The field of 64 is set as the road to Omaha continued on Saturday. There were six Big 12 teams in action on the diamond as the conference went 3-3. Here are my six thoughts on the Big 12 from day two of the college baseball regionals.
Saturday’s Scores
Oklahoma State: 7, Florida: 1
Kansas State: 7, Arkansas: 6
West Virginia: 5, Grand Canyon: 2
UCONN: 4, Oklahoma: 1
Florida State: 5, UCF: 2
Texas A&M: 4, Texas: 2
The Cowboys Stay Red Hot
Coming into the postseason, there may have been no team hotter in college baseball than the Oklahoma State Cowboys. They won the Big 12 tournament and have now won their first two regional games to advance to the final. On Saturday, they faced a talented Florida team with All-America Jac Caglianone on the mound.
Well, it didn’t matter because Oklahoma State crushed four home runs off of Jac after he gave up only four home runs all season long. Meanwhile, Brian Holiday pitched a complete game and only allowed two hits and one run. He also was able to strike out ten batters during his time on the mound. Now the Cowboys are just one win away from advancing to the supers.
Kansas State Upsets Arkansas
It’s not easy to win in Fayetteville. In fact, Arkansas has lost only four home games all season long. Well, make it five because Kansas State shocked the college baseball world on Saturday evening. The Hogs took a 2-0 lead in the fifth inning and the Wildcats responded by putting up a five spot. Chuck Ingram and Brendan Jones brought in a couple of runs to tie the game.
But it was Kaelen Culpepper who changed the game with his three-run bomb to give the Wildcats the lead.
Nick English went on to add a key insurance run before Tyson Neighbors closed the door on the Hogs for the big win.
West Virginia’s Pitching Was Great Again
After Derek Clark’s outstanding performance on Friday, West Virginia starting pitcher Tyer Switalski followed that up with one of his own. Tyler went nearly eight innings and gave up just a single run.
And when the bases were loaded in the ninth inning, the bullpen was able to get out of the jam and win the game. It’s nice to see this team finding their balance on both sides of the plate and now they are just one win away from making out of Tucson.
Oklahoma Ran into a Buzzsaw
I knew that UConn had the best pitching staff in the Norman regional, but they put on quite the performance against Oklahoma on Saturday. UConn pitcher Stephen Quigley pitched eight innings and only gave up a single run against a talented Oklahoma lineup. It’s not often you see the Sooners only score just one run in a game but that is what happened here. I was concerned about Oklahoma’s pitching keeping them out of Omaha, but this game was all about the Huskies pitching staff. While the Sooners were able to make some decent contact, they just couldn’t get anything going offensively at all. Now they will have to face Duke in an elimination game which will be tough.
UCF’s Offense Disappeared
After putting up eight runs against Alabama on Friday night, UCF struggled to score on Saturday against Florida State. The Knights were only able to get four hits and that is nowhere near good enough to get the job done. One thing that I saw that was frustrating was when Jack Zyska got picked off at first base in the ninth inning. I felt like once that happened, it was game over.
Texas Lost Power
The one thing I could count on for Texas was their ability to hit the long ball and score runs. While the Longhorns did go deep twice, they were both solo home runs by Jared Thomas and Kimble Schuessler. It’s a shame that Texas was only able to put up two runs in eleven innings because their pitching staff did an incredible job against a tough A&M lineup. Lebarron Johnson Jr. and Gage Boehm did more than enough to help their team win but the offense just couldn’t get going when it mattered most.
