MU makes Big News at Big 12

■ MU has Friday off, waiting to see who they will play at 9:00 AM on Saturday. Complete Schedule HERE

■ Missouri blows 5-0 lead but beats OSU 6-5 in ninth (Austin American Statesman)

Eric Garcia hit an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning and Missouri rallied after blowing a 5-0 lead to beat Oklahoma State 6-5 on Thursday to earn a berth in the Big 12 baseball tournament semifinals.

■ From Twitter:

@kgib44: Big walk off win for Mizzou today! Congrats fellas keep it rollin!

@RyanClubb29: very selfish of @philanthropy27 again. haha. ties up the game just so we can win in the bottom half. #easywaytogetaW good job MU baseball!

■ Q&A with Missouri's Jonah Schmidt: 'I'm not a spider guy' (NewsOK.com)

Growing up, I was always number 15. When I came to Missouri, it was retired because Phil Bradley played here and wore it. They asked which number I wanted, and I was a big St. Louis guy back in the day and Mark McGwire fan, so I chose 25.

■ Missouri baseball team beats Oklahoma State (Columbia Tribune)

Oklahoma State Coach Frank Anderson was left searching.

Not about Missouri's 6-5 come-from-behind victory or blown chances or even a close play at first base that went the Tigers' way and killed a Cowboys rally.

No. Anderson was having a problem of pronunciation.

“I don't know how to pronounce the guy's name,” Anderson said, “but he basically stuck it to us for seven innings.”

■ Missouri baserball team wins again at Big 12 Tournament (Columbia Missourian)

"It felt great," Garcia said. "We’ve had some great ninth-inning wins and extra-inning wins, and today is probably one of the biggest ones we’ve had all year just because we need to win this tournament. I feel like we’re getting our confidence right now.”

It was Missouri's fifth walk-off win of the season and Garcia’s second of the year.

■ Big XII Baseball Championship: Missouri wins angain and Kansas State falls to Texas A&M (SBNation.com)

"I’m really proud of these guys, not just this weekend, but the last five or six weeks," said Missouri coach Tim Jamieson.

■ Missouri sends OSU to Big 12 baseball loser's bracket (NewsOK.com)

Oklahoma State has dealt in the wonder of walk-off victories all season, reveling in ninth-inning celebrations seven times among its 35 wins.

Thursday the Cowboys experienced the wicked side of the walk-off at the Big 12 Tournament.

■ Walking ot the Big Dance (abc17news.com)

The Tigers carried a 5-0 lead into the eighth inning, but OSU hit a three run homerun in the eighth, adding two the ninth to tie the game at 5-5. The win for the Tigers improves them to 26-30 this season and it is their fifth walk-off win against Big 12 competition this season, the most by any team in the league. It is also the first walk-off win at the Big 12 Tournament since the championship game last season.

■ Missouri all in (NewsOK.com)

At Tuesday's media luncheon, Missouri coach Tim Jamieson spoke about the desperation his team must play with at the tournament. In their first two games at Bricktown, it showed.

Now, after infielder Eric Smith's walk-off single took down OSU, the Tigers are in prime position to turn their once bleak regional hopes into reality.

■ Mizzou wins again at Big 12 baseball (St. Louis Post Dispatch)

The Tigers, who knocked off No. 1 seed Texas on Wednesday, will await the winner of Friday's Texas-Oklahoma State game at 9 a.m. on Saturday. If the Tigers (26-30) win, they advance to the Big 12 title game. If they lose in the morning, they have another chance to advance with a second game at 4 p.m.

■ First round full of surprises (The Norman Transcript)

Anything can happen in the Big 12 tournament. It did Wednesday with the
eighth-seeded Tigers knocking off the top-seeded Longhorns 6-4.

Then again, the one Big 12 team that has a history of stunning the Longhorns in the
conference tournament is Mizzou. Wednesday’s victory lifted the Tigers to 4-1
against Texas all-time in the postseason tournament.

■ My message to the selection committee and the day's write-up (College BAseball Today)

MY MESSAGE TO THE NCAA SELECTION COMMITTEE.

This time, I’m doing this well in advance of the announcement show so they can hopefully take these points into account. 10 things we all hope the selection committee considers before they evaluate their field of 64.

1- USE COMMON SENSE MORE THAN THE RPI.

As was pointed out in Aaron Fitt’s tweet from yesterday, the same Georgia team that got drummed 10-0 and are sub-500 has a better RPI than Pac 10 leader Oregon State.

■ In unrelated news: The Pelicans activated catcher Vinny Difazio from the disabled list on Wednesday, although he did not return to the starting lineup. Catcher Brett Nicholas, who was called up to replace him, was sent back to extended spring training. (The Myrtle Beach Sun News)