Big 12 Baseball Tournament Preview – The Gold and Blue Nation Podcast

The Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship begins Wednesday at its new home: Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.  West Virginia enters the tournament as the No. 6-seed and is set to face No. 3 Oklahoma in the opening round. Get caught up on the bracket and biggest storylines heading into this double-elimination tournament with The Gold and Blue Nation Podcast, presented by Pritt & Spano.  Hosts Nick Farrell and Anjelica Trinone examine possible roads to a championship for the Mountaineers, who have won at least two games in each of the last five completed tournaments.  WVU's opener against the Sooners is scheduled for Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. ET on Big 12 Now on ESPN+. 

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The table is set for the Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship tournament.

West Virginia (33-20, 14-10 Big 12) will be the sixth seed in the tournament after finishing the year in a tie with Texas (39-17, 14-10 Big 12) in terms of the conference standings.

The Mountaineers are one of six teams that won at least 14 games in a loaded Big 12 this year.

Based on the results on the final day of the regular season, West Virginia will take on Oklahoma (33-20, 15-9) in the first round of the tournament, which gets underway on Wednesday, May 25.

First pitch of that first-round matchup is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. ET (7:30 p.m. CT) from Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.

Here is a look at the Big 12 Tournament seeds:

1. Texas Christian (16-8 Big 12, 35-18 OVR)
2. Texas Tech (15-9 Big 12, 36-18 OVR)
3. Oklahoma (15-9 Big 12, 33-20 OVR)
4. Oklahoma State (15-9 Big 12, 36-18 OVR)
5. Texas (14-10 Big 12, 39-17 OVR)
6. West Virginia (14-10 Big 12, 33-20 OVR)
7. Kansas State (8-16 Big 12, 27-27 OVR)
8. Baylor (7-16 Big 12, 26-26 OVR)

Based on those final standings, top-seeded TCU will face Baylor in the first round. Texas Tech will take on Kansas State, which WVU just swept this weekend. And Oklahoma State will face Texas in the very first game of the tournament.

This is the second consecutive season that TCU has finished as the top team in the league.

If West Virginia defeats Oklahoma in the first round, the Mountaineers would advance to face the Texas Tech/Kansas State winning in the second round Thursday evening.

However, if the Mountaineers fall in their opening game of the tournament, they would then face the loser of that same matchup on Thursday afternoon.

The Big 12 Tournament is double-elimination.

West Virginia was picked to finish eighth in the Big 12 in the preseason poll. The Mountaineers exceeded those expectations and set a program record for most conference wins in a season (14) since joining the Big 12.

GBN’s regular season awards after WVU sweeps K-State – The Gold and Blue Nation Podcast

It's chaos in the Big 12 as the regular season comes to a close. WVU did its job at home by sweeping the Kansas State Wildcats, but the league standings were still up in the air as Ryan Decker and Sam Coniglio recorded the latest edition of the Gold and Blue Nation Podcast. The duo look back on WVU's sweep of the Wildcats as well as the exciting 2022 regular season as a whole. They give out their season awards and take a quick look ahead to WVU's upcoming trip to Arlington, Texas for the Big 12 Tournament. Subscribe on your preferred podcast platform to have future episodes delivered to you. Gold and Blue Nation is the local leader for Mountaineer sports news, producing comprehensive coverage on TV and online. Download the free Gold and Blue Nation app via your preferred app store so you’re never more than a touch away from our WVU sports reporting, highlights and archived shows.

The Mountaineers also swept two Big 12 weekend series for the first time since joining the conference.

Randy Mazey’s group is also the only team in the league that did not suffer a three-game losing streak this season.