Big 12 Winners and Losers: April 25-27

By James Gravley

This week's Big 12 baseball schedule was highlighted by a big time series between West Virginia and UCF. The Knights needed to get a win to keep out of the bottom two teams in the Big 12, while the Mountaineers needed to win at least two-of-three to keep their hopes alive to host a regional.

UCF didn’t do what they needed to do, and West Virginia did. The Mountaineers swept the Knights in the three-game set, including Friday’s 4-1 victory which came with only one hit recorded for the Mountaineers.

Arizona State blasted 15 homers in their series sweep over BYU, with eight of those coming in two innings of play on Friday night. That is a new school record set by the Sun Devils, the previous record being seven.

Kansas kept winning. They are now winners of eight straight but still currently sit two games back of West Virginia in the Big 12 standings. The Kansas schedule does favor them, as they have two midweeks hosting and visiting Missouri, and a three-game set against Cincinnati and BYU before closing out the regular season on the road in Morgantown.

Winners:

·       West Virginia – the loss to Penn State didn’t hold them back against UCF.

·       Kansas — winners of eight straight and a series sweep over Utah.

·       Arizona State — sweep over BYU, will be a dangerous team in the Big 12 tournament.

Losers:

·       BYU — Getting swept and still sitting at the elimination table is reason enough.

·       Utah — Valiant against KU, but like BYU, swept and still sitting at the elimination table.

·       UCF — Chances to win two over WVU but poor offense and defense=near elimination.

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