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Sooners face upset-minded TCU to open Big 12 tournament

tarik masri , the norman transcript, okla.
·5 min read

As the Big 12’s regular season champions, Oklahoma got a first-round bye in the conference tournament and a chance to face the lower-seeded winner from round one.

On paper that can be a big advantage in the modified double-elimination format being used at the Big 12 tournament, but this season it may not have been quite so helpful for the Sooners. No. 9-seed TCU upset No. 3-seed West Virginia on Tuesday, 5-2.

After being picked as the favorite in the Preseason Big 12 Baseball Poll, the Horned Frogs opened up the season on a 13-game winning streak, but ended up with a losing record in conference play (14-16).

Still, this is a team with plenty of talent to go on a deep conference tournament run, and they’ve done it before.

Last year they were the No. 4 seed and broke the record for runs in a Big 12 tournament (48) on their way to winning the title. They went undefeated through regional and super regional play before being eliminated in the Men’s College World Series.

TCU has gotten very comfortable when playing at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, winning its last 10 games including four this season.

The Sooners are just two years removed from a magical run through the Big 12 tournament that sparked a postseason run that ended in the national championship game.

Here are three things you need to know as Oklahoma opens its final Big 12 tournament:

1. How does the Big 12 tournament bracket work? — With newcomers Cincinnati, UCF, Houston and BYU joining the Big 12 this season, the conference has made a slight tweak to its tournament format from previous years.

The Big 12 tournament is no longer a true double-elimination format. However, teams are not eliminated with a single loss until the semifinal round on Friday.

Each of the top 10 teams in the regular season conference standings are still split into two different sides of the bracket. Oklahoma (No. 1 seed) and Oklahoma State (No. 2 seed) are the two top seeds on each side of the bracket and got a bye in the first round.

West Virginia (0-1) and Kansas State (0-1) both lost on Tuesday and will face each other on Wednesday at 9 a.m. The loser will be eliminated while the winner will face the loser of Oklahoma (0-0) and TCU (1-0) on Thursday at 9 a.m.

The winner between the Sooners and the Horned Frogs will face Kansas (1-0) on Thursday at 12:30 p.m.

The two teams remaining on each side of the bracket on Friday afternoon will play in the semifinal game that determines who moves on to the championship game. If the Sooners win their first two games, they can still be eliminated without getting a chance at an ‘if-necessary game.’

Similarly, the championship game will be one game between the top two teams from each side of the bracket.

2. Pitchers’ duel — The Horned Frogs’ struggles this season are largely due to their inconsistency at the plate.

They’ve had one of the top defenses in the conference this season, but are 12th in batting average and 12th in runs scored. They’ve been held to five runs or fewer 27 times this season and have won just eights times in those games.

One of those wins came in their win over West Virginia.

However, when they’ve scored six runs or more they’ve never lost in 24 games.

Braden Davis is expected to get the start on Wednesday and has been a huge part of the Sooners’ success this season. He’s sixth in the conference in opponent batting average and has played more innings than all but one of the players above him.

Davis is tied for first in wins (8-3) and has picked up wins in his last six starts.

Still, TCU ace Payton Tolle is an elite pitcher and the fact that Horned Frogs were able to avoid using him against a good West Virginia team means they can be a real threat to the Sooners in the first round.

The Yukon-graduate made one appearance against the Sooners this season and struck out 10 batters, allowing three hits and two earned runs over six innings. Still, the Sooners were able to get six more hits and five more runs over the next three innings in the win.

Tolle and Davis were each named all-conference first teamers as starting pitchers, but Tolle was named the Big 12’s Pitcher of the Year as well as Newcomer of the Year.

The Horned Frogs’ don’t make many mistakes behind their starting pitcher. They’ve had just 41 errors all season (33rd nationally) and leads the conference in fielding percentage.

3. Bringing postseason play to Norman — Oklahoma hasn’t hosted an NCAA regional since 2010, but it almost certainly will this season regardless of what happens this weekend.

D1 Baseball and Baseball America each projected the Sooners would earn a top-eight seed in the NCAA tournament, which could give them home field advantage in super regionals as well. The Sooners would likely need to prove that they’re worthy of a super regional with a strong showing this weekend.

Still, the Sooners will only be able to do so much to prove themselves to the NCAA tournament committee.

Selections for the tournament will be announced at 11 a.m. on Sunday, roughly seven hours before the first pitch of the Big 12 championship game.