Killer Frogs

West Virginia and Kansas Break out the Brooms in Week 6 of Big 12 Baseball

Has the Big 12 become a race for 2nd place?
Carson Wersal|
TCU starting pitcher, Tommy LaPour, shows some emotion after a big strikeout in the Horned Frogs' series-opening win vs UCF.
TCU starting pitcher, Tommy LaPour, shows some emotion after a big strikeout in the Horned Frogs' series-opening win vs UCF. | TCU Baseball X/Twitter

Welcome back to your weekly installment of the Big 12 Baseball Roundup. This past weekend, we saw good baseball all around the conference, including some surprising upsets and a sweep of a regular-season title contender.

The Weekend Recap

The series between Kansas and Kansas State headlined the weekend as this year's Sunflower Showdown was one of the most anticipated matchups this year in the Big 12. To the surprise of many, Kansas swept the Wildcats in magnificent fashion to solidify their position near the top of the conference standings. Meanwhile, the Jayhawks moved to 12-6 in conference play this season and are now tied for 2nd place, while the Wildcats fell to 10-8 and sit alone at 4th place in the conference standings.

The conference leader, the West Virginia Mountaineers, continued their success through this week with a sweep of the Cincinnati Bearcats, who were coming off a solid series win against the Arizona State Sun Devils. The Mountaineers have been in control of 1st place virtually all year with their only series loss coming to a very good Arizona team.

Out in Orlando, the TCU Horned Frogs, and it pains me to say this, were handed a series loss by the UCF Knights. Going into the series, the Knights were one of the better hitting squads in the country and the best in the Big 12. In a series where many expected fireworks every inning, it was the pitching staffs that dictated the pace of each game.

TCU opened the series with a 6-1 win with Tommy LaPour throwing 7.0 solid innings for the Frogs, allowing only one run. UCF would then hold the Frogs to only three runs over the next two games to take the series on Saturday by a score of 4-2.

In Waco, Baylor rebounded after last week's series loss to Texas Tech with a series win this week vs Utah. The Utes won the series opener in dominant fashion, 13-1, but the Baylor pitching staff responded by only giving up three runs over the next 18 innings to take the series.

Out West, both of the teams located in Arizona came away with series wins over the weekend tying themselves with TCU for 2nd place in the conference. Arizona State took the series win against Texas Tech, who salvaged the weekend with a win on Saturday.

After dropping the series-opener to BYU, the Arizona Wildcats took the final 2 games of the series with some special performances on offense from Mason White, who went 5 for 9 with 5 RBI's in Games 2 and 3, leading the Wildcats to the series win.

Last but not least, the Oklahoma State Cowboys and Houston Cougars split a 2-game series in Stillwater after Saturday's game was cancelled due to weather. The game on Sunday sparked the interest of some national media entities when Houston head coach Todd Whitting was ejected for purposefully delaying the game after 4.5 innings so the loss wouldn't count.

Due to travel curfews in the Big 12, if 5 innings aren't completed in a given game, then the game is scratched from both team's record.

Big 12 Conference Standings

Team

Big 12 Record

Overall Record

West Virginia

13-3

34-4

Kansas

12-6

31-10

Arizona

12-6

28-11

TCU

12-6

29-12

Arizona State

11-7

25-15

Kansas State

10-8

23-17

Baylor

8-10

25-14

Cincinnati

8-10

21-18

Texas Tech

8-10

12-23

Houston

6-10

21-17

Oklahoma State

5-9

16-19

UCF

6-12

22-17

BYU

6-12

19-18

Utah

5-13

16-19

Biggest Takeaways from the Week- Kansas is For Real

I won't call TCU's sweep of the Jayhawks a fluke, but something needs to be said about the Jayhawks and their sweep of the Kansas State Wildcats this past weekend. It's not common for a team to get swept and then immediately win all three games against their in-state rival, who's been playing good baseball for the majority of the season.

Kansas now has the 2nd-best overall record in the Big 12 at 31-10 and could be in the conversation to be ranked if they take care of business against Utah this coming weekend. The Jayhawks now hold the #28 RPI in the nation with the series sweep, which could affect Kansas's seeding come NCAA tournament time.

While the trio of Brady Ballinger, Brady Counsell, and Jackson Hauge came up in big spots, it surprisingly wasn't the offense that led the Jayhawks to victory this past weekend. Cooper Moore and Alex Breckheimer had great appearances on the mound for the Jayhawks and both contributed to the sweep in big spots. Breckheimer closed out Game 1 for Kansas when he came out of the bullpen and shut out the Wildcats for 2 straight innings while striking out 3 hitters in the process to secure the series-opening win.

Moore, the typical Saturday starter for the Jayhawks, set the tone in the doubleheader this past weekend with an excellent performance in one of the biggest series of the year. In 8 complete innings, Moore gave up 3 runs on 6 hits but struck out 8 Wildcat hitters in the process to keep the Jayhawk lead heading into the 9th inning. Breckheimer would seal the series for the Lawrence faithful with another scoreless inning resulting in the 6-3 win.

The Jayhawks earned the sweep in Game 3 with a massive double from Counsell that scored 2 in the 4th inning. The Kansas bullpen would then hang on to win the game with Thaniel Trumper, Malakai Vetock, Manning West, Dalton Smith, and Eric Lin all throwing a scoreless inning a piece to seal the deal. Derek Cerda ended the series with a magnificent catch in center field to put away any hopes of a comeback for the Wildcats.

Upcoming Series to Watch- West Virginia at UCF

This week, West Virginia traves to UCF for a 3-game series beginning on Friday evening. While UCF's conference record isn't pretty even after the series win vs TCU, the Knights still hold a good record at home of 12-6. Hosting the conference leader might give them even more juice assuming that this weekend's games feature some sold out crowds in Orlando.

For UCF, this weekend is a stellar opportunity to both distance themselves from the bottom of the conference standings, while also boosting their RPI which currently sits at #60 in the nation. For the Mountaineers on the other hand, this weekend is significant for potentially being a host site for the NCAA tournament when the time comes.

The Mountaineers currently hold an RPI of 14 and are projected to host a part of the tournament if the season ended today and with a couple of wins against UCF, it makes their series at the end of the year against Kansas and Kansas State a little less daunting.

While I want to say all of my attention will be on Baylor coming to TCU this coming weekend, I would be lying if I said I wasn't going to at least check in on the series in Orlando considering the gravity of the series.

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Carson Wersal
CARSON WERSAL

Carson, a 2025 TCU graduate, is a sports journalist who covers college athletics for several On SI sites. While most of his experience is with TCU On SI, he also writes with Wake Forest On SI and Houston On SI. He also has a passion for the college baseball scene, most notably being a fan of TCU Baseball. In 2023, Carson was in Omaha and reported on the Men’s College World Series, where TCU finished 4th in the nation. His past work not only consists of major sports like football, basketball, and baseball, but with others like track and field and cross country as well.

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