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Big 12 Tournament Format
The Big 12 has 10 teams (because that makes sense), and 9 field a baseball team (Iowa State being the odd school out). Of these 9, the top 8 are invited to the baseball tournament at the end of the year in Oklahoma City. This year, Kansas did not make the cut, with a 6-17 conference record, winning just 3 games at home, and losing the last 6 of the year, 5 of which were conference games. The remaining 8 teams have been seeded by their conference record, and will be matched up 1v8, 2v7, 3v6, and 4v5. The tournament splits the 8 teams into 2 divisions with the #1, 4, 5, and 8 teams in 1 and the other 4 in the other. The format is a double elimination style with the 2 division winners meeting up for the 1-game championship on Sunday May 29th.
Tournament Schedule and Matchups
The tournament begins on Wednesday morning in Division 1 with #4 West Virginia against #5 Oklahoma at 9:00am. The other game in that division will be your #1 Texas Tech Red Raiders facing the #8 Kansas St Wildcats at 12:30pm. In Division 2, #3 TCU takes on #6 Baylor at 4:00pm and #2 OSU against #7 Texas at 7:30pm. The losers of the 2 Division 1 games will meet at 9:00am on Thursday and the Division 2 game will be at 12:30pm. So if Tech can beat KSU, they will play the winner of the OU-WV game on Thursday at 4:00pm. If they win that game, they will have Friday off and play the winner of the Division 1 loser's bracket on Saturday at 11:00am. If they lose to KSU tomorrow, they will play the loser of the OU-WV game at 9:00am on Thursday. There is a printable bracket and a schedule of all the games that may make things a little bit more clear.
Kansas State Wildcats
The Wildcats visited Lubbock in the beginning of April, with Tech taking all 3 games. The Friday game that weekend was moved to a doubleheader on Saturday. In game 1, a 10-3 victory, Stephen Smith had 5 RBI's and the Tech offense had a big 7-run 2nd inning. Pitchers Davis Martin and Ryan Shetter combined for the win. Game 2 was another big win, this time 10-4, as Gute went 3-3 with 4 RBI's and Garcia had 2 home runs. Gingery and Howard pitched the game,and only 4 pitchers were used the entire doubleheader. The series finale went to Tech in a 6-5 win that saw a 5-1 Tech lead diminish to 5-4. Smith had 2 home runs that afternoon as Tech would sweep the series, scoring 26 runs across the 3 games. Ty Damron (4-1, 5.56 ERA) is expected to make the start tomorrow against Corey Fischer (3-4, 5.06 ERA). Corey pitched in the 3rd game of the season series, taking the loss with 2.2 innings with 4 hits, 2 runs (1 earned), 3 walks, and 3 strikeouts. First pitch is scheduled at 12:30pm, and all games of the tournament until the championship will be aired on Fox College Sports. The championship game will be on FSN.