🐻 The Official Daily Newsletter For Baylor Athletics

Good Morning Baylor Family! The Bears are officially back in action! (well sort of)

Our Baylor hoops teams got on the court for the first time during their exhibition trips overseas with both squads having strong showings against international competition.

We’ll have all the details from both games, a pair of new faces joining the Diamond Bears and a look at the tight end for Baylor football.

What else is stirring in today’s Brew? Check it out below!

🏀 Bears Across The Pond
🏈 Raising The Bar
⚾️ Turning Two
🐻 And much, much more!

📈 STOCK UP

🔺 Fine Start In France. Now that’s how you make an impression for your new squad.

Incoming freshman Jakobe Walter showed out in his first game showing for Baylor, leading the squad with 28 points to help the Bears to a 100-69 victory over a group of Paris All-Stars.

Classmate Yves Messi also had a big debut with an 18-point performance in the contest.

🔺 Dancing with Denmark. Tuesday was the exhibition debut of the 2023-24 Baylor women’s team as well, taking on a strong professional team, the Denmark Slammers.

🔺 Raising The Bar. The tight end room for the BU offense is a critical piece to the success of the unit.

If you ask the room, having Jeff Grimes as the coordinator, but also their position coach can be a blessing and a challenge.

In the latest View From the Hill, we take a deep look into the tight ends for this years squad and what the outlook and expectations are for the talented and versatile group.

🔺 Turning Two. Bears head coach Mitch Thompson and his staff turned two earlier this week when they picked up a pair of transfers for the 2024 roster.

Baylor will welcome redshirt junior outfielder Enzo Apodaca and redshirt sophomore infielder Ryan Martinez to Waco this upcoming season.
 
Apodaca, a transfer from Gonzaga, is a career .280 hitter with six home runs, 68 RBIs and 14 stolen bases under his belt. He played in 108 games over two seasons with the Bulldogs, earning Freshman All-America status and All-WCC Honorable Mention recognition as a redshirt freshman in 2022. That season, Apodaca led the team with 67 hits, 47 runs, 45 RBIs and 19 doubles.

Martinez, a native of Towson, Md., spent his first two collegiate seasons at University of San Francisco, where he played in 36 career games after redshirting his true freshman season. In 2023, Martinez collected 26 hits for a .222 average, including two home runs and 12 RBIs, while adding a .962 fielding percentage.
 
The duo becomes the third and fourth offseason additions out of the transfer portal for the Bears, joining sophomore infielder Jack Little and junior right-handed pitcher Patrick Hail.

🏈 COUNTDOWN TO KICKOFF: 24 DAYS

Two for 24.

Today, we get to highlight not one, but two Bears, who both wear #24 and have bright futures in Waco.

On the offensive side, Cameron Bonner is an up-and-coming star in the receiving unit for Baylor, playing in four games last year as a redshirt freshman, including his first career catch against TCU.

Defensively, we’ve got Corey Gordon, an Oklahoma City native and redshirt freshman this fall for the Green and Gold. He saw action in two games last fall and will provide critical depth in the defensive backfield this season.

🎟 GET ‘EM WHILE THEY’RE HOT!

Secure Your Seats. Mark those calendars. Fire up the iPhones. 🔒 in those seats NOW!

That’s right, the Bears are primed for a BIG 2023-24 season and tickets have already started being secured for some sports.

Single game 🏈 tickets are on sale NOW! Get ‘em while they are hot!

You don’t want to be left out, we promise!

⏱ BEAR (COUNT)DOWN

Eight days. That’s right folks.

We are less than TWO WEEKS away from the start of the 2023-2024 Baylor athletic calendar. The Baylor soccer squad kicks things off (literally) when they travel to Oregon to take on the Ducks on August 17th at 9 pm CST.

Two weeks later, the soccer, volleyball, cross country and football teams are ALL in action. Block off that weekend and make sure you’ve got the Green and Gold ready!

Order those shirts. Secure those tickets. 

The Bears are coming.

🗓 SAVE THE DATE

Get it on your calendar now fans.

This event is one of the must attend on the Baylor Athletics calendar and we can’t wait to see everyone back at McLane Stadium next month for our annual “Meet the Bears” day.

Get a sneak peek at the rosters for the upcoming season. Meet student-athletes from 15 different sports. Snap some pictures. Get some autographs and get some cool prizes!

You don’t want to miss it!

🤔 SIC ’EM TRIVIA

Off and Running. The start of the 2023-24 Baylor athletic calendar is just eight days away with the Bears women’s soccer squad kicking off their season.

Less than a month from now, the BU Cross Country squads will also be off and running at the UIW Twilight in San Antonio on Friday, Sept. 1st.

Today’s question, which Bear had the best 8k time last fall?

Think you got it?

Scroll on down to the bottom of this email for the answer!

📬 STICK WITH US

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📅 COMING SOON

Wednesday, August 16

🏐 Green vs. Gold Game @ Ferrell Center @ 6:00pm CT

Thursday, August 31

⚽ Soccer vs. Louisiana Tech @ 7:00pm CT (Home Opener) | Tickets

Saturday, September 2

🏈 Football vs. Texas State @ 6:00pm CT on ESPN+ | Tickets

🎉 TRIVIA ANSWER

Answer: Ryan Day.

Day logged the top 8k time for Baylor at the Gans Creek Classic in Colombia, Missouri, breaking the line in 23:51.4.

🐻 Have a great Wednesday, y’all!