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Big 12 Baseball Tournament 2016: WVU vs. TCU Score, Reaction
May 29, 2016
The West Virginia Mountaineers overcame an eight-run deficit, but it was to no avail, as the TCU Horned Frogs won the 2016 Big 12 baseball tournament championship game, 11-10, in 10 innings Sunday in Oklahoma City.
Horned Frogs designated hitter Luken Baker provided the difference in the game, slugging a solo home run over the left field fence to put TCU in the lead in the top of the 10th.
The Big 12 shared a replay of the homer:
Baker finished the tournament 15-for-22 with four home runs and 11 RBI, per Big12Sports.com. The conference announced the freshman was the tourney's most outstanding player.
Right-hander Durbin Feltman pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the 10th to secure the victory. The freshman reliever was excellent over the final three innings. He faced 11 batters, allowing zero hits and two walks while striking out four.
TCU Baseball provided a replay of the game's final out and the team's celebration:
247Sports' EerSports.com shared Mountaineers fans' reactions to Sunday's roller-coaster title game:
The loss was a tough result for West Virginia, which was two outs away from an improbable come-from-behind win. TCU shortstop Ryan Merrill hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth to score left fielder Josh Watson and tie the game at 10-10.
Before that, the Horned Frogs had seen an 8-0 lead evaporate in the span of three innings. West Virginia scored three runs apiece in the third and fourth innings to make it a two-run game, and the Mountaineers tacked on four more in the fifth to go ahead 10-9.
Even more impressively, their offensive onslaught in the fifth largely came with two outs, which was a trend for the team over the course of the game. The Mountaineers went 6-for-15 with two outs and 7-for-12 with runners in scoring position.
Shortstop Jimmy Galusky and designated hitter Kyle Davis both hit two-run doubles in the bottom half of the fifth to complete West Virginia's comeback. Not only did Davis put his team in the lead, but he also set a Big 12 tournament record for the most RBI in the process, per the conference's Twitter account:
Right-hander Blake Smith was unable to pick up the save. He allowed back-to-back singles to Watson and Horned Frogs center fielder Dane Steinhagen to open the ninth, and then Merrill sent the game into extra innings. Smith was also responsible for Baker's game-winning home run, which came with one out in the 10th.
TCU's Big 12 championship game triumph will have significant ramifications with regard to the NCAA tournament. As D1Baseball.com's Kendall Rogers noted, West Virginia could've made life difficult for teams on the fringe of the tournament picture:
The Mountaineers had an automatic tournament berth within reach going into the ninth. Instead, they'll have to hope their resume is good enough to get them an at-large bid. In his most recent projection on May 24, though, Baseball America's Jim Shonerd didn't have WVU among his 64 tournament teams.
Meanwhile, TCU cemented what was already a near-certainty. The Horned Frogs were going to make the NCAA tournament no matter the result of Sunday's game. The only question now is whether they'll play host in the regional round.
Postgame Reaction
West Virginia coach Randy Mazey gathered his team on the field immediately after the game and wasn't dwelling on a difficult defeat, per WVU Baseball:
Mazey discussed the comeback after the game, per the Big 12:
This is a team that hasn't given up. As a coach you say that all the time. You encourage them to never give up. To have a team that actually never gives up, that's a fun team to coach. I'd hate to stop coaching these guys. I'd hate for the season to end just on the sole reason I love being around them. It's a great character group, a great chemistry group. They're a bunch of great baseball players. They're fun to be around. I would hate for it to stop now.
TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle discussed where he believes both teams should be headed for the NCAA tournament, per Baseball America's Teddy Cahill:
"We been playing better and better baseball since the end of the Baylor series," said Baker, per the Big 12. "The coaches have told us, 'Our best baseball is still just ahead of us.' I feel like we are starting to play better baseball."