How Oklahoma State Baseball's Big 12 Tournament Win over UCF Affects NCAA Hopes

The Oklahoma State Cowboys opened the quarterfinal round of the Big 12 Tournament on Thursday hoping to potentially improve their NCAA Tournament seeding.

The No. 5 seeded Cowboys played the first game of the day and ended up with a 12-6 victory over the No. 4 seeded Knights. Oklahoma State (37-19) avenged a series sweep at the hands of the Knights (31-21) early in Big 12 action.

OSU stuck around to watch the next game, which pitted the No. 1 seed, Kansas, against the No. 8 seed, Baylor. The winner of that game will play Oklahoma State at 6:30 p.m. central on Friday on ESPN+.

More importantly, the win gives the Cowboys a chance to improve their NCAA Tournament seeding and their pursuit of a dark horse bid to host a regional.

Oklahoma State’s Regional Hosting Hopes Stay Alive

Bruegge delivers

A 3-RBI 1B... and another milestone#GoPokes pic.twitter.com/39FuZVCL1C
— OSU Cowboy Baseball (@OSUBaseball) May 21, 2026

Entering action on Thursday, D1Baseball.com projected the Cowboys as the No. 2 seed in the Tallahassee Regional, putting them on a potential path against Florida State next weekend.

The NCAA selection committee seeds the Top 32 teams now. The Top 16 host, with the next 16 seeds matched up as the No. 2 seeds in those regionals. The site had OSU as a No. 23 seed with Florida State slotted as a No. 11 seed.

The Cowboys would need to make up seven seed lines to reach the No. 16 seed and host a regional in Stillwater. Oklahoma State would likely need to win the Big 12 Tournament to have a legitimate chance.

At minimum, a win over UCF, projected as the No. 31 overall seed by D1 Baseball, helped boost the Cowboys’ projected seeding just a bit and nudged it a big closer to making a Stillwater Regional a reality.

The Cowboys advanced to Friday’s semifinal after breaking out with a five-run eighth inning, which broke a 5-5 tie and put them in control of the game. OSU added two runs in the ninth.

While Oklahoma State did not have a home run, Alex Conover, Brock Thompson, Avery Ortiz, Colin Brueggemann and Garrett Shull each had two hits. Bruggemann drove in four runs.

Barrett Hudson started for OSU and gave up five hits and five runs in five innings, but only one was earned. Mario Pesca worked three innings of relief and only allowed a run on three hits to claim the win. Noah Wech picked up the ninth inning.

2026 Big 12 Baseball Tournament Schedule

Doing what he does@AlexConover36 with an RBI 3B to add to our lead in the 9th#GoPokes pic.twitter.com/M8Sf4drSvO
— OSU Cowboy Baseball (@OSUBaseball) May 21, 2026

At Surprise Stadium, Surprise, Ariz.

All times central

Tuesday’s Results

Game 1 – No. 9 BYU 18, No. 12 Texas Tech 8 (Texas Tech eliminated)

Game 2 – No. 11 Kansas State 9, No. 10 Utah 5 (Utah eliminated)

Wednesday’s Results

Game 3 – No. 8 Baylor 13, No. 9 BYU 8 (BYU eliminated)

Game 4 – No. 11 Kansas State 9, No. 7 TCU 4 (TCU eliminated)

Thursday’s Results

Game 5 – No. 5 Oklahoma State 12, No. 4 UCF 6 (UCF eliminated)

Game 6 – No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 8 Baylor – 2:30 p.m. – ESPNU

Game 7 – No. 2 West Virginia vs. No. 11 Kansas State – 6:30 p.m. – ESPNU

Game 8 – No. 3 Arizona State vs. No. 6 Cincinnati – 10 p.m. – ESPNU

Friday, May 22

Game 9 – No. 5 Oklahoma State vs. Game 6 Winner – 6:30 p.m. – ESPN+

Game 10 – Game 7 Winner vs. Game 8 Winner – 10 p.m. – ESPN+

Saturday, May 23

Game 11 – Championship Game – 6:30 p.m. – ESPN2

Radio: Cowboy Radio Network (93.7 KSPI-FM) and The Varsity Network App (okla.state/GetVarsity)

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