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RED RIVER SHOWDOWN - Championship Edition
Texas Longhorns (42-18) v. Oklahoma Sooners (36-20)
When: 5pm CST
Where: Globe Life Field (Arlington, TX)
TV: ESPNU
Radio: 104.9 FM The Horn/1260 AM
Big 12 Championship Titles (Last): 5 (2015)
ALWAYS WIN ON SUNDAY!
In the 2021 football season, many fans had high expectations of seeing Texas v. OU at AT&T Stadium in Arlington to decide a Big 12 Title. Texas fans are finally getting a showdown between Texas and OU for a Big 12 Title, just 5 months later than anticipated, across the street at Globe Life in baseball. The Horns and Sooners will meet for the fourth time this season at Globe Life Field, having played the conference series back on the first weekend of April in Arlington because of a contractual agreement between OU and the Texas Rangers and that pesky thing called money. Note, Texas won the conference series 2-1 over OU in Arlington, including a 6 return comeback, the largest of the season over the Sooners.
Both teams enter the game on Sunday finishing out the season extremely well. Texas is 8-2 in it's last 10 games with the losses coming to Oklahoma State on Saturday (9am game) and the final game of the West Virginia series. The Sooners are 7-3 in their last 10 games with the losses coming to West Virginia, Wichita State and Texas Tech. Oklahoma had an easier route to the Big 12 Title game going up against West Virginia, K-State and Texas Tech while Texas had to beat Oklahoma State twice and TCU.
From a bragging perspective, this is a huge game because any time there is a matchup between Texas and Oklahoma, there will always be a good amount of emotions, Horns down, Texas Fight and tom foolery all around. Neither side wants to lose to the other, ever. When there is a Big 12 Title involved as well as Regional and potentially National Seed implications at-stake, it makes the game that much larger.
NCAA POST SEASON PROJECTIONS:
Let's take a look at what this means for both teams and possible outcomes.
Texas - #11 RPI (16-12 Q1 Wins)
- The Horns are hosting a Regional. They absolutely locked that up with yesterdays win over Oklahoma State. If Texas wins the Big 12 Title game, there is the potential for them to sneak into the #8 overall seed which would see Texas be the host for a Regional and Super Regional, if Texas makes it out of the Regional. If Texas loses, they will still be a Regional Host but would have to travel if they make the Supers
- D1 Baseball currently has Texas projected as the #9 seed, paired up with #8 seed Notre Dame.
- Oklahoma at this point is not projected as a Regional Host due to resume and RPI. The second Big 12 Regional Host would go to Oklahoma State who in my mind is much more befitting their season that TCU who is held back due to their #36 RPI. If Oklahoma wins the Big 12 Title game over Texas, they could potentially replace Oklahoma State as a Regional Host, but even then, it would be a really tough call for the committee as Oklahoma State would still have the better resume (minus Big 12 Tourney Title) and better RPI.
Other Notes (Big 12):
- The Big 12 looks to be a 5 bid league this year as West Virginia going 0-2 squashes their hopes. There is still a chance as they are in the projected first 5 out, but with an RPI hovering near 50, I do not see them getting a bid. West Virginia also has a resume problem when you compare it to Ole Miss, Alabama and even Grand Canyon.
- TCU may very well buck the trend of the Big 12 regular-season champion hosting every year since 1999 when the tournament moved to 64 teams. Going 1-2 in the Big 12 Tourney with losses to Texas and Oklahoma State, combined with an RPI of 36 will likely see them as a 2 seed. A very very dangerous 2 seed.
D1 Baseball Projections (as of early morning May 29th): D1 Baseball Projections
- Texas #9 overall seed (Texas State, Louisiana Tech and Oral Roberts)
- Oklahoma State #14 overall seed (Arkansas, Dallas Baptist and SEMO)
- Oklahoma - 2 seed in College Station Regional
- Texas Tech - 2 seed in Coral Gables Regional
- TCU - 2 seed in Gainesville Regional
Texas v. OU Stats:
RPI (11 v 24)
BA (.317 v .297)
OPS (.971 v .875)
HRs (113 v 53)
SLG% (.559 v .458)
SB (46/61 v 134-168)
ERA (4.08 v 5.65)
WHIP (1.27 v 1.52)
Fielding (.986 v .971)
Hitting Matchups:
- Texas did good enough to win against two tough opponents in Oklahoma State and TCU. In the 9am game against Okie State, Texas looked all out of sorts with no consistency. Texas bounced back in a big way to put barrels on balls and take advantage of any miscues by Okie State in the Saturday afternoon recap though, including Ivan getting a couple of solid ABs. Faltine was the star for Texas on Saturday afternoon, but the Horns really need for Ivan to get it going. Heck, today's game is as good as any to break the HR record, but Ivan needs to go up and take quality ABs and not hack so early. Yes, Pierce pulled Ivan on Saturday morning due to being under the weather along with Silas, but they both had been struggling at the plate and for whatever reason Ivan just does not seem to see the ball well at Globe Life. A bright spot on the other hand is DC who has hit the ball extremely well at Globe Life and looked really good in the box against Okie State after coming in to spell EK.
- Offensively for OU, it is all about the two guys at the top, Tanner Treadaway and Peyton Graham. Both act as the engines that drive OU in HRs, stolen bases and hitting overall. Another guy to look out for is Nicklaus who has hit well during the Big 12 Tourney
Pitching Matchups:
- Texas
- Bullpen day part deux. My best guess is that Justin Eckhardt gets the nod to start and that Pierce does what he did against Oklahoma State on Saturday afternoon which is going 2 innings at a time unless someone is absolutely feeling it. Coach Pierce joked after the press conference with Danny Davis (AAS) and I that we just love to ask that question of him in post-game. DAMN STRAIGHT!
- Oklahoma
- The good news is that Texas will not face the OU ace Jake Bennett after throwing 108 pitches on Thursday, nor will they face the #2 guy David Sandlin who threw 102 pitches yesterday against K-State. The bad news is that OU did not have to play K-State twice on Saturday and so they have a very rested staff. Interestingly enough, OU also started a bullpen guy on Wednesday against West Virginia
- My best guess as to who will start is either LHP Chazz Martinez (3-3, 4.99) who Texas beat in the Sunday game during the regular season series or they could possibly do what Texas is doing and starting with bullpen guys and giving each a few innings as they did against West Virginia. If they do that, the best guess is either Carson Atwood (2-3, 5.13) or Carter Campbell (3-0, 4.23). The completely opposite of all of that is throwing out two way player Cade Horton (2-2, 7.94) but I don't think Skip will do that based on how Horton has looked recently.
- The good news is that Texas will not face the OU ace Jake Bennett after throwing 108 pitches on Thursday, nor will they face the #2 guy David Sandlin who threw 102 pitches yesterday against K-State. The bad news is that OU did not have to play K-State twice on Saturday and so they have a very rested staff. Interestingly enough, OU also started a bullpen guy on Wednesday against West Virginia
This needs to be THE MOOD today!
