Big 12 Notebook: May 15, 2025

Entering the final weekend of the regular season, seeding for next week’s Big 12 Championship is still very much up in the air.

West Virginia (19-6) sits atop the Big 12 with Arizona State (18-9) in second and Kansas (17-10) and TCU (17-10) tied for third. Arizona (16-11) and Kansas State (16-11) are tied for fifth and two games up on Cincinnati (14-13).

West Virginia can clinch the 2025 Big 12 baseball regular season title with one win or one Arizona State loss. Arizona State can clinch the regular season crown with a 3-0 series sweep over Oklahoma State and a Kansas 3-0 sweep over West Virginia.

Weekly Awards

Big 12 Players of the Week

Player: Jack Natili, Cincinnati

Pitcher: Cooper Moore, Kansas

Newcomer: Jack Natili, Cincinnati

Weekend Matchups

Kansas State (30-21, 16-11) at Cincinnati (29-22, 14-13)

Baylor (31-20, 11-16) at UCF (28-24, 8-19)

Kansas (39-14, 17-10) at West Virginia (40-10, 19-6)

Arizona State (35-18, 18-9) at Oklahoma State (24-22, 12-12)

Arizona (34-17, 16-11) at Houston (28-22, 11-15)

TCU (35-16, 17-10) at Utah (20-27, 7-20)

Texas Tech (19-30, 12-15) at BYU (25-25, 8-19)

League Notes

Arizona

The Wildcats lead the country with 31 triples in 51 games, four more than the next highest team. Arizona is six triples shy of tying the Big 12 Conference single-season record. Reliever Tony Pluta leads the Big 12 and has the eighth-most saves in the country with 11.

Arizona State

Arizona State won their home series against Houston last weekend after dropping the opener 6-5. The Sun Devils then won by scores of 13-3 and 13-1 (run-rule 7 innings) to close out the weekend.

Arizona State is hitting a Big 12-best .322 as a team and averaging nearly nine runs per game. Matt King is hitting a team-high .386, while Isaiah Jackson leads the Sun Devils with 15 home runs and 62 RBI. Arizona State has hit the fourth-most doubles (130) in the country this season.

Baylor

With one weekend remaining in the regular season, the Bears currently sit 11th in the Big 12 standings at 11-16. Baylor's magic number is one to clinch a spot in the Big 12 Championship next week in Arlington. A Baylor win vs. UCF OR a BYU loss vs. Texas Tech would send the Bears to Arlington as one of the top 12 teams that qualifies for this season's championship. Reliever Gabe Craig continues to impress out of the Baylor bullpen. In Big 12 play, Craig has allowed just one run on seven hits in 17 1/3 innings with a 30:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

BYU

Six BYU hitters enter the weekend hitting .290 or better. Bryker Hurdsman leads the way at .343. Cooper Vest leads BYU with 15 home runs and 55 RBI, both are good for fourth and fifth, respectively, in the Big 12. Vest also leads the Cougars in total bases with 119 and is second in hits (57). Luke Anderson is batting .302 with a team-leading 61 hits. Anderson’s 51 RBI ranks 10th in the Big 12 and second on the team.

Cincinnati

Catcher Jack Natili led Cincinnati at the plate last week, hitting .556 with two home runs and nine RBI over four games. Natili went 4-for-5 with a home run and four RBI in the opener at TCU last weekend on his way to being named both the Big 12 Player and Newcomer of the Week.

Natili is hitting .347 this season and has started 39 games at catcher this season. Natili was great during Cincinnati’s recent 11-day road trip, hitting .621 with three home runs and 13 RBI. Natili has at least four hits in three of his last six games.

Houston

Shortstop Tyler Cox has quietly put together Houston’s best batting average in Big 12 play with a .301 average against Conference opponents this season. Cox has 11 hits in his last 17 at bats (.647) with six RBI.

Kansas

Cooper Moore was terrific on Friday night against BYU to help Kansas even the series. Moore pitched eight dominant innings and recorded a career-high 10 strikeouts in his way to earning the Big 12 Pitcher of the week honor.. Moore matched his career high with eight innings and allowed only one run and one walk, while striking out double-digit BYU batters.

Moore retired the first eight batters he faced in the game and recorded four strikeouts in his final two innings. Moore has now gone at least 7 innings in six of his last nine starts and he has five quality starts this season.

The Jayhawks broke the school record for the most wins in a regular season with a walk-off victory on Saturday. The 17 wins in conference play match the most in program history.

Kansas State

Kansas State is coming off a series win at home over West Virginia where the Wildcats finished with a conference-best 18-3 home record this season. Kansas State also won their seventh Big 12 series of the season.

Seth Dardar slammed the 90th home run of the season for Kansas State, breaking the previous record of 89 set in 2021, with his second grand slam of the season that led the Wildcats to a 14-9 victory in the weekend finale. The Wildcats have homered in 38 of 51 games this season.

Oklahoma State

The Cowboys won their series over Baylor last weekend in Waco. Oklahoma State ranks among the nation's best in shutouts (5), strikeouts per nine innings (10.2) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.64).

TCU

TCU hit nine home runs over the weekend in a home series win over Cincinnati to run its season total to 62, its most since the 2022 season. The Horned Frogs are fourth in the Big 12 with a .297 average, third with a 4.30 ERA and seventh with a .974 fielding percentage. TCU is third in the country with 25 triples. The Horned Frogs are hitting .348 in the month of May and .318 since April 1.

Texas Tech

Having already clinched a spot in the 12-team field of the Big 12 Championship, Texas Tech can still finish anywhere between seven and 11 in the final standings.

UCF

UCF won their road series at Texas Tech last weekend. The Knights will enter this weekend in a tie with BYU for 12th place in the Big 12 standings. Utah sits just a game behind UCF and BYU with 7-20 conference records. Baylor will enter the final weekend in 11th place with an 11-16 league record. With UCF holding the tiebreaker over BYU, a sweep this weekend would guarantee the Knights a spot in the conference tournament.

Utah

Utah won a road series at Arizona last weekend. Core Jackson hit .400 in that series with two home runs, six RBI, and five walks while Jackson also pulled off a straight steal of home. Austen Roellig also had a great weekend against Arizona, turning in a team-leading .429 clip with two doubles.

On the mound, the Utes enjoyed two quality starts from Colter McAnelly and Merit Jones on the way to winning the first two games of the series. McAnelly's five strikeouts brought his total to 90 this season; which ranks fourth-most for a season in Utah history.

West Virginia

Sam White leads West Virginia with a .368 batting average while Jace Rinehart and Kyle West each have a team-high eight home runs. Rinehart also leads the Mountaineers with 50 RBI and leads the Big 12 with 20 doubles.

On the mound, Griffin Kirn is 4-1 with a 3.49 ERA and leads West Virginia with 73 strikeouts. Jack Kartsonas is 6-1 with a 2.44 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 48 innings.

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