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AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Texas Longhorns are Big 12 baseball champions after a 12-2 win over West Virginia and a wild Kansas State comeback against TCU on Saturday.
The Longhorns, trailing TCU by a game in the standings, entered the regular season finale Saturday, needing to handle its business against the Mountaineers and get a little help from the Wildcats against TCU.
Both events happened — in dramatically different fashion.
For the second straight night, Texas patiently picked apart West Virginia’s pitchers, building a 10-1 lead after five innings.
Fittingly on Senior Day, Longhorns senior Zach Zubia ended the game with a sacrifice fly for the decisive run in the eighth inning to enact the conference’s run rule.
As Texas comfortably held a lead over the Mountaineers, TCU was giving away a massive lead in Manhattan. TCU led K State 8-4 in the bottom of the ninth until the Wildcats strung together five straight hits to tie the game at 8.
With two on, Kansas State’s Chris Ceballos crushed a home run over the left-center fence for a walk-off win to earn the series win and help Texas claim a share of the championship.
Texas and TCU will be listed as co-Big 12 champions with matching 17-7 conference records. The Longhorns will be the No. 1 seed in next week’s Big 12 Tournament after winning the series against TCU two weeks ago.
The Longhorns will play the winner of Kansas and West Virginia in the first round of the Big 12 tournament on Wednesday, May 26 at Oklahoma City’s Bricktown Ballpark.
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