Four Top Takeaways on Saturday’s Big 12 Regional Baseball Games

The field of 64 is set as the road to Omaha started Friday. There were eight Big 12 teams in action on the diamond as the conference went 6-2. Here are my four thoughts on the Big 12 from day one of the college baseball regionals.

Saturday’s Scores

Oregon State: 7, TCU: 2

West Virginia: 9, Clemson: 6

Tennessee: 10, Cincinnati: 6

UCLA: 11, Arizona State: 5

Oklahoma State: 13, Binghamton: 5

Kansas State: 7, Houston Christian: 4

North Dakota State: 4, Kansas: 3

Arizona: 14, Utah Valley: 4

Staying Alive

Two of their four teams from the Big 12 who faced elimination on Saturday managed to survive at least one more day. Kansas State took down Houston Chirstian after taking a 5-0 lead in the third inning and never looked back.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma State crushed Binghamton as they Cowboys put up a whopping 13 runs on the board. It was nice to see the bats awake for both teams so they didn’t have to rely so heavily on their pitching.

One Win Away

We had two teams from the Big 12 punch their ticket to the regional final on Saturday. First, West Virginia shocked host Clemson in their stunning 9-6 win. The Mountaineers won in one of the toughest environments in all of college baseball thanks to some more late game heroics in the ninth inning.

Arizona also punched their ticket to the regional final after stomping Utah Valley in their ten-run victory. Mason White hit three home runs and once again led the Wildcats to a big win.

Both of these teams have played some of their best baseball over the last couple of days and now they are both a win away from making it to the Super Regionals.

Down But Not Out

Arizona State and Cincinnati managed to win on Friday but both teams ended up having to play the regional hosts on Saturday. The Bearcats pitching fell flat against Tennessee as they gave up ten runs and Arizona State gave up 11 runs against UCLA.

While both teams will still be playing on Sunday, they are in a tough spot to make it out of the regional round. One thing is for certain which is both teams needed to do better on the mound because Saturday was a disaster.  

Goodbye Baseball

Unfortunately not every team in the Big 12 moves on to the Super Regionals. Saturday was elimination day for couple of teams in the conference. TCU fell to Oregon State 7-2 in a game which the Frogs really weren’t all that competitive in as they found themselves down 7-0 early.

As for Kansas, they lost a close one to North Dakota State 4-3. I know the Jayhawks haven’t been to the postseason in over ten years, but I expected more from them this weekend. The same goes for TCU, who I picked to make it all the way to Omaha. Both of these teams were better than what they showed us over the last two days.