Welcome to Tuesday Takes, where I give you four takes from the Big 12. It was a jam-packed week full of exciting news, but several things caught my attention over the last few days.
Kansas Will Continue to Make History
After taking care of Arkansas on Sunday afternoon in Lawrence, the Jayhawks punched their ticket to the Super Regionals. Kansas went a perfect 3-0 in its own regional, beating Northeastern and Arkansas (twice), which isn’t easy to do.
But as I have said before, this Kansas team is built different. They were the Big 12 regular season champions, tournament champions, and now regional champions as well. This will be the Jayhawks’ first-ever appearance in the Supers when they host Oklahoma this weekend, and I have a feeling that they will continue to make history and head to Omaha. Count me in.
Take me Home Country Roads
Things weren’t looking great for the Mountaineers this past weekend in Morgantown. After losing to Kentucky in their second game, West Virginia had to win three straight games to just make it out of their own regional. And in dramatic fashion, they made it happen.
They knocked out Wake Forest on Saturday and faced Kentucky in a rematch. Down by three in the ninth inning, West Virginia scored five runs and took the lead after a Paul Schoenfeld two-run home run that shook Morgantown to win the game.
Then on Monday night, in a winner-take-all game against Kentucky, West Virginia walked it off in extras thanks to Armani Guzman’s RBI single to send the Mountaineers to the next round. And after watching the entire stadium sing Country Roads, it truly gave me chills.
Texas Tech Will Win the National Championship
There was a point that I didn’t think Texas Tech would even make it past Sunday against UCLA, and I was dead wrong. Tech lost to Tennessee on Saturday, which put them in the loser’s bracket, which is a place you definitely don’t want to be.
Facing UCLA, the Red Raiders came up with two clutch runs in the ninth to win that game and force a matchup against Alabama, which they had to beat twice on Monday. And once again, Tech had some late-game heroics thanks to Mia Williams’ walk-off home run, which forced a second game, which they ended up winning 2-0 behind great pitching by NiJaree Canady. Now they have a rematch against Texas for a national title. Last year, they lost, but this year will be different, and Texas Tech will bring home a championship.
Texas is Scared
By now you already know the situation between Texas and Texas Tech. Steve Sarkisian talked trash about Texas Tech (without mentioning them by name like a coward), and Cody Campbell responded by not only offering to buy out Tech’s home opener against ACU but also Texas’ against Texas State.
Campbell publicly said this and challenged Texas to play them instead of Texas State, offering to buy out both schools’ opponents. But since then, we have heard nothing but silence from the folks in Austin.
I know that Texas will never accept the offer because they are scared. They are going to hide behind the SEC logo and tell everyone how great their losses are against a team like Florida because Florida is an SEC team and the SEC is the best thing since sliced bread. Well, I am not buying it. Man up, Texas. But at least we get a softball matchup between the two schools. Â
