No. 22 Kansas to Open Big 12 Championship Against West Virginia
LAWRENCE, Kan. – For the second-straight year, the No. 3-seeded Kansas baseball team will face off against West Virginia, the sixth seed, to kick off the 2014 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, Wednesday, May 21, at 9 a.m., the conference announced Saturday afternoon.
The Jayhawks (33-21, 15-9 Big 12) and Mountaineers (27-23, 9-13 Big 12) met on opening day of the championship in 2013, with KU coming out on top, 7-2.
Joining Kansas and West Virginia in Division Two of the bracket are No. 2-seeded TCU (37-15, 16-7 Big 12) and No. 7-seeded Baylor (24-28, 8-14 Big 12).
Oklahoma State (41-13, 18-5 Big 12) won the regular-season conference crown and enters the tournament as the No. 1 seed. The Cowboys will face off against No. 8 seed Oklahoma (27-27, 7-16 Big 12), while Texas Tech (39-16, 13-10 Big 12) and Texas (35-15, 12-10) will enter as the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds, but those are yet to be determined with one day of conference play remaining.
The opening day of the championship will feature three matchups between opponents that ended their conference slate against one another (Kansas vs. WVU, Oklahoma State vs. Oklahoma and TCU vs. Baylor).
In the 18-year history of the conference, Kansas has never been seeded higher than fifth, but has advanced to the championship game twice, winning the title in 2006.
The Jayhawks close out the regular-season slate with a two-game set at Michigan, May 17-18, before flying directly to Oklahoma City for the Big 12 Championship.
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