Year of the Bear continues as top-ranked Baylor baseball claims Big 12 title

Earlier this spring, Baylor women’s basketball ranked No. 1 in the nation, with a program-record winning streak to their name and a Big 12 championship to boot.

Baylor baseball can now say the same thing. Ranked No. 1 by Collegiate Baseball the past two weeks (the first time in program history) and having recorded the nation’s longest winning streak of 2012, head coach Steve Smith’s squad claimed the 2012 Big 12 title on Saturday when Texas lost to Missouri.

The Bears’ program-record 24-game winning streak earlier this season propelled them to both a hefty lead in the conference standings — with two weeks left to go, Baylor’s Big 12 lead is now at 6.5 games over the Aggies, Cowboys and Longhorns, who are all tied for second-place — and to the top of the rankings. On March 19, the Bears were not among the top 25 in any major poll; today, they are No. 1 or 2 in all five major rankings.

Baseball is one of 11 BU varsity programs currently in the top 25, along with women’s basketball (1), equestrian (3), acrobatics & tumbling (5), men’s basketball (8), football (12), women’s tennis (12), women’s indoor track & field (16), women’s golf (17), women’s outdoor track & field (22), and softball (25). And even that doesn’t include Baylor soccer, which finished 15th in the RPI but unranked by the voters; men’s tennis, which has finished in the top 10 each of the last 10 seasons but currently sits at No. 28; and men’s golf, which sits just outside the top 25 at No. 29.

The Bears have two home games remaining: May 15 against UTSA, and May 17 against Texas. The first 4,000 fans into Baylor Ballpark for the game against Texas will receive the shirt pictured above.

Diadeloso? More like Añodeloso (Year of the Bear).

Sic ’em, Bears!