K-State Slate: 5.9.15 - Baseball wins; football predictions

Kansas State pitcher Nate Griep, in only his second complete game of the season, tossed his first career shutout to lead his team to a 5-0 victory over Oklahoma last night. This was the BatCats eighth straight series-opening win over the Sooners. Oklahoma only had runners in scoring position once in the game. In the eighth inning, with runners on second and third and two outs, Griep retired the next three batters to preserve the win. The BatCats struck early by scoring two runs in the first inning, thanks to a leadoff walk from Carter Yagi, a huge RBI double from Tyler Wolfe and a single up the middle from Shane Conlon.

The second game of the series is scheduled for today at 2 PM, with lefty Jackson Douglas taking the mound.

The news cycle around football is sort of quiet, but talking heads are still weighing in on the Big 12's new tiebreaker options (Max Olson, ESPN), and an intrepid fan has figured out a strange loophole in the tiebreaker (Someone with altogether too much time on their hands, Reddit).

Also, here's more blather, specifically the WWL's bold post-spring football predictions for the Big 12 (Olson, ESPN). Of interest here, the Texas-Baylor matchup is being circled as the possible decisive matchup for the conference. The game will be played in that last weekend, officially championship weekend in the other Power 5 conferences, and TCU will already have wrapped up the season by then. While this is fascinating as an academic argument, what if some other team already has the Big 12 all sewn up by then?

Madison Talley, currently playing at the NCAA Regionals in San Antonio, remained consistent on the second day, shooting even-par 72 for the second straight round. She is currently tied for 29th, while Baylor's Hayley Davis and Dylan Kim occupy the top two spots on the leaderboard so far, with KU's Yupaporn Kawinpakorn tied for fourth place.

The track team is in Lincoln, Nebraska this weekend for the Nebraska Invitational, the final tune-up before the Big 12 Championships. Action begins at noon today with Sara Savatovic in the hammer throw. A number of athletes are currently ranked in the top 10 nationally in their events, including in the men's high jump, where Christoff Bryan, Ifeanyichukwu Otuonye and Nate Gipson are ranked No. 4, 3 and 7 respectively. For the women, A'Keyla Mitchell (200m), Dani Winters (shot put), Sara Savatovic (hammer throw) and Akela Jones (heptathlon) all rank among the nation's elite.