• Texas A&M vs Texas

Given how these two teams have done this season, it’d be easy to understand if the Aggies won this series. Husker fans are hoping that’s not the case and there’s something in this rivalry that gets the blood flowing for both teams.
This is a BIG series for both teams as the Aggies want to win the Big 12 and secure a national seed while the ‘Horns want to improve their postseason status.
The Longhorns have had all season to get their burnt orange poop together and haven’t done it, so what makes anyone think that this weekend would be different.
Look for the Aggies to take this series 2-1, winning the Big 12 regular season title.

• Oklahoma vs Oklahoma State

Oklahoma has had a bad season and they need to get a win to get into the Big 12 tourney. Right now they sit in eighth place, just behind Kansas, and ahead of Kansas State and Texas Tech. What’s worse is they’re playing a highly-ranked Cowboy team.
Oklahoma State can catch Nebraska for second place if the Huskers falter in Columbia.

Oklahoma State wins this series 2-1. Don’t be surprised if it’s a sweep by the Cowboys.

• Kansas vs Kansas State

JQ over at Rock Chalk Talk has a preview on this series. Both teams are fighting for something besides bragging rights - they’re fighting to make the Big 12 tourney.

Kansas secures a bid to the Big 12 tourney with a 2-1 series victory over the Wildcats.

• Baylor vs Texas Tech

Tech has had a horrid season which will probably end this season. From JQ at RockChalkTalk: Oklahoma and Kansas both own tie breakers over the Red Raiders so TTU would need to beat Baylor this weekend, and hope that both Kansas and Oklahoma lose their series to sneak in.

Baylor hasn’t set the world on fire, but they’re pretty much a lock to make the Big 12 tourney. Even with a sweep the Bears can’t finish above .500, though.

Look for Baylor to take this series 2-1, and end the Red Raiders baseball season.

• Nebraska vs Missouri

Does this make Missouri our rival? Maybe that’s not a bad idea given that they’ve been getting all uppity as of late.
Kendall Rogers over at Rivals has this picked as one of his weekend series to watch. Here’s what he says:

What the???? Is that freaky or what? When the season started, Missouri was picked high in the Big 12 due to their pitching. Nebraska was picked to finish sixth in the Big 12 because of losing so much pitching in the draft last season. Ha! I say Ha! to the naysayers! (Oh, actually, I don’t blame them, who could see this young team mature this quickly?)

Tonight’s game - Johnny Dorn vs Aaron Crow, two pitchers made the Dick Howser semifinalist list. Don’t be surprised if the Huskers lose game one then come back to take next two.

So look for Nebraska to take this series 2-1.

It won’t be enough to overtake Texas A&M, but remember that the Huskers beat the Aggies in their series... but then there’s that darned tie game.

The Sunday Huskers-Tigers game is televised on FSN at 3:30 pm.

Doing a SBS Server upgrade tonight, not one of my favorite things because SBS sucks, but I’m stuck indoors on the most beautiful spring night so far this year. Ah, well.… probably just be out in my front yard drinking beer most of the night and wake up feeling like... dung. Hoping to climb out this weekend, get back to posting on a regular basis, and like I said, big changes are coming at the end of the week.

In the Big 12 this week:

- Nebraska vs Texas A&M turned into one helluva series. A 16-inning game won by the Aggies, then they lose the series. The teams played a double header on Sunday, with Nebraska scoring five runs in the bottom of the ninth to take the first game. In the second, the Aggies held a 9-4 lead, then lost it. They committed six errors in the game.

- Texas A&M remains in first place, with a series against rival Texas left.

- Oklahoma State won their series against Texas Tech, no shock there. They remain within striking distance of Nebraska for second, with a big series against rival Oklahoma coming up. The Cowboys can finish no worse than third.

- Missouri wins a series against Kansas, but remain a huge underachiever. They can finish no higher than fourth, but could slip below Texas depending upon their series with Nebraska and Texas' series with Texas A&M.

- Oklahoma wins a series against Kansas State, pushing them up to 10th.

Husker fans may have expected this year's team to do better than last, but this much better is like Christmas, your birthday and the Fourth of July all wrapped into one. Big change from last year. Part of that can be attributed to new pitching coach Eric Newman, but most of it is the result of a team that plays together.

• The NCBWA poll has us at #7, up from #9.

Texas A&M is ranked right in front of us at #6, Oklahoma State right behind at #8, Missouri is at #16, and I don't know why the hell they continue to rank Texas, but they're right there at #26.

up from #14 the previous week. Figure that.
Texas A&M is #8, Missouri at #10, Oklahoma State at #10, and Missouri at #15.

• Baseball America moves us to 5#.

Texas A&M at #9, Oklahoma State is at #18,  and Texas at #20.

• Collegiate Baseball has the Huskers at #6 from #10 the previous week.

Texas A&M is at #7, and Oklahoma State at #10, Missouri at #14.

• Nebraska is ranked 7th in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll, same as were the previous week.  

Texas A&M is #5, Oklahoma State #8, and Missouri #17.

In the Big 12 this week:

- Not a lot of surprises this week with the exception of Kansas sweeping Oklahoma. Oh, and their win over Missouri midweek.
- Texas won a series over Baylor to move to .500 and fifth in the Big 12. No shock there.
- Missouri won a series over Kansas State. No shock there.
- Texas A&M, Nebraska and Oklahoma State both beat non-conference foes. No shock there.
- Texas Tech didn't lose because they didn't play. No shocking result there either.
- The Aggies became the first 40-win team in the nation this past weekend. Maybe that's shocking?

In the Big 12 this week:

- Texas A&M sweeps Missouri, including a 15-0 rout on Saturday

- Nebraska wins their first series ever in Waco

- Oklahoma State sweeps Kansas    

- Texas wins the rubber match today to win their series against KSU

You remember the beginning of the Big 12 season, where I said that the Big 12 was evenly matched and that it would be a tough conference, every game would count, blah blah blah, insert your cliche here.

Well. Here we are and the top three teams in the conference- Texas A&M, Nebraska and Oklahoma State have combined for a 47-15. There's a couple things that happened no one expected... well, except for Nebraska coach Mike Anderson.

Nebraska is really good. Texas is, well, not good. That's a huge difference in the wins and losses in conference. On to the week! 

Big 12 Baseball Weekend Preview!

• Missouri at Texas A&M

The series of the week with of the top-rated teams in then nation. Perhaps a chance for Missouri to win a series and pull the Aggies out of first place if Nebraska can take care of Baylor. Texas A&M is on a 12-game conference winning streak. That's going to be put to the test tonight as Missouri's Friday dude Aaron Crow is the best pitcher in the nation.
A&M has Jose' Duran and Darby Brown beating the stitches off the balls this season. In Big 12 conference, they're batting .446 and .425 respectively. The two have combined for 35 runs, 68 hits and 49 RBI's. If that isn't enough, Dane Carter is hitting at .373 and has 22 runs and 22 RBI's by hisself.
It's Missouri's pitching against Texas A&M's offense. Other than Aaron Crow, I'm not 100% sold on the invincibility of Tiger pitching.
I would expect that A&M takes this series 2-1.

• Nebraska at Baylor

There's no reason that Nebraska should lose this series, but I don't feel good about it and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because Baylor's backs are against the wall - if they lose this series they drop further below .500 and are in danger of not making the NCAA tourney. Or maybe it's that Nebraska has never won a series in Waco.

Nebraska has the best ERA overall in the Big 12 and with Johnny Dorn (5-1, 2.60 ERA) on Fridays you know the Huskers should win. He'll be going up against Kendal Volz (3-4, 4.31 ERA). Another battle will be on Saturday when Thad Weber (7-2, 4.23 ERA) goes against Shawn Tolleson (4-2, 4.25 ERA). Sunday, Husker Aaron Pribanic (3-2, 3.86 ERA) will go against Willie Kempf (5-1, 3.75 ERA).

Baylor has struggled on offense this season, getting swept last week by the Aggies. Both teams had explosive mid-week games, with Nebraska crushing Creighton 16-7, while Baylor mashed Texas State 25-13, both on Wednesday.

Television: Saturday’s game will be televised by by Fox College Sports.
Live Video: Baylorbears.com is hosted at CSTV, so you can access the game online using CSTV's All Access feature for the Friday and Sunday games.
Note - Friday night's game has been postponed to Saturday due to inclement weather. Instead, they'll play tomorrow at 2:00 pm and 6:30 pm.
Nebraska should take this series 2-1, but like I said earlier, we've never a series in Waco.

• Kansas at Oklahoma State

Kansas hasn't won at series at Stillwater since 1992 and they won't again this year. Oklahoma State is a tough place to play (17-2 at home this season), their offensive is doing well (.324 as a team in overall play) and they've won six straight.

Don't be surprised if Okie State sweeps this one.

• Texas at Kansas State

Texas should take this series, although why do I say that? They've tanked badly this season. Kansas State certainly hasn't had the season the wanted, but they didn't have as far to fall. It's gone without much notice, but Texas currently has the two top pitchers in Big 12 conference play - Chance Ruffin and Cole Green.

It's a toss up. I'll go with Texas pitchers and Kyle Russell heat, 2-1.

• Oklahoma at Texas Tech

Oklahoma is at 4-10, Tech at 5-13. This one's truly for the basement. Tech is tough at home. Oklahoma just can't seem to win a game when they need it.

Tech wins the series 2-1. Sadly, no one cares.

It's time I provided an update on where the teams are with regards to Big 12 statistics. The following are Conference Only statistics for Big 12 baseball as of April 23, 2008.

Big 12 Conference Only Pitching Statistics

To get the most out of the statistics, select your stats, then click on the 'values' button to sort the data.

For those who prefer their data in a more traditional format:

TEAM PITCHING	Games	ERA	Wins	Losses	Saves	Innings Pitched	Hits	Runs	Earned Runs	Walks	Strike Outs
Nebraska	18	4.19	13	4	8	161	161	87	75	61	159
Oklahoma State	18	4.42	11	7	6	159	144	88	78	65	133
Texas A&M	18	4.47	15	3	5	163	179	89	81	57	136
Baylor	18	5.11	8	10	3	155	165	102	88	64	130
Missouri	15	5.62	9	6	3	129.2	138	88	81	52	116
Oklahoma	15	6.13	4	10	1	130.2	151	102	89	64	99
Kansas State	15	6.27	5	10	2	130.2	155	100	91	44	87
Texas	18	6.92	8	10	5	160	189	137	123	76	116
Kansas	15	7	5	10	2	127.1	152	107	99	68	85
Texas Tech	18	7.07	5	13	1	156.2	167	128	123	102	128
Totals	84	5.67	83	83	36	1473	1601	1028	928	653	1189

Big 12 Conference Only Batting Statistics

Traditional non-interactive format:

TEAM BATTING	Games	Avg	At Bats	Runs	Hits	2B	3B	Homes	Walks	Strike Outs	SB	SB-ATT
Texas A&M	18	0.330	654	158	216	32	8	27	84	128	15	25
Oklahoma	15	0.313	530	92	166	29	5	12	42	93	18	21
Missouri	15	0.307	514	112	158	28	1	14	71	96	5	9
Kansas	15	0.282	503	91	142	26	1	18	59	140	2	5
Texas	18	0.277	614	130	170	29	4	22	82	110	12	16
Oklahoma State	18	0.272	614	99	167	19	7	17	49	114	7	10
Nebraska	18	0.264	590	103	156	33	1	11	57	109	21	31
Baylor	18	0.259	594	85	154	30	3	18	64	147	9	15
Kansas State	15	0.252	489	67	123	27	1	8	59	120	11	21
Texas Tech	18	0.248	602	91	149	33	3	12	86	132	22	28
Totals	84	0.281	5704	1028	1601	286	34	159	653	1189	122	181

Comments certainly welcome!

Another great series of college baseball in the Big 12 this weekend.  The biggest series of the week takes place in Austin as we find out whether or not Oklahoma State can sustain the momentum of their series win over Nebraska.

I’m mashing a couple articles together.… in a few weeks, we’ll upgrade to SBN 2.0, which will feature scheduled posts. You can’t imagine how much I’m looking forward to that. In any case, please take a moment to vote on what you’ll cheer for at the Nebraska Spring Game.

Blair Kerkhoff presents his Big 12 baseball power rankings.

• Oklahoma State @ Texas

We’re going to find out whether or not Texas can turn around their season or if Oklahoma State will continue to push above them in the conference rankings. Both teams are 8-7 in conference and both are ranked.

Last weekend, Okie State pitching shut down the Nebraska offense, garnering Andrew Toliver Big 12 Pitcher of the Week Honors for his Friday night performance. The Cowboys have quietly worked themselves into second place (behind Nebraska) in team overall pitching with an ERA of 4.29, while Texas has fallen to ninth place at 7.01.

Oklahoma State is sixth in team batting at .269 compared to Texas at fourth, .284. One key - Kyle Russell appears to have broken his slump as he’s homered in five of the last eight games. The 40 Acre Sports dudes have an excellent write-up on the series over at BON.

Two of the games will be broadcast - Friday’s is on ESPNU, while Sunday’s game is on Fox College Sports.

• Kansas @ Nebraska

JQ at Rock Chalk Talk has a great write-up on this weekend’s series. I especially like his insight on our beloved Huskers:

Amen to that, brother. Nebraska is first in overall team pitching in conference with a 3.24 ERA, while Kansas is ninth at 5.14. Johnny Dorn is currently second among Big 12 pitchers with a 1.65 ERA and fourth with strike outs at 55.

On offense, the Huskers rank seventh in conference in overall team batting at .264 while Kansas is fifth at .281. The Huskers lead the Big 12 in stolen bases, and are tied for first with the Aggies on sacrifice flies. They’re also tied for first with Texas on sacrifice blunts. The fact that we’re winning games the way we are is a testament to Mike Anderson’s coaching philosophy - aggressive small ball, combined with good pitching, and Nebraska stands a great chance at winning the Big 12. Who’d have thought we’d be in this position this season?

Nebraska should feast on the birds this weekend, 2-1. It’d be nice to get a sweep and wouldn’t be unexpected, but I’m being conservative. ☺

• Baylor vs. Texas A&M

The Bears and Aggies face each other in the “Battle of the Brazos”. The first game of the series is played at College Station, then switches to Waco for the next two games.

This is as close to a toss-up as any series, as Baylor is 17-4 at home, including 5-1 in conference play. We’ve talked earlier about how the Aggies have feasted on the lower half of the conference with series wins against Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma and Texas Tech. Those are the bottom four teams in the Big 12, all with losing Big 12 records.

This weekend we start to find out if the Aggies are for real. I’ll say that Baylor’s home is tougher than the Aggies - Bears will take this series 2-1.

• Missouri @ Oklahoma

Let’s not forget that Missouri waltzed into Texas Tech a couple weeks ago and lost a series on the road. It’s doubtful that’ll happen here. Missouri has three of the top 10 pitchers in conference and Oklahoma.… well, Oklahoma has simply underachieved. They’ve dropped their last six of seven.

The bag on the Tigers before last weekend’s shellacking of Texas was that they couldn’t generate offense. 44 runs in two games - was it a fluke, or has Mizzou suddenly decided to get their bats going?

Wednesday, Tiger senior Jacob Priday became Missouri’s career record home run holder. This past week he was the NCBWA’s Pro-Line National Hitter of the Week after setting a Big 12 record by hitting four home runs in the 31-12 mauling of Texas. He finished the three-game series with a .583 batting average (7-for-12) with four home runs, a double and 11 runs batted in. His slugging percentage for the weekend was 1.667.

Combine that guy with Tiger ace Aaron Crow, and Ian Berger, and the Sooners don’t have much of a chance, even playing at home.

Mizzou should take this series 2-1. Don’t be surprised if they sweep.

• Kansas State @ Texas Tech

This series is for last place in conference. Texas Tech is a tough place to play, KSU is coming in off a home series loss to Baylor, while Texas Tech got swept last weekend by Kansas. It doesn’t bode well for the Wildcats.

Who wins? I hate to say it and don’t mean any slight towards these teams, but who cares?

• The NCBWA poll has us at #13, up from #14 the previous week. Figure that.

Texas A&M is #8, Missouri at #10, Oklahoma State at #14, and Texas at #15.

• Baseball America moves us to #9 from #6 the previous week.

Oklahoma State is at #18, Texas A&M at #19, and Texas at #20.

• Collegiate Baseball dropped us to #10 from #6 the previous week.

Texas A&M is at #8, Missouri at #11, Texas at #16, and Oklahoma State at #25.

• Nebraska dropped to #9 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll, last week #6.

Texas A&M is #8, Missouri #11, Texas #15, and Oklahoma State moved up to #18 from #25 the week before.

---

College baseball guru Aaron Fitt is going with Missouri to win the Big 12. Baseball America does a weekly Top 25 chat, and some dude - ‘Brian from Seattle’ - asks Fitt about the Big 12 race, and here’s what Fitt has to say:

Hey, I’m not going to post the whole answer for crying out loud. That would be rude, and those BA guys do a damned good job with college baseball. Fitt makes some good points, only a click away.

Oh, and by the way, Augie isn’t going anywhere, so screw you guys who think this might be his last season. He’s the biggest SOB in college baseball, the head dude of our biggest baseball rival, incredible for the game, and wonderful to hate on. What would we do without him?

Nebraska gets the very highly-ranked and always good Wichita Shockers tonight. The Shockers are 27-5, coming off a series win against Creighton this past weekend.

The game is televised on MyTV (whatever that is), but not in Omaha. (Ch. 110 on Time Warner Cable, Ch. 25 on DirecTV)

Erik Bird (1-1, 5.19 ERA) will be going up against Shocker Tim Kelley (4-1, 4.00 ERA).

It’s a big game tonight and I’ll probably be missing it as I’m going to be taking a group of teenagers to a show at First Avenue in Minneapolis. I just hope it’s not full of screamo bands.

So pay your taxes and get out to the Haymarket. God Bless America and Go Big Red!

In the Big 12 this week:

- Texas A&M takes over the lead in conference after Nebraska loses to Oklahoma State and the Aggies sweep Oklahoma

- Nebraska suffers their first Big 12 series loss

- Texas suffers after giving up a school-record 31 runs on Friday to Missouri

- Kansas sweeps Texas Tech

Big 12 Baseball Weekend!

Statistics rankings cited below are Big 12 Conference Only statistics.

• Texas at Missouri

Texas was picked to win the Big 12 at the start of the season, but has yet to come around and play the level of ball everyone thought they'd be playing. They are not without their great players - Cameron Rupp is hitting .533, Jordan Banks is at .440, and David Hernandez is hitting .421, but Texas is ranked sixth overall in team pitching with a 5.01 overall ERA.

Despite the nation's best pitcher in Aaron Crow, Missouri has been a disappointment to this point. They're behind Nebraska in overall ERA at 3.13, and while their team batting average is sixth in Big 12 conference games, they're lacking in run production. And that's the problem with Missouri - they're not getting guys across the plate.

Lack of run production is why the Tigers lost their series at Texas Tech and at home against Oklahoma State. It's why they'll most likely lose this weekend against Texas.

The 40 Acre Sports Dudes have a good write up on this series over at BON.

•  Nebraska at Oklahoma State

Nebraska has now moved to the top of the Big 12 in team pitching with an overall ERA of 2.81. Other than the opening weekend against Stanford, the Huskers haven't lost a series yet this season, and have won 23 of their last 26 games.

Oklahoma State is at .500 in conference play at 6-6. The Cowboys are normally known for their terrific offense, but they're currently eighth in conference at .245 when you look at Big 12-only statistics (although their web site trumpets the fact that they're second, that relates to overall statistics which includes midweek games).  They're not doing bad at pitching, currently at third with an overall ERA of 4.19, but they're last in fielding percentage.

If that sounds like it adds up to an easy win for Nebraska, think again, as the Cowboys have lost only once at home this season out of 13 games. They are 705-145 (.829) all-time at Reynolds Stadium, since 1981. During that time, they've only lost three in a row once. It's a tough place to win.

Don't be surprised if Nebraska finally loses a series.

Kendall Rogers at Rivals has picked this as his series of the week, and he picks OSU to win. We can all blame him if we lose.

• Oklahoma at Texas A&M

Oklahoma is currently 3-5-1 in the Big 12, putting them seventh in the standings, not where they expected to be. Next, they head to College Station this weekend to face the Aggies who are on a 10-game winning streak, have the best offense in the Big 12, and have swept their last two Big 12 opponents (although they were KSU and KU.... still, a sweep is a sweep).

Texas A&M is first in the Big 12 in overall team batting at .322, the Sooners are second at .322. For pitching, the Aggies are fourth and hte Sooners fifth. Aha! Fielding percentage shows us that the Aggies are fifth, and the Sooners are ninth! Upon closer look, though, the differences are miniscule, and perhaps that's enough to describe Oklahoma's 3-5-1 record.

Then consider that the Aggies have built their win total off KU, KSU, Texas Tech and Oklahoma state. The Sooners have lost a close series to Texas, split games with and then tied Nebraska, and then won a series against Baylor. When you consider those series, these teams look fairly even.

Unfortunately for Oklahoma, the series is on the road. After this weekend, they might find themselves staring eye-level with Kansas State.  Sunday's finale will be televised nationally on Fox Sports at 1:00 pm.

•  Baylor at Kansas State

Quick! What do these teams have in common?

They've both beaten Oklahoma State in a series. They've both lost to UT-San Antonio. What's it all mean? I haven't a clue, but I'm not alone as I'm sure the coaches of both these teams are asking the same questions.

Baylor on the road against the 2-7 Wildcats, the key phrase being "Baylor on the road".....  Baylor is 19-1 in Waco against KSU, while only being 8-7 against the Wildcats in Manhattan.

•  Texas Tech at Kansas

Kansas has only one conference win at this point. They are dead last in conference ERA at 9.3. If Kansas is going to move up to make sure they make the conference tournament, they need to win this series at home, otherwise, well, the season may be over.

I'd say this adequately describes Baylor's season so far.

To get the most out of the statistics, select your stats, then click on the 'values' button to sort the data.

Big 12 Batting Stats - Conference Only As Of April 9, 2008

Big 12 Pitching Stats - Conference Only As Of April 9, 2008