 8 innings.
On the year, Baylor is batting .299 – good for second in the conference. Rodriguez said many times one guy would get hot and it would become contagious to other batters in the lineup.
Rodriguez said Aaron Dodson has had a break out senior year for the Bears. He leads the Big XII conference in slugging percentage at .570. Shea Langeliers who is hitting third for the Bears as a freshman, is hitting .322 with a .399 on base percentage. Rodriguez noted that the freshman in the lineup have been getting stronger as the year has progressed.
On the mound, Rodriguez said Montana Parsons has been the leader, by example this year.
“Montana Parsons is one of the more interesting characters I’ve ever coached. He’s a very quiet kid and an amazing young man off the field. When he gets on the field he is going to come right at you and compete and force you to be better than he is,†Rodriguez said.
Baylor takes on #1 seed Texas Tech today at 9 a.m. at the Big XII tournament in Oklahoma City in an elimination game.
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