Big 12 Tourney Draws From Far and Wide: The Return of Bo's Baseball Bites

ARLINGTON, TX – Literally, it was a gathering of the national clans – wide ranging from Morgantown, WV, to Provo, UT, to two Arizona cities.

Yes, the Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship truly was a national event with 12 teams competing and a first-ever single-elimination format – loved by the coaches whose squads are receiving NCAA bids for pitching purposes and without the dreaded “if-necessary” tussles.

And when the dust had cleared at guaranteed-game Globe Life Field (no rainouts with the covered stadium retractable roof), the Arizona Wildcats reigned as champ (their first in their initial campaign in the Big 12) with a 2-1 thriller over TCU in 10 innings.

TCU took the lead in the opening frame n a fielder’s choice RBI groundout by Noah Franco and was unable to strike the rest of the way with four UA pitchers striking out nine, walking one and scattering nine hits.

Coach Chip Hale’s winning crew waited until its final inning at the plate to tie the contest 1-1 on a solo homer by Andrew Cain and send the clash into extra innings before Maddox Mihalakis poked a literal “Texas League” blooper single to left to score the go-ahead run. Tony Pluta retired the Frogs in the bottom of the 10th inning to gain his second win of the year without a losing decision.

“This time last year we won the last Pac-12 Conference baseball championship,” Hale allowed, :and then we lost two straight in the NCAA Regionals. This game had that championship feel, and both teams batted all the way into the 10th inning. We just couldn’t a ball in play and left 11 men on base, but credit TCU’s pitching for much of that. We have been in Texas for the last 10 days after playing in the Houston series and then bussing to Arlington, so we will celebrate, get home and start practicing for the regionals.

“This team played their hearts out,” said Horned Frogs head coach Kirk Saarloos. “We have put ourselves into position by regular-season conference record and how we played in this tournament to be one of the top 16 NCAA seeds and to host. I think that eight Big 12 teams are deserving of NCAA bids, and the quality of play in the Big 12 has been evident. We also had 22 wins in NCAA Quad One and Quad Two games, and that says a lot about our team .”

Such intriguing matchups as BYU and Arizona State in Game One Wednesday kept major fan interest and added an even more intersectional vibe to the proceedings.

“It was a short stay for us,” said Arizona State head coach, former Sun Devils and MLB star Willie Bloomquist after ASU fell to BYU 2-0 in the opener, “but I still am feeling good about our NCAA chances. We had 18 wins in Big 12 Conference play and play in one of the nation’s best baseball conferences. We also were in the running for the championship right until the final weekend.”

 “We had a 7-3 record in games played on Thursday this season,” quipped BYU head coach Trent Pratt who played for two years at Arizona State and was a teammate of Bloomquist at that time. “We keep telling our players that every day is Thursday. Despite the 18 strikeouts today (Wednesday), we showed good patience at the plate and drew walks at the critical times. There really aren’t any bad baseball teams in the Big 12. Every game is a dogfight.”

Arizona head coach, former Wildcats star and former MLB Arizona Diamondbacks manager Hale was upbeat after the Wildcats eliminated BYU the next day (Thursday to drop the Cougars to 7-4 on that day during the ’25 campaign) and looking for a probable NCAA at-large bid if UA did not advance to the finals. Arizona started the tourney at No 33 in the NCAA Ratings Percentage Index and has been in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Top 25 for much of this outing. As it developed, the Wildcats blazed their own trail to the NCAA bid.

“Playing a 9 a.m. (CDT) game is tough on college kids and the old coaches,” Hale laughed, “but our youngsters adapted  and did a great job on the mound and defensively. WE have been to NCAA Regionals the last three years and want to accomplish more this year. The Big 12 is competitive up and down the line, and the road trips have not been harder than when we played in the Pac-12 and were trying to get to Seattle, Pullman and Oregon.”

Wednesday’s first round games also featured a tense, 6-5 win by Cincinnati over stubborn Texas Tech, Oklahoma State downing Baylor 4-3 and Houston upsetting a Kansas State squad that was near the top of conference standings for much of ’25 and had an RPI of 36 prior to that encounter.

Then Thursday featured the Nos. 1-4 seeded teams by regular-season finishes as No. 1 West Virginia stopped Cincinnati 10-3 after the Arizona triumph over the Cougars.

“This has been the culmination of 10 years of hard work,” said WVU head coach Steve Sabins after the win. “We just flipped the switch from our last two Big 12 series, and these players were trying their hardest to get the (regular-season) championship and pressing very hard recently. We were able to get the school record for wins today (Thursday) with 41, and that is a great accomplishment for these young men.”

Cincinnati head coach Jordan Bischel feels the NCAA Selection Committee is extremely fair and does its darnedest the choose the top 64 teams for the final championship bracket and that the Bearcats fit the bill for an at-large entry. Cincy was 16-14 in Big 12 games this season with an RPI of 35.

“I think we have all the qualifications to make the NCAA field this year after we were left out in 2024 with 17 conference victories and a very tough schedule,” Bischel stated. “Again, the committee has a tough task, but I think we deserving and just icked a bad day to play our worst game in two weeks. The Big 12 should receive multiple bids because even the lower seeds in this tournament are great teams.”

Yet another Big 12 squad seeking  coveted berth among the NCAA 64 is Oklahoma State, which lost a 7-6 heartbreaker in walkoff fashion to red-hot Kansas late Thursday evening. KU’s Mike Koszewski blooped a single to short left to give the Jayhawks their school-record 26th come-from-behind win in ’25 and to raise the team’s overall record to 43-14 overall .

“This was just a great college baseball game,” said Big 12 Coach of the Year and KU mentor Dan Fitzgerald. “These two teams fought from the start, and Oklahoma State definitely deserves to be in the NCAA tournament. Coach Josh Holliday is one of the best coaches in the country, hard to compete against, and OSU is a very tough opponent – certainly one of the best 64 teams nationally at this point.”

“Again, this was a hard-fought game,” echoed Holliday. “Every player on both sides put their heart and soul into it. The had that 6-2 leads and just were not able to hold it; didn’t quite pull away from them. Their two relief pitchers have different styles, and they make it hard for hitters to adjust and score runs. This team and the Oklahoma State community have fought through a lot of adversity this year. Eight families in Stillwater and four of our players’ families all lost their homes in the March wildfires, and this inspired our team throughout the latter part of the season.”

TCU later topped off Houston 7-1 to add some additional points to its NCAA resume at 38-17 after the victory and left the field with a 19 RPI and rumors of a possible NCAA Regional host’s berth. Houston dropped to 30-25 but stayed on the NCAA bubble with a No. 88 RPI but 12 conference wins against one of the Big 12’s most challenging slate.

Friday’s semifinals consisted of two more intersectional matchups as both finalists romped to triumphs.

Arizona hammered West Virginia 12-1 while TCU scored an eight-inning run rule verdict over streaking Kansas 11-1 to set up a first-ever title match between the Wildcats and Horned Frogs Friday night.

Probably the most surprising aspect of the far-flung championship, which had the feel at best of a NCAA World Series with the nationally-ranked entrants, was the two Friday blowout wins. Pitching and defense were at a premium here.

Now the wait for the NCAA selection show at 11 a.m. (CDT) Monday begins, and more than few nails will be chewed between Sunday night and mid-morning Monday.

The Big 12 Championship All-Tournament team (led by Arizona SS Mason White as Outstanding Player with six RBI and four hits in the win over West Virginia) also featured C Jack Natili, Cincinnati; 1B Brady Ballinger, Kansas; 2B Cole Cramer, TCU; 3B Jack Bell, TCU; and Maddox Mihalakis, Arizona; outfielders Brendan Summerhill, Arizona; Noah Franco, TCU; and Kyle West, West Virginia; DH Sawyer Strosnider, TCU; SP Tommy Lapour, TCU; SP Griffin Kim, West Virginia; and RP Tony Pluta, Arizona.

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Bo Carter is the Executive Director of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and is a long time professional in sports media and information. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and has plied his trade in the Southeastern Conference, the Southwest Conference, and the Big 12 Conference. In addition to his NCBWA duties, he also serves as a consultant and columnist for the National Football Foundation. Follow the NCBWA, which produces ranking polls for D1, D2, and D3, as well as naming All America teams at both the D1 and D2 levels and the Dick Howser Trophy (presented each year in Omaha at the Men’s College World Series) at @NCBWA. If you’re a college baseball fan, you don’t have to be media to be a member, check them out at ncbwa.com and join today!