Fri, Jul 18 2008
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Published May 20, 2008 11:30 pm - Big 12 teams gear up for crucial tournament OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Texas A&M coach Rob Childress joked Tuesday that the Aggies’ arrival for the Big 12 Conference baseball tournament had been slowed because “we limped all the way here,” a nod to his team’s six-game losing streak.
Despite that skid, the Aggies still won the league’s regular-season title, but that won’t necessarily be enough to land Texas A&M one of the coveted eight national No. 1 seeds — not with two of the Aggies’ Big 12 brethren also in the mix. Four national polls have Texas A&M, Oklahoma State and Nebraska — which finished 1-2-3 in the Big 12 — ranked in the top 10. Childress and Oklahoma State coach Frank Anderson said two Big 12 teams might receive two national No. 1 seeds and that how the three teams fare in the league tournament, which starts Wednesday, could be a vital factor in determining which two. Of the three top teams, Oklahoma State (40-15) will enter the tournament on the biggest roll. After losing six of their first 10 league games, the Cowboys went 14-2 thereafter and would have shared the title with Texas A&M except for a loss to Oklahoma on Sunday, the final day of the regular season. Oklahoma State won two of three games against Texas A&M and Nebraska and also claimed series wins against Missouri, Texas and Oklahoma. Anderson said that while he tries to shield his players from media reports, they are aware of the ramifications of what happens during the Big 12 tournament. “It’s out there,” he said. “I’m more worried about playing good, clean baseball. If you do that, most of the time, if you’re talented enough, things will take care of themselves. “You really can’t control too much. You just want to go out and play well. If you try to identify this or that, or try to put yourself in a position to do different things, I think you kind of get out of your element.” Oklahoma State hasn’t won a Big 12 tournament game since 2005 and has lost eight straight games in the event, but the Cowboys came within a game last season of reaching the College World Series. Both Texas A&M (42-14) and Nebraska (39-12-1) ended the season on the wrong end of sweeps — the Aggies falling at home to Texas, with Nebraska dropping three straight at Missouri. Childress, named Tuesday as the league’s coach of the year, said the season has been cyclical for Texas A&M, which won 16 straight league games in one stretch before dropping its last five. He said if the losing streak had to happen, “I want it to happen in the regular season and not in the postseason. Hopefully, we’ve had that bad stretch and we’ll put it behind us.” Texas A&M also claimed another honor as junior shortstop Jose Duran was named as the Big 12’s player of the year. The junior from Fort Worth, Texas, who transferred to Texas A&M from North Central Texas College, hit a league-best .397 and drove in 61 runs, third in the league. Nebraska also harbors hopes for a national No. 1 seed, even as coach Mike Anderson noted his team’s modest preseason aspirations. “A lot of people thought we were going to be pretty darn bad,” he said. 
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