Big 12 Baseball Roundup: Cincinnati Sweeps #25 Jayhawks in Lawrence

Cincinnati headlined last weekend's results with other Big 12 regular season title contenders earning massive series wins.

Mason Brassfield got the start for the Horned Frogs on Sunday in TCU's series-salvaging win vs the Arizona Wildcats. / TCU Baseball X/Twitter

Last weekend, Big 12 Baseball saw some wild results in conference play with the loudest of them all being Cincinnati's sweep of the, now unranked, Kansas Jayhawks. As always, Big 12 on D1Baseball does an excellent job with a graphic that breaks down the weekend results for the most unique college baseball conference in America.

The Weekend Recap

As this is a TCU affiliated news site, we'll start this off with a recap of the absolute rock fight out in Tucson between the Horned Frogs and the Arizona Wildcats. The Wildcats won the series-opener 6-3 with impressive performances from Mason White and Aaron Walton, who combined to go 5 for 8 with 5 RBIs. In Saturday's game, some costly errors by the Horned Frog defense resulted in 2 runs crossing the plate in the 5-4 Arizona win.

The Frogs put the offense together on Sunday to escape Tucson with a 13-6 win with impressive performances by Karson Bowen and Colton Griffin. The catcher and 3rd baseman combined to go 6 for 10 with 9 RBIs. Griffin logged 3 doubles in the final game of the series in his performance as well. Both teams now have the same overall and conference record at 33-15 and 15-9.

West Virginia continued it's impressive stretch of baseball with another series win over the Red Raiders. The Mountaineers stumbled on Friday night dropping the series opener 6-4 but responded nicely by outscoring their opponent 8-2 over the final two games to get the series win.

The Kansas State Wildcats followed the same trend with a slow start against BYU dropping the first game of the series 11-6, The Wildcats took that loss to heart by outscoring their opponent 31-8 over the next 18 innings while escaping Provo with the series win.

Baylor took the series-opener against Arizona State 7-4 off the back of a 6-run 7th inning, but would meet the same fate as most underdogs this weekend as the Sun Devils stormed back to take the series with wins on Saturday and Sunday.

Oklahoma State, Houston, and most notably Cincinnati earned sweeps last weekend shaking up the Top 25 and the conference standings. The Cowboys swept the UCF Knights in Stillwater, while the Cougars swept a Utah team that has yet to put it together since their Holy War series win.

Cincinnati made the most noise in the Big 12 with their sweep of the Kansas Jayhawks in Lawrence. It's one thing to steal a series in Hoglund Ballpark, but it's another thing to sweep a team that can get extremely hot in any given game or inning. The Bearcats averaged over 10 runs a game totaling 38 runs against the Jayhawk pitching staff.

Big 12 Conference Standings

Big 12 School	Conference Record	Overall Record
West Virginia	18-4	39-8
Arizona State	16-8	32-17
Kansas	15-9	37-13
Arizona	15-9	33-15
TCU	15-9	33-15
Kansas State	14-10	28-20
Cincinnati	13-11	28-20
Oklahoma State	10-11	22-21
Texas Tech	11-13	17-28
Houston	10-13	27-20
Baylor	10-14	30-18
BYU	7-17	23-23
UCF	6-18	25-23
Utah	5-19	18-25

Biggest Takeaways from the Week

There are a variety of avenues I could take this section this week, but I think looking at big picture stuff would be beneficial as we head down the homestretch of the regular season. Arizona State, Cincinnati, and Arizona are the biggest winners within the conference this week. With their series-win over the Bears, the Sun Devils now have sole possession of 2nd place in the conference.

With Kansas, Arizona, and TCU in a 3-way tie at 15-9 in league play, that extra game ahead of the 3 could prove to be vital if West Virginia stumbles against Kansas or Kansas State.

The Bearcats sweep of Kansas showed just how lethal the Cincinnati offense can be, especially with guys like Kerrington Cross leading the way. The third baseman had 3 homeruns and 10 RBIs in Saturdays series-securing win ending with a final score of 18-14 after the game went into extra innings. Dariel Osoria led the way for the Jayhawks at the plate with a 3 for 5 performance with 6 RBIs.

I consider the Arizona Wildcats some of the biggest winners this past weekend with their series win against the Frogs. Not only did they solidify their position inside the Top 25, but they now hold a tiebreaker over TCU in case the two teams have the same conference record when it comes time for the conference tournament. The Wildcats have been a consistent team all year and, like a lot of Big 12 teams, will be a problem in the NCAA tournament.

Upcoming Series to Watch

Aside from an exciting series in Fort Worth between the Frogs and Bearcats, the series to watch this weekend is in Manhattan, Kansas. West Virginia will take on Kansas State in a 3-game series in which both teams will be playing to their strengths from the start. The Wildcats boast a 16-2 record at home, while the Mountaineers are 22-3 on the road.

With a little bit of chaos in the upper half of the conference, West Virginia has the ability to secure the regular season title if they sweep the Wildcats. Getting that regular season title a week before the Big 12 tournament means rest for key players, and potential innings for bullpen guys that need to get right before the postseason.

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