Sydney Collazos said before Baylor’s series against Texas Tech that she hoped this weekend would be a turning point.
She did her part to get the Bears headed in the right direction.
Collazos finished a perfect 3-for-3 with three RBIs as Baylor’s offense came alive in an 11-3 run-rule win over the Red Raiders on Sunday to clinch the second-straight conference series for the No. 21 Bears.
“We’ve faced a lot of adversity,” Collazos said. “It took a while to pry that out of us, but that’s what we know our offense is capable of doing. So that doesn’t surprise me. I’m hoping that we continue to play like that.”
Texas Tech won the first game of the series 4-3 on Friday night, but Kaci West smacked a walk-off single to lift the Bears to a 2-1 win on Saturday. Baylor improves to 5-10 in Big 12 play this season.
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The Bears’ 11 runs were their second-highest output this season, while their 10 hits are tied for eight-most in a game this season. It’s the third time in the last six conference games that they’ve reached double-digit hits.
“We really needed to score some runs,” Baylor head coach Glenn Moore said. “I’ve said all along that our at-bats haven’t been terrible. Timely hits weren’t there, and many times it was just bad luck, hitting right to somebody and not falling.
“Today, it fell.”
Seven different Baylor players finished with at least one hit.
The three hits and three RBIs for Collazos tied the senior’s career marks in both categories.
“Honestly, I went in there this weekend trying to hit anything I could reach,” she said. “I got a little too selective here in the past and so I went in there with a mindset to swing early in the count and swing at hard pitches that I can reach, and that’s what I did.”
Ana Watson finished 2-for-2 at the plate, while West followed up her clutch night on Saturday with two RBIs on Sunday. Emily Hott and Watson both scored a pair of runs for Baylor.
Aliyah Binford earned her sixth win of the season, allowing three runs on four hits with one strikeout. Pitching for the third straight day, RyLee Crandall didn’t allow a run with two strikeouts in two innings of relief.
“I sent (RyLee) a message this morning and said that this has got to be like a Super Regional,” Moore said. “All hands on deck. You’ve got to be ready to go. Aliyah showed a little fatigue, and we were able to go to the bullpen and have RyLee come in. She did a great job today.”
Junior Shaylon Govan, who leads Baylor in batting average, hits and RBIs, had to be helped off the field after sliding headfirst into second base after a double in the second inning.
Moore said she felt something in her knee pop after rounding first base, and the early prognosis is good.
“It scares you to death,” Moore said. “She’s one that we can’t afford to lose right now.”
Two of the first three Baylor batters reached base on Sunday, and the Bears scored three runs in a row thanks to a Texas Tech error and RBI singles from Collazos and Pilon.
Collazos collected her second hit in as many innings and drove in another run in the second to extend the Baylor lead to 4-0, but the Bears failed to inflict any further damage when they left the bases loaded.
The Bears tacked on another run in the third.
Texas Tech didn’t get its first hit until the second at-bat of the fourth inning, and the Red Raiders finished the top half of the frame with four hits and a pair of runs to cut into the lead.
After picking up the walk-off hit on Saturday night, Kaci West came up clutch again in the bottom half of the inning, smacking a bases-loaded single to right field and driving in a pair of runs.
The offensive surge continued in the sixth when Watson drove in the run with one out and Abi Flores followed that in the next at-bat up with a single through the right side to clinch the run-rule win.
Baylor travels to play UTSA on Tuesday before beginning a three-game series against No. 5 Texas. The first game of the series is in Waco on Friday before shifting to Austin for games on Saturday and Sunday.
“We can’t let our highs get too high,” Collazos said. “We have to take what we learned in our losses and our wins and keep running with it because the second we get comfortable is the second we start dropping games again.”
