2016 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship
CHICKASAW BRICKTOWN BALLPARK: May 29, 2016
No. 3 TCU vs. No. 4 West Virginia – 1 p.m. CT – FSN
- The league’s two newest members, TCU and West Virginia (2013), will meet in Sunday’s 2016 Big 12 Baseball Championship. The Mountaineers are making their first Big 12 Championship appearance and first overall conference championship game since earning the Big East crown in 1996. The Horned Frogs are making their second Big 12 title game appearance, after winning the 2014 trophy in Oklahoma City.
- The two programs have previously met twice in tournament history, with No. 3 West Virginia defeating No. 7 TCU 10-3 during pool play in 2013 and No. 2 TCU defeating No. 6 WVU in the second round in 2014.
- West Virginia head coach Randy Mazey served as an assistant at TCU from 2007-2012 on Jim Schlossnagle’s staff. Mazey has been at the helm in Morgantown since the Mountaineers and Frogs both joined the Big 12.
- No. 3 seeds are 2-1 all-time in the championship finale with the last appearance occurring in 2009 (Missouri). The No. 3 seed has won the title on two instances, in 2003 (Texas) and 1998 (Texas Tech).
- No. 4 seeds are 4-2 all-time in the championship finale with the last appearance coming in 2013, when Oklahoma won the title. A No. 4 seed has also won the crown in 2010 (Texas A&M), 2004 (Oklahoma State) and 1997 (Oklahoma).
-Sunday’s Big 12 Championship will mark the first time a No. 3 seed and a No. 4 seed have met in the title game.
- TCU is making its second championship game appearance after the Frogs defeated No. 1 Oklahoma State in the 2014 championship final, 7-1. TCU looks to join four other programs (Texas – 5, Nebraska – 4, Texas A&M – 3 and Oklahoma – 2) as the only teams in conference history with multiple postseason titles, and just the third current Big 12 member to do so.
-TCU and WVU become the first two teams to go 0-2 the year prior to making the championship final. Both squads were 0-2 in last year’s event. All-time, eight teams have gone 0-2 and proceeded to make the championship final the following year. Three of those eight teams went on to win the championship (Texas – 2002, Oklahoma State – 2004 and Kansas -2006). Previously, West Virginia had never won more than two games in a single tournament, and had never played more than three games.
- With TCU’s elimination of defending Big 12 Tournament Champion Texas, Sunday’s final will not feature a team from last year’s final. This is the eighth year in which the championship final has not featured a team that made the final the year before. The last team to participate in back-to-back title games was Oklahoma State in 2014/2015, and the last team to win back-to-back championships was Texas A&M in 2010/2011.
-Should West Virginia win the championship, the postseason winner will have been a different team for each of the past six seasons (2011 – Texas A&M, 2012 – Missouri, 2013 – Oklahoma, 2014 – TCU, 2015 – Texas).
-Should WVU win the championship, the No. 5 seed will have claimed the most Big 12 titles (five). Entering the event, the No. 1, No. 4 and No. 5 seeds are all tied for the most titles in league history with four each.
- TCU team leader Luken Baker has been hitting at hot pace through four games at the Big 12 Championship, leading the tournament field in hits (12), runs scored (8), RBI (9) and home runs (3). In all four categories, Baker is within reach of the all-time tournament records: hits – 14 set in 2002, runs scored – 9 set in 2009, RBI – 13 set in 2001 and home runs – 5 set in 2001.
- WVU team leader Kyle Davis isn’t far behind Baker on the tournament leaderboard, as the sophomore utility player is first in RBI (11), second in total bases (17), third in slugging percentage (1.133), tied for fourth in hits (7), tied for second in home runs (2) and tied for fifth in doubles (2).