Oklahoma State Highlights Up-and-Down Opening Weekend for Big 12 Baseball
It has been a long offseason but the road to Omaha officially started on Friday. That’s right folks, college baseball is back! Don’t let the MLB let you down because there is plenty of action on the diamond around the Big 12.
For years, the Big 12 Conference has been one of the best conferences for college baseball, and 2022 looks to be like another promising year with three teams in the preseason top 25.
The season is starting off with a bang as we have several teams playing ranked opponents right off the bat. Between showdowns with the SEC and others, let’s take a look at some of the notable games from Sunday and recap the first weekend.
#7 Oklahoma State: 7 #3 Vanderbilt: 5
There may have not been a more important game in the entire Big 12 on Sunday than the one in Nashville. Oklahoma State dropped game one on Friday but responded with a big win on Saturday. On Sunday, the Cowboys had a chance to take the series and they did thanks to the big bat of Griffin Doersching and pitcher Trevor Martin who helped seal the deal. Thanks to the big win, Oklahoma State was the only Big 12 team to climb up in the top 25 rankings.
Auburn: 12 Kansas State: 1
It was another rough outing for the Wildcats in Arlington as they started their season off with three straight losses. Surprisingly, their closest game came against Arizona, but Sunday was by far their worst performance. Once again, pitching was a big issue for Kansas State and the offense isn’t good enough to carry the bad pitching this team has right now.
Oklahoma: 6 Michigan: 1
Saturday didn’t go as planned against Arizona, but the Sooners ended their weekend with a big win over Michigan on Sunday. Trent Brown had a big two RBI double and then thanks to a few mistakes by the Wolverines, Oklahoma was able to capitalize later in the game to extend their lead. There were a few surprising teams from opening weekend and the Sooners were definitely one of them winning two out of three games up in Arlington.
#14 Arizona: 13 #15 Texas Tech: 2
It was a disappointing performance for the Red Raiders on Sunday. This was supposed to be the game of the weekend in the State Farm College Baseball Showdown, and it ended up being a dud. Tech did win on Friday against Michigan in dramatic fashion, but it was a little surprising to see them drop two out of their first three games. After their weekend, Tech did slide a bit down in the rankings.
Other Games
TCU: 10 Houston: 0
TCU ended their weekend with an easy win over a bad Houston team. The Horned Frogs ended up winning two out of their three games out in Scottsdale, Arizona this weekend and found themselves still in the top 25.
Texas: 14 Rice: 2
Much like the first two games, the Longhorns cruised their way to an easy 14-2 win over Rice to complete the sweep. Texas came into the season as the number one team in the nation and it stayed that way after the first three games. Also, it was nice to see Ivan Melendez back hitting dingers again.
Illinois: 7 Kansas: 1
Despite the Jayhawks losing on Sunday, they managed to leave Corpus Christi winning the series which is all you can ask for. The Jayhawks aren’t poised to be a threat in the Big 12 but taking two out of three against a decent Illinois team is not a bad way to start the season.
Maryland: 8 Baylor: 4
There was no bigger disappointment this weekend than the Baylor Bears. This was going to be one of those series that the Bears could use to build up that resume and instead it turned into a three-game nightmare. Maryland swept Baylor and to be honest, the Bears didn’t look good at all this past weekend.
West Virginia: 10 Central Michigan: 0
Outside of Oklahoma State, the surprise team for me was West Virginia. They had two games against a good Central Michigan squad with a game against Kent State in the middle. Not only did they take care of business against Kent State, but they also managed to beat Central Michigan twice and scored a ton of runs in the process. This was a team who was very intriguing before the season and if they can continue to play this well, watch out.
