Top Three Takeaways from the Big 12 Baseball Tournament Championship

So close. Sloan had gone three innings. He looked sharp doing it. Just one mistake pitch and the game ended up tied.

TCU held that lead the entire game. As the home team, the Horned Frogs posted their run in the first inning as Noah Franco grounded out and scored Sawyer Strosnider from third base. That Horned Frogs pitching made that lead hold up for nearly the entire game against a formidable Wildcats lineup.

Then, in the 10th inning, Arizona finally took the lead on Maddox Mihalakis’ RBI single. As majestic as Cain’s home run was, Mihalakis dropped in a blooper.

It made up for Arizona stranding 11 runners.

Meanwhile, Arizona’s pitching staff held up its end of the bargain. Starter Smith Bailey gave up the only run. Relievers Casey Hintz, Garrett Hicks and Tony Pluta held the Horned Frogs to six hits.

After the two teams combined for 23 runs on Friday, a pitcher’s duel was not expected. But it was welcome

ARIZONA MAKES HISTORY

Entering this season, the Arizona Wildcats had won four Men’s College World Series, finished as the runner-up four other times, gone to the MCWS 19 times and gone to the NCAA Tournament 43 times. But, up until last season, the Wildcats had never won a conference tournament title.

That was in the Pac-12, the last one before the big breakup. Now, the Wildcats have won two straight with the second in a different conference. I would also assume it makes the Wildcats the first team in Big 12 history to win the baseball tournament in their first year in the league, aside from the league’s first year of existence.

It says something about how balanced the league was this year. Arizona was the No. 4 seed. West Virginia was the No. 1 seed. Just three games separated the Mountaineers and the Wildcats in the conference standings. Heck Arizona State was the No. 5 seed and had the same record in Big 12 play as Arizona.

That kind of competition is what allows a No. 4 seed like Arizona to win a tournament like this.

TOMORROW’S SELECTION SUNDAY

On Sunday the NCAA will announce the 16 regional hosts. Then, on Monday, the Field of 64 for the NCAA baseball tournament will be revealed.

Looking at D1Baseball.com, there are eight Big 12 teams expected to make the field — Arizona, Arizona State, Cincinnati, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU and West Virginia.

None of them were projected to host a regional as of Saturday morning. But both Arizona and TCU entered the day as No. 2 seeds in their regions. The question is whether a Big 12 Tournament title was enough for either team to move the needle and host?

In the projected field, Arizona was in the region with No. 8 seed Oregon. It seems unlikely that it meant that much. But, we’ll see on Sunday.

Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly had the announcement of regional hosts on Sunday morning and the announcement of the field on Sunday evening.