No. 5 seed Oklahoma (27-26, 11-13) and No. 4 seed Oklahoma State (32-16-1, 12-12) are meeting once again for a sixth time on Wednesday night in the opening round of the 2021 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship.
The Sooners have quietly been playing very steady baseball in the past month, suddenly finding themselves back on the NCAA Tournament bubble – something that seemed out of the question only even a few weeks ago. With a couple of wins this week in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma could very well find themselves gaining an at-large berth on Selection Monday.
The Cowboys, meanwhile, look to be comfortably in the tournament but are still certainly looking to improve their positioning with a good week here. They closed out the regular season taking eight of their last ten games – including each of the last two collisions with the Sooners.
For those unfamiliar with the Big 12 tournament format, this is NOT an elimination game with both teams having games on Thursday regardless of what happens in this matchup. But, like with any double elimination tournament, getting a win in the first game is essentially a must-have to want to go on a deep run.
The winner of this game will face the winner of No. 1 seed Texas vs No. 8 seed West Virginia on Thursday night at approximately 7:30 p.m. CT. The loser of this game will face the loser of the Longhorns and the Mountaineers at approximately 12:30 p.m. CT.
For this sixth Bedlam baseball clash in the first round of the Big 12 tournament, here is everything you need to know:
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. CT (Approximate)
WHERE: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark)
HOW TO WATCH: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ (Clay Matvick & Mike Rooney)
HOW TO LISTEN: Sooner Sports Radio Network – SportsTalk 99.3 FM/1400 AM KREF; Tune In Radio App; Sportstalk1400.com (Toby Rowland & George Frazier)