Big 12 Notebook: March 6, 2026

Weekly Awards

Big 12 Players of the Week

Player: Gavin Kelly, West Virginia

Pitcher: Ethan Lund, Oklahoma State

Co-Newcomer: Grant Gallagher, Kansas State and Dawson Montesa, West Virginia

This is the final weekend of action before Big 12 plays begins next weekend.

League Notes

(with weekend rotations)

Arizona

RHP Owen Kramkowski

RHP Smith Bailey

RHP Luc Fladda

Tony Lira is coming off a 3-for-5 night against Grand Canyon and leads the team in total hits this season (16).

Starting pitchers Smith Bailey and Luc Fladda have been sensational this season. They are coming off exceptional performances in which Bailey threw six innings against Vanderbilt allowing just one run and Fladda tossed seven scoreless innings against UC Irvine.

Baylor

RHP Lucas Davenport

RHP Cade Hansen

LHP Ethan Calder

Preseason All-Big 12 shortstop Travis Sanders is off to a great start at the plate, batting .467 through the first 12 games. First baseman Tyce Armstrong hit his team-leading 5th home run of the season in the midweek. He ranks second in the Big 12 and 16th nationally with 21 RBI so far this season.

BYU

No Starting Rotation Announced

The Cougars are coming off a 10-day, seven game road trip in Southern California from February 19-28. After dropping a game at San Diego State, BYU defeated UC San Diego and UC Riverside, then split a four-game, round-robin series with Long Beach State and Washington State, 2-2.

Ezra McNaughton leads BYU with a .380 batting average and a 1.116 OPS.

Cincinnati

RHP Nathan Taylor

RHP Logan Knight

RHP Adam Brouwer

TBA

Christian Mitchelle was recognized by the College Baseball Foundation once again with an addition to the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award watch list for the third straight season. Mitchelle has started eight games this year, seven at third base and one in left field. He started 46 games in 2025 at five different positions, and he also pitched in nine games.

Kansas

RHP Mason Cook

RHP Dominic Voegele

RHP Mathis Nayral

RHP Madden Seidl

Jordan Bach has led the way offensively for Kansas this season. Bach leads the team in batting average (.425), on-base percentage (.579), slugging percentage (.675), runs scored (16), hits (17), walks (14), total bases (27), multi-run games (6), and multi-hit games (5). His 14 walks and .579 on-base percentage are both second best in the Big 12, while his .425 batting average is third.

Kansas State

RHP James Guyette

RHP Tanner Duke

LHP Lincoln Sheffield

Kansas State is 8-4 this season, marking the second-best record through the first 12 games of the season in the Pete Hughes era. Lincoln Sheffield registered his fourth consecutive win after surrendering just two runs over 6 2/3 innings for his first quality start of 2026.

Donte Lewis was named to the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award Watch List this week.

Oklahoma State

LHP Hudson Barrett

LHP Ethan Lund

RHP Mario Pesca

The Cowboys are 9-3 to start the season, the second-best record in the Big 12, and they are riding an eight-game winning streak. Oklahoma State is coming off a midweek win over Missouri State.

Oklahoma State’s winning streak is the fourth-longest of the Josh Holliday head coaching era and the longest for the Cowboys since winning 12 in a row in 2023.

TCU

LHP Mason Brassfield

RHP Lance Davis

LHP Uli Fernsler

The Horned Frogs have won five straight games entering the weekend. TCU has drawn 57 walks during the winning streak and is tied for 7th nationally with 87 on the season. The Horned Frogs stole 22 bases over the last four games and now ranks third in the Big 12 with 27.

Nolan Traeger has driven in a run in five straight games and has 15 in that span. Sawyer Strosnider has reached safely in 28 straight games dating back to last season. Brady Dallimore's first career-home run was the walk-off winner against ACU in the midweek.

Texas Tech

RHP Lukas Pirko

RHP Connor Mohan

RHP Jonny Lowe

This week the College Baseball Foundation added Texas Tech players Connor Shouse and Jesse Rusinek to the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year watchlist highlighting the best two-way (hitter and pitcher) players in the country.

UCF

RHP Braden Smith

RHP Matt Sauser

RHP Joey Trombley

Matt Sauser leads the Knights from the mound with a 0.00 ERA, as he hasn’t given up a run over 13 innings of work. The right-hander is limiting opposing hitters to just a .116 batting on the year and is second on the team lead in strikeouts with 12.

Senior catcher Zak Skinner leads UCF this season with a .333 batting average. He also has four extra-base hits and is second on the squad in RBI with 10.

Utah

RHP Colter McAnelly

RHP Payton Riske

TBA

TBA

Jake Long is swinging a hot bat heading into the weekend, riding a five-game hit streak and recording one RBI in each of those contests. In two of the games, Long had three RBI to help the Utes secure wins.

Cameron Gurney has been a major force in Utah's offense this year. The first baseman leads the team in hits (12), RBI (11), batting average (.333), and on-base percentage (.489). With just one error on the season (.986 fielding percentage), Gurney has also proven to be incredibly effective defensively.

West Virginia

RHP Dawson Montesa

RHP Chansen Cole

LHP Maxx Yehl

Gavin Kelly powered the Mountaineers during a 3-1 week, hitting .579 with two home runs, three doubles, six RBI, and seven runs scored while posting a 1.053 slugging percentage. Kelly recorded multiple hits in all four games, including three-hit performances in each contest at Kennesaw State. Kelly capped the weekend with his first career multi-home run game. He also added four walks to bring his on-base percentage to .652 and OPS to 1.705 on the week.

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