Big 12 Baseball Roundup: Texas Locks Up Regular Season Title

Texas created their own fate, unseating West Virginia in the Big 12 regular season with a home series sweep.

Texas Baseball Twitter @TexasBaseball

In a last-second sprint to the top, the Texas Longhorns captured the Big 12 regular season title. The West Virginia Mountaineers were in the driver's seat nearly all season long, even climbing inside D1 Baseball's Top 10 rankings last week. However, they couldn't notch a single win in Austin, fumbling the regular season title and the No. 1 seed in the Big 12 Tournament.

What else happened this weekend to lock in the tournament seeding? Let's take a look.

Conference Seeding Shored Up

WVU is far from out of the conference race, but they'll have to win the arduous conference tournament in Arlington this coming week to capture a title. Unfortunately, they drew a date with an under-seeded foe: the Texas Tech Red Raiders. The route to a champion West Virginia is far from an easy one.

Tech took two of three after dropping the opening game to the Kansas Jayhawks, who clinched the No. 8 seed in the tournament.

The TCU Horned Frogs took the final two games from Kansas State in Manhattan to lock in the No. 4 seed; the Wildcats earned the No. 5 seed. The Oklahoma State Cowboys won two of three against Oklahoma and the Pokes take the No. 2 overall seed while the Sooners get No. 7 – a position they were locked into.

Baylor was the lone team to not make the Big 12 tournament and their season ended with a strong sweep of a decent Cal State Bakersfield program.

Team That Impressed Me The Most

Is there any answer besides Texas? The Longhorns came from third in the standings to first thanks to a flawless sweep from David Pierce's crew. None of the games were up for debate and the Longhorns allowed just nine total runs all weekend long while scoring 29 of their own.

Game 1 starter Lucas Gordon pitched a clinic, allowing four hits and no runs while striking out eight batters in seven innings. He notched his sixth win of the year in a must-win. Lebarron Johnson Jr. followed that performance up with an 11-strikeout outing in 5.1 innings of work and Tanner Witt continued to work his way back, striking out three and allowing no runs in three innings.

West Virginia was the No. 6 team in D1 Baseball's rankings. The series sweep knocked them down to 21 in the final regular season list.

Notable Performances

Kevin Bazzell, C, Texas Tech: Bazzell notched three home runs and was walked once in four at-bats in Saturday's 15-1 win over Kansas. That rose the RS freshman's season total to 10 round-trippers, behind only Gavin Kash (23) on the team.

Kole Klecker, P, TCU: The outstanding freshman capped his 2023 regular season resume allowing no hits or runs in six innings against Kansas State on Friday. Klecker wrung up six batters and picked up his ninth win of the year.

Elijah Nunez, OF, TCU: Someone call SportsCenter! Nunez made a highlight-reel catch to end Saturday's 4-3 contest on top over Kansas State and locked up the No. 4 seed in the Big 12 tournament for the Frogs. The junior robbed a home run that would have tied up the game in the bottom of the ninth (see below).

😱😳😤🤯 @elijahnunez__ #FrogballUSA | #GoFrogs pic.twitter.com/vbPoH0UG9t

— TCU Baseball (@TCU_Baseball) May 20, 2023

Big 12 College Baseball Final Regular Season Standings

1. #20 Texas Longhorns (38-18, 15-9)

2. #18 Oklahoma State Cowboys (37-16, 15-9)

3. #21 West Virginia Mountaineers (39-16, 15-9)

4. TCU Horned Frogs (33-22, 13-11)

5. Kansas State Wildcats (33-22, 13-11)

6. Texas Tech Red Raiders (37-19, 12-12)

7. Oklahoma Sooners (30-24, 11-13)

8. Kansas Jayhawks (24-30, 8-16)

9. Baylor Bears (20-35, 6-18)

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