This is your Big 12 baseball recap for May 21st. With the win by Baylor over Oklahoma State the Big 12 tournament field has been set(not the seeding) as only the top 8 teams will be in Oklahoma City, the two teams that will not make the trip will be Oklahoma State and Nebraska.
#1 Texas 5 Missouri 2
The No. 2 Texas Longhorns showed no letdown despite entering the final regular-season series of the year with the Big 12 Conference title in hand, posting a 5-2 win over the Missouri Tigers at Taylor Stadium on Friday evening.
Taylor Jungmann (6-2) battled through 7.0 innings to earn the victory. He scattered nine hits, including two home runs, and walked one while fanning nine. The sophomore benefitted from three double plays and a caught attempted base stealer to offset allowing the leadoff batter to reach in five of his seven innings.
Chance Ruffin slammed the door on the Tigers, striking out six of the seven batters he faced, to earn his 13th save of the season. The junior struck out the side on 14 pitches in the eighth inning. He then fanned the first two batters he faced in the ninth before yielding a double. Ruffin closed out the game with a five-pitch strikeout.
The Longhorns pounced on the Tigers early with a run in the first. With one out, Loy beat out a soft grounder to the shortstop for an infield single. With two outs, Loy stole second base and he came around to score when Kevin Keyes hit a wall-banger to the gap in right centerfield for a double.
Texas inflated the cushion to 5-0 with a four-run fourth inning. Keyes drew a leadoff walk and Missouri starter Nick Tepesch fell down before reaching Russell Moldenhauer’s sacrifice bunt attempt for the infield single. Cameron Rupp flied out to deep centerfield allowing Keyes to move to third, putting runners on the corners. After Kevin Lusson fanned for the second out of the inning, Jonathan Walsh blooped a single into centerfield to drive in Keyes for the 2-0 lead. Jordan Etier kept the rally going, lacing a double down the rightfield line to score Walsh and Moldenhauer. After Etier stole third base, he scored when Cohl Walla beat out a ground ball to second for an RBI single and the 5-0 lead. FULL STORY
#15 Oklahoma 14 Kansas 4
Danny Black’s two-run double in the sixth inning gave No. 15 Oklahoma its first lead of the game as it posted a 14-4 victory over Kansas at Hoglund Park on Friday.
The win snapped a four-game losing streak in Lawrence for Oklahoma (40-14, 13-10) and dropped Kansas to 31-22-1 and 11-13-1. OU extended its winning streak to five games in addition to posting victories in 13 of the last 16 contests.
“The score clearly isn’t indicative of the ball game that was played here, because for seven innings it was anybody’s game,” said OU Head Coach Sunny Golloway. “Our bats took care of it with a couple big innings (late).”
The series-opening victory also gave the Sooners 40 wins on the year for the second straight season, marking the first time since the 1994 (50) and 1995 (42) College World Series teams accomplished the same feat. FULL STORY
#28 Kansas State 8 Texas A&M 7
Daniel Dellasega lined a two-strike, two-out run-scoring single in the 10th inning to complete a five-run comeback as No. 23 Kansas State downed Texas A&M, 8-7, Friday night at Olsen Field.
The win was significant for K-State, which won at Olsen Field for the first time since 2004. The Wildcats notched their 14th conference victory in 24 games, tying last year’s team for the most league wins in school history, and improved to 35-16 overall to equal the 1976 squad for the second-highest win total ever.
“We hung in there and just persevered,” head coach Brad Hill said. “We had huge at-bats by our seniors. After they walked (Nick) Martini to load the bases, Dellasega comes up after having a rough night. He came up big for us there in the end.”
The Wildcats, who trailed 6-1 after four innings, got the game-winning rally started in the 10th when freshman Chase Graskewicz singled up the middle. A sacrifice bunt by Jake Brown moved pinch-runner Matt Applegate to second base and the Aggies intentionally walked Adam Muenster. Carter Jurica followed with a single into left field and Applegate was sent home, only to be gunned down at the plate by Texas A&M’s Joaquin Hinojosa for the second out.
Martini, the Big 12’s leading hitter, was then intentionally walked for the second time to bring up Dellasega. The senior catcher, who collected an RBI single in the first inning but struck out in his next four at-bats, delivered in the clutch when he dropped a single into right field on a 1-2 pitch to score Muenster. FULL STORY
Baylor 6 Oklahoma State 5
Brooks Pinckard knocked a two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the ninth to cap a four-run rally as Baylor came from three runs down to knock off Oklahoma State in the series opener Friday night at Baylor Ballpark. With the win, the Bears clinched a spot in next week’s Big 12 Baseball Championship.
Baylor (29-21, 10-13 Big 12) overcame its biggest ninth-inning deficit since April 29, 2007 to clinch its spot in the tournament, while Oklahoma State (29-23, 8-16 Big 12) was eliminated from tournament contention with the loss.
The Cowboys entered the bottom of the ninth with a three-run lead after adding an insurance run in the top half of the inning with Pinckard on the mound, but the Bears quickly scored two runs and had the potential tying and winning runs in scoring position with none out in the inning.
OSU reliever Andrew Heaney nearly escaped the jam after getting consecutive strikeouts to bring the Bears down to their last out, but Pinckard drilled a 1-1 pitch into center field, and Raynor Campbell beat the throw home by a half step to give Baylor its first walk-off win of the season.
Pinckard’s hit also gave him the win, improving his record to 2-3 on the season by allowing one run in 1.1 innings of relief.
“I kind of fell into the win, but I will take it,” Pinckard said. “It is definitely nice to get a win on the mound and have the game-winning hit. Coach (Smith) tells us to do whatever we can do to help the team get the win, and that is what we did tonight.” FULL STORY
Nebraska 9 Texas Tech 3
Michael Mariot turned in another quality start, while Josh Scheffert and Tyler Farst both homered and drove in three runs apiece, lifting Nebraska to a 9-3 victory over Texas Tech Friday night at Hawks Field.
Mariot (6-6) picked up his sixth win of the season, allowed two earned runs on six hits over seven innings, as he pitched into the eighth for the sixth time in nine Big 12 starts. He fanned nine Red Raiders in the victory and was his best down the stretch, going 2-1 with a 2.45 ERA in his last three starts, striking out 29 and walking five in that span.
Anderson said that Mariot’s development into a staff ace this season has been impressive to see during the second half of the season.
“He’s basically worked himself into a Friday night starter and really put himself in a position where his team can rely on him,” Anderson said as he turned in his seventh quality start in his last 11 outings. “You know what you are going to get out of him, which has been the greatest growth we’ve seen out of him. From a personal standpoint, what he’s done is put himself in a position to make a livelihood out of this game.”
While Mariot’s performance boosted the Huskers, Scheffert and Farst came up with the big hits for Nebraska (25-27, 8-17 Big 12). Scheffert’s two-run homer in the third off of Red Raider starter Ben Flora gave Nebraska the lead for good, while Farst capped Nebraska’s seven-run outburst in the bottom of the seventh with a three-run homer, his fifth of the season.
DJ Belfonte went 2-for-4 and scored twice, while Cory Burleson also had two hits, to help Nebraska to its second straight win.
Texas Tech (27-25, 13-12 Big 12) was the team that got off to a fast start, taking advantage of a Husker miscue to plate its first run, an RBI double off the bat of Joey Kenworthy. Jamodrick McGruder reached on an error before to open the game before Kenworthy lined a pitch off the fence in right to score McGruder. FULL STORY
