Baseball Notes in PDF
Entering the final week of the regular season, five league teams are ranked in at least one of the four national polls, with Baylor and Texas A&M listed on all four. The Bears dropped to a No. 4 ranking after holding down the No. 2 spot on all the lists last week. Texas A&M checks in as high as No. 8, while Collegiate Baseball has the league's three other squads highest spots with Texas at No. 21, Oklahoma State at No. 22 and Oklahoma at No. 24.
The Sooners are fresh off a series sweep of Baylor, who entered the weekend 18-0 in conference play. Oklahoma became the first Big 12 team to defeat the Bears. The Sooners began the series with a 1-0 win in 10 innings on Saturday and completed a doubleheader sweep with a 2-1 victory. In Sunday's finale, OU recorded a 12-6 win to complete the sweep, its third this season in Big 12 play.
Despite the loss, the Bears still achieved the best conference win streak in league history with their 18-straight wins. BU currently ranks second for best regular-season conference winning percentage at .857.
OU is the lone league team done with its conference schedule, finishing with a 13-10 mark, the third straight year the Sooners have finished conference play over .500. Oklahoma currently sits in fifth place, however, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State and Texas are tied for second with 13-8 records. The Aggies and Cowboys face off in Stillwater this weekend, where OSU is 24-4 on the year, including 6-0 in Big 12 play. Texas takes on Baylor, while the bottom of the standings round out the other conference matchups as Missouri visits Kansas and Kansas State travels to Texas Tech.
The OSU and TAMU series will feature the league's two best pitching squads. The Aggies enter the week with an overall ERA of 2.77 (first), while the Cowboys sport a 2.83 ERA (second). Both are the only teams with ERAs under 3.00 in the league, however, OSU has the edge in conference games, ranking first (2.82) while TAMU sits in fifth (3.53).
Senior pitcher Ross Stripling (Texas A&M) tossed the first no-hitter in the Big 12 since 2009, with a 1-0 no-no vs. San Diego State on Saturday. He is the eighth league pitcher to record the feat since 2000 and the first Aggie to do so since 1996 (9 innings). It also marked his eighth career complete game. For his performance, Stripling earned the NCWBA National Pitcher of the Week and was a Collegiate Baseball Louisville Slugger Player of the Week.
Andrew Heaney (Oklahoma State) tossed his fifth complete game of the season on Saturday. He fanned 11 for his fifth contest with double-digit strikeouts. He ranks second in the nation with 120 strikeouts this season.
Jamodrick McGruder (Texas Tech) is six stolen bases shy of setting the Big 12 record for most swipes in a single season (42). He also needs just eight more to claim the top spot on the all-time career stolen base chart. He enters the week with 37 steals this season and 88 in his career.