Texas Tech falters as Big 12 race all but wrapped up

Viva the Matadors’ Week 11 Rankings:

1. #22 Oklahoma State Cowboys: 28-17-1, 15-3 (LW 1)
Oklahoma State didn’t have a conference series this weekend, instead taking on Iowa. But it seems the Cowboys to relax just enough to lose two of three to the Hawkeyes in Iowa City. With Texas and Texas Tech going after each other in Lubbock, Oklahoma State didn’t lose any ground in the race and all but has the Big 12 title wrapped up.

Oklahoma State visits Baylor this weekend.

2. #17 Texas Longhorns: 33-17, 14-7 (LW 3)
Texas made a statement last weekend taking two of three from a struggling Tech team and firmly taking over the second spot in both our power rankings and the Big 12 title race. It might be too little too late, but if nothing else it probably helped Texas secure hosting a regional and knocking Texas Tech from the same honor.

Texas is off this weekend.

3. #12 Texas Tech Red Raiders: 35-15, 12-9 (LW 2)
The Red Raiders have lost seven of their last ten and look nothing like the team we saw earlier in the year. In fact, since their 14-0 start, they are a pedestrian 21-15 since. Only their preseason ranking is holding them up at this point in the D1 rankings. VTM had this team’s record at 38-18 in our season preview and it’s something we don’t take any pleasure in being right about.

Texas Tech is off this weekend and finishes it’s conference slate next weekend against Oklahoma State in Stillwater.

4. TCU Horned Frogs: 27-18, 8-9 (LW 5)
TCU seems to be reinvigorated after it’s series with Texas Tech last weekend and now are on a five game win streak with it’s sweep over Lamar. TCU has long been out of the Big 12 race, but it’s doing a lot for its postseason seeding if they can keep this up.

TCU will host West Virginia this weekend.

5. Oklahoma Sooners: 31-18, 13-8 (LW 6)
Oklahoma is also making a push for postseason seeding with a nice sweep over Kansas State. Though out of it, Oklahoma finds themselves in 3rd place in the Big 12 standings which may come into play for them to make a deeper run in the conference tournament and improve their postseason positioning.

Oklahoma will take on UCF this weekend.

6. Baylor Bears: 27-17, 9-9 (LW 4)
Baylor was off this past weekend, but they did start a two game set with Prairie View A&M on the right foot with an 18-1 victory. They have a date with Oklahoma State this weekend and are still trying to make a push to get into the postseason picture.

7. Kansas Jayhawks: 22-25, 5-12 (LW 8)
Kansas will have to look to 2019 for another chance to be relevant in baseball. With all the indicators going their way at the end of last year and beginning of this year, it just didn’t go their way in conference play. Hoping to build on some more momentum, Kansas did take two of three from West Virginia. With Kansas State up next on the schedule, the Jayhawks could really end the regular season on a high note.

8. West Virginia Mountaineers: 24-21, 7-11 (LW 7)
Nothing has really gone the way the Moutaineers would have liked this year. Perhaps the loss of their pitching coach in the off-season took its toll, but despite that, sitting at the bottom of the polls is not something West Virginia is used to. They’ll face off against Virginia Tech tonight in their mid-week game before heading to Fort Worth to play TCU.

9. Kansas State Wildcats: 18-29, 3-18 (LW 9)
Just a dreadful year for the Wildcats. Conference play has not been kind to Kansas State as they get swept by Oklahoma and at this point are just counting down the days to the season being over and looking for a fresh start in 2019. Kansas Sate will host Kansas this weekend.