Big 12 Notebook: April 4, 2025

Kansas State sits alone atop the Big 12 with an 8-1 record, with Arizona State a game behind at 7-2. Kansas and Arizona are in a tie for third place with 6-3 records.

Former Pac-12 Conference and cross-state rivals, and first-year Big 12 members, Arizona and Arizona State face each other this weekend in Tempe. Game three of the weekend series will be the 500th all-time meeting between the two programs. ESPN2 will be on hand to air the Sunday game.

Arizona State and Arizona are the 9th and 10th winningest programs in the history of college baseball, respectively. The Sun Devils have 3,053 victories over 114 seasons, the Wildcats have 3,044 wins over 120 seasons.

Weekly Awards

Big 12 Players of the Week

Player: Michael Brooks, Kansas and Kerrington Cross, Cincinnati

Pitcher: Dominic Voegele, Kansas

Newcomer: Matt King, Arizona State

Weekend Matchups

Kansas (24-6, 6-3) at UCF (18-10, 3-6)

Utah (13-13, 2-7) at West Virginia (24-4, 4-3)

Cincinnati (17-11, 4-5) at Texas Tech (8-17, 4-5)

Arizona (20-8, 6-3) at Arizona State (20-9, 7-2)

BYU (15-11, 4-5) at TCU (22-8, 5-4)

Kansas State (20-8, 8-1) at Oklahoma State (12-14, 1-6)

Houston (16-12, 3-6) at Baylor (20-8, 4-5)

Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watch List

Thursday, USA Baseball named its midseason watch list for the Golden Spikes Award. Three of the 45 players chosen are from the Big 12:

Maximus Martin, Kansas State

Nolan Schubart, Oklahoma State

Brendan Summerhill, Arizona

League Notes

Arizona

Brendan Summerhill, currently sidelined due to injury, was named to the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watch List on Thursday. Arizona currently leads all of Division I baseball with 18 triples, five of which have been hit by the middle infield duo of Mason White (2) and Garen Caulfield (3).

Arizona State

Kyle Walker enters the weekend with a 17-game hitting streak on the line, which is the longest for an Arizona State hitter this season. Walker has multiple hits in 10 of the last 13 games and is the team leader in average at .379, up from the .083 he was hitting as recently as February 28. Nu'u Contrades has reached base safely in all 29 games this season for the Sun Devils.

Baylor

Hunter Simmons (.496) and Pearson Riebock (.479) lead the Bears in on-base percentage batting in the middle of the order. The Baylor duo also leads the team in slugging percentage with Simmons at .583 and Riebock at .564. Riebock leads Baylor in base hits with 41. The Bears have started a left-handed pitcher in each of its last 17 games, dating back to March 2.

BYU

Bryker Hurdsman leads BYU with a .429 batting average, which ranks third in the Big 12. Cooper Vest leads the Cougars with nine home runs and 31 RBI. Brayden Marx, Nolan Ficklin, and Stone Cushing co-lead the team with 12 appearances out of the BYU bullpen.

Cincinnati

Cincinnati leadoff hitter Kerrington Cross was named the Big 12 Co-Player of the Week for his performance last weekend. Cross reached base at least four times in all four games, recording a .773 on-base percentage in helping the Bearcats in a weekend sweep of UCF. Landyn Vidourek, who delivered a walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th inning on Saturday against UCF, leads the Bearcats offense with 26 RBI.

Houston

Houston centerfielder Tre Broussard is a perfect 20-for-20 on stolen base attempts this season. Xavier Perez continues to power the Houston offense, he leads the Cougars with a .386 batting average, 34 base hits, 7 home runs, 31 RBI, and a .773 slugging percentage. Antoine Jean is the bright spot out of the Houston bullpen in long-relief. Jean has a 3.45 ERA in 31 1/3 innings pitched and has struck out 51 batters.

Kansas

Brady Ballinger has walked 38 times, which is tied for the most walks in the nation. Ballinger also leads the Big 12 with a .569 on-base percentage and 40 runs scored. Ballinger currently has a 10-game hitting streak and has a team-high .400 batting average. Jackson Hauge has hit 13 home runs this season which leads the Big 12 and is tied for fifth in the nation.

Kansas State

Maximus Martin has an .884 slugging percentage which leads the Big 12 and ranks sixth in the country, while he is the first Kansas State hitter since 2023 to reach 12 home runs in a season, which ranks 2nd in the Big 12. Martin was named to the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watch List on Thursday. Shintaro Inoue is the only player on the Wildcats 2025 roster to have appeared in all 28 games.

Oklahoma State

Colin Brueggemann leads the Cowboys with a .343 batting average, 30 RBI and is tied with Brayden Smith for the team lead in home runs with seven. Nolan Schubart was named to the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watch List on Thursday. Schubart is hitting .302 with six home runs, 26 RBI, and a .552 slugging percentage.

TCU

TCU is now 501-174 all-time at Lupton Stadium after a midweek victory on Tuesday. The TCU defense has turned 11 double plays in its last eight games to bring its season-total to 29, a mark that leads the Big 12. With 13 triples this season, TCU ranks sixth nationally. Sawyer Strosnider leads the way with four for the Horned Frogs. Chase Brunson has reached safely in all 29 games he has played in this season.

Texas Tech

The Red Raiders offense is led by Logan Hughes with his nine home runs, 31 RBI, and .677 slugging percentage, all of which lead the team. Robin Villeneuve has 33 hits and a .659 slugging percentage and he leads the team with a .375 batting average. Villeneuve has a .491 on-base percentage which leads the team by nearly 90 points. Damian Bravo leads Texas Tech in the hits category with 36.

UCF

UCF currently holds the eighth-best team batting average in the nation at .327. The Knights currently have three hitters batting over .370 in Edian Espinal (.444), DeAmez Ross (.378), and Andrew Williamson (.371) Espinal is batting .444 which leads the Big 12 and ranks 11th in the country. The UCF bullpen has pitched a combined 126 2/3 innings, in which they have an ERA of 3.13, and have allowed only 98 hits and 44 earned runs while striking out 149 opposing batters.

Utah

The series this weekend will mark the first time that Utah has played in the Eastern Time Zone since 2019. Last weekend against Arizona State. Austen Roellig went 7-for-12 and all of Core Jackson's four hits went for extra bases. Jackson is batting .406 with 43 base hits, six home runs, and 24 RBI, all of which lead the Utes offense. The Utah pitching rotation is led by Cotler McAnelly with a 2.72 ERA and two wins.

West Virginia

Jace Rinehart leads West Virginia with a .643 slugging percentage, and Sam White is not far behind at .625. White is leading the Mountaineers with a .400 batting average. Skylar King with 34 base hits and Rinehart with 29 RBI both lead a well-balanced West Virginia offense.

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