Colin Simpson is a fine baseball player. Oklahoma State’s catcher was honorable mention all-conference and, as of this typing, is batting .291 with 11 home runs and 40 RBIs. But when Colin Simpson plays West Virginia, he’s a legend.

In four games this season, the sophomore is 8-for-17 with five home runs, 12 runs batted in and six runs scored against the Mountaineers. He homered twice Thursday, striking a momentous blow in the first inning and a decisive one in the sixth, and drove in five runs as the Cowboys pushed WVU into the loser’s bracket of the Big 12 tournament with an 8-4 win.

“When we left Stillwater earlier this year, we gave their catcher the nickname of Homer Simpson. He lived up to the billing today again. He’s like I said yesterday. Some people play really good on a certain field like we do. He just feels so comfortable at the plate against us. That guy’s killed us.

“Our offense, we were clicking tonight. We just left too many guys on base early. Every guy that stood in there had a really good at-bat. We made a lot of hard outs. We got a lot of hits. I think the difference was we walked seven and hit two, and they only walked two. We gave them a lot more free bases, but our offense really grinded that one out. I’m super proud of them.

“Our kids are tired. We’re out there battling as hard as we can against a really good team. We knew coming in that these guys were going to be tough on us. They’d won three in a row playing in front of their home crowd. They’re playing with a lot of confidence, as are we. I just thought that was a really good game. I looked up in the fifth inning and they’re beating us 8-2, but we’re out-hitting them at the time 12-10, I think. That was the difference, the free bases. Some of their hits went and landed on the wrong side of the fence and none of ours did.”

Thanks, Randy Mazey. That about covers it.

What went right for WVU Wednesday did not transition to Thursday. Starting pitcher B.J. Myers gave up two runs and four hits and was pulled after getting the final out in the second inning. He threw 43 pitches, so he still might throw again in this event. I suppose Mazey sensed something and got out of danger before it got worse.

Anyhow, the Mountaineers led 7-0 after the first inning against Baylor and were down 3-0 when they came to bat in the third inning against the Cowboys. The relief pitching that wasn’t needed as freshman Brandon White allowed one run on three hits in the opener was called upon early and often, and four relievers allowed six runs in seven innings.

Cody Wood allowed two runs in the fifth as the Cowboys took a 5-2 lead, and then he walked a batter and hit a batter to open the sixth inning. Enter Jackson Sigman. Simpson hit his fifth pitch over the wall for an 8-2 lead.

WVU, meanwhile, had runners on in the first seven innings and managed to go 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position and 0-for-2 with the bases loaded while leaving 10 runners on base. The Mountaineers went down in order in the eighth and ninth innings.

And now, they get No. 1 seed and regular-season Big 12 co-champion Texas Tech. The Red Raiders, who lost to the Cowboys Wednesday, won two one-run games and lost one in Morgantown earlier this month. They threw Big 12 pitcher of the year Steven Gingery Thursday. The Mountaineers will ask Alex Manoah to start and go as long as he can while hoping the bullpen gets back to where it was at the end of the season.

This one starts at 4:15 p.m. this afternoon, but this is all for me today. I ask you to check out the “newspaper” on Sunday. With the events of the week for the basketball program, I talked to a couple people about what to expect and how things may look in 2017-18. In the meantime, I’m curious what you think about a starting lineup, the key to the offseason, the best athlete on the entire roster, the newcomer who can get buckets, and the player we’re probably not thinking about enough right now. That all came up in conversation.

I’ll throw up some baseball updates here for the rest of WVU’s run in the event, and the NCAA’s selection show is at noon Monday. We’ll resume normal operations Tuesday.