League gaining respect after rough 2016
Late last May, as it became apparent that the Big 12’s lacking national reputation would cost them with the NCAA Tournament committee, league coaches wondered how they could fix their perception problem.
Almost immediately, help was on the way.
Oklahoma State, TCU and Texas Tech — the only Big 12 clubs granted postseason berths — waved the conference flag with pride, each rolling all the way to Omaha to claim three of eight College World Series berths.
Coming up on a year later, we might be seeing the payoff. Projections at baseballamerica.com and D1baseball.com currently prop the Big 12 high, with seven bids, including the Sooners and Cowboys.
Texas Tech, TCU and West Virginia all line up as regional hosts in the projections, with the Red Raiders and Horned Frogs also national seeds. Baylor and Texas are also in the bracket.
What a difference a year makes.
Big 12 squads have helped themselves in nonconference play, owning a combined 15-6 record against the SEC and ACC, contributing to the seven teams projected in the field of 64 all appearing in the top 41 of the latest RPI. Strong competition within the league has provided benefit, too.
“With our momentum right now, I really like where we are as a team,” said Cowboys junior third baseman Garrett Benge, talking more figuratively and in overall terms, than as a postseason team, although they go together after last weekend’s series win at then-No. 4 Texas Tech.
There’s work yet to be done for the Big 12 to maintain and solidify its stature nationally.
“You pride yourself on being a program that gets better as the season goes on, because you continue to develop and grow,” said Cowboys coach Josh
Holliday. “That’s something we stress with the kids. We never really focus much on where we’re at as much as where we want to go.
“We’ve been a team that needed to grow. And has grown. And must continue to grow.”
Still, for now respect has returned.
And it dates back to last June and the roads to Omaha.
Tech handled itself at home, winning a Regional and Super Regional in Lubbock. But TCU and OSU ultimately had to go through SEC country to earn their way to the CWS, each making strong statements. The Horned Frogs knocked off Texas A&M in College Station, never an easy place to play. The Cowboys swept their way through Clemson and South Carolina with five straight wins, taking down a pair of powers.
OSU shuffles schedule for Texas series
Facing a threat of poor weekend weather, OSU and Texas agreed to amend their weekend series schedule, beginning with a doubleheader Friday at Reynolds Stadium in Stillwater.
The teams will now play Game 1 Friday at 2:30, with Game 2 schedule to begin 40 minutes following the conclusion of the opener.
Saturday’s contest remains at 6 p.m., although there’s flexibility to play Sunday if rain interrupts the Friday and Saturday time frames.
Sooners’ bats starting to come around
After breaking through and ending a seven-game losing streak Sunday in the series finale against Kansas, Oklahoma resumes Big 12 play Friday at West Virginia. The Sooners are still trying to get back to playing the way they did early in the season when they were one of the hottest teams in college baseball.
For much of the losing streak, OU struggled to create offense.
During the 10 games before the 7-6 win over the Jayhawks, the Sooners scored more than four runs just twice.
OU coach Pete Hughes said the Sooners’ problems with pitching health and the rotation’s inability to go deep in games helped contribute to offensive problems as well.
“When you lose some pivotal guys up front, other guys want to think they have to do too much and we start expanding roles and guys get hurt,” Hughes said. “Then the hitter, they’re like, ‘Hey, we better make up for that,’ and then you struggle and then the more you struggle in this game, the harder you try to get out and then you can’t.”
Oklahoma’s offense started to come back around late in the losing streak, with back-to-back 10-run games.