This weekend was the second weekend of Big 12 Conference action, but this week more teams were fully engaged in conference play as only one team did not play a conference game.
Texas Tech at Texas
The Texas Longhorns entered their first weekend of conference play having won 11 straight games, though not against the stiffest of competition. Meanwhile, Texas Tech was playing outside of Lubbock for only the second time this season, and the first time in three weeks since they played in the Shriners College Classic.
Lucas Gordon gave Texas a quality start on Friday night, going 5 ⅓ innings before he ran into a bit of trouble. Zane Morehouse (3-0) was called in and all he did was toss 3 ⅔ innings of perfect baseball to stabilize the pitching game while the offense put the game away. Porter Brown delivered the big blow for Texas, a two-run home run in the sixth inning as the Longhorns pulled away on their way to 6-2 victory.
The Longhorns and the Red Raiders were tied in the bottom of ninth inning of Saturday’s middle game. Once again, Brown (2-for-3) was in the right place at the right time. After reaching base on a double, Brown was balked over to third base before a wild pitch plated him and made Texas 6-5 game winners and series winners.
On Sunday afternoon, for the second day in a row, the two squads entered the bottom of the ninth inning with a tied score. Garret Guillemette hammered the third pitch of the inning 407 feet to left field for a 9-8 walk-off win and series sweep.
Texas Tech (2-4) continues to have trouble winning ball games away from Lubbock as they are now 1-2 on neutral fields, and 0-3 at opposing ballparks. While playing Texas (3-0) close all weekend, the Red Raiders leave Austin with no wins from the weekend series and more questions than answers right now. The sweep was only the fifth in the eleven-year tenure of Texas Tech head coach Tim Tadlock.
Texas head coach David Pierce was happy with the sweep after Sunday’s game. Pierce spoke of specific work his team was doing coming into the weekend, and it speaks to a team that has identified weaknesses and tweaking those for the time on the calendar that matters.
“Our batting practice was staying in the middle of the field, working on the inner third of the baseball,” Pierce said. “I like where our offense is, just competing and grinding out at-bats. It's a lot of fun to watch.”
Texas has won 14 games in a row now and appears to have found what was missing early in the season as the new team and new coaching staff figure things out. The Longhorns are 18-7 overall and have played 19 of their 25 games at home where they are 17-2.
Kansas at TCU
TCU swept Kansas despite the Jayhawks having the Horned Frogs on the ropes in Friday’s opening game. The Bears had no difficulty with TCU ace Ryan Vanderhei forcing him out of the game with one out in the fifth inning having scored five runs off of the right-hander.
With the Jayhawks leading 5-2 in the bottom of the sixth, the Horned Frogs rallied for four runs to take the lead. Kansas tied the game in the top of the eighth inning. In the bottom of the frame, Luke Boyers led things off with a triple and was brought across the plate by Tre Richardson, who himself would score the insurance run in the 8-6 TCU win.
TCU made things look easy on Saturday with an 18-5 powered by Karson Bowen at the plate and seven terrific innings by Kole Klecker on the mound.
The Horned Frogs completed the weekend sweep on Sunday by getting a complete game shutout by Cam Brown. TCU scored fourteen runs while Brown allowed just two hits to the Jayhawks. After the first two Kansas batters reached base, Brown proceeded to retire fifteen in a row.
Baylor at Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State swept Baylor over the weekend, but the task was not as simple as it sounds. Baylor staked out a 7-0 lead on Friday after a six-run third inning. The Cowboys put up a three-run frame and then matched the Bears six-run inning with one of their own in the fourth inning to take a 9-7 lead. Baylor tied the game in the top of the sixth inning and neither team would score again until Oklahoma State walked it off with two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning on a Marcus Brown two-run home run.
The Cowboys had an easier time of things on Saturday when they took a 15-8 victory, and even easier time on Sunday as they saved themselves a couple of innings by run-ruling Baylor 13-2 in seven innings to complete the sweep. Juaron Watts-Brown (3-1) got the win on Sunday as he went six strong innings and struck out thirteen.
Oklahoma at Kansas State
Kansas State (4-2) swept Oklahoma (2-4) in Manhattan, Kansas as the Sooners faltered after opening conference play with a series win over TCU in Norman.
Left-hander Owen Boerema went the first six innings in Friday’s first game and Ty Ruhl went the final three innings. The two pitchers combined to allow Oklahoma just one run in a 7-1 victory. The Wildcats edged the Sooners in the final two games of the season 7-6 and 8-7 to finish the weekend sweep.
West Virginia has yet to play a conference game this season, the only team in the Big 12 with that distinction.
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