The 2026 college baseball season continues its march into April, and on this Easter Sunday, we’ve got another exciting slate.
So, pick your spot at the dinner table accordingly and fire up ESPN+ — we’ve got some baseball to watch.
I have a couple of best bets from the Big 12 for this afternoon’s lineup, so let's take a look at my college baseball picks and NCAA baseball predictions for Sunday, April 5.
UCF ML +128 vs. West Virginia
Start Time: 12 p.m. ET
Camden Wicker (2-1, 2.78 ERA) gets his eighth start of the season today, and he was terrific in each of his last two starts.
The 6-foot-7 junior held TCU and Arizona to two combined runs and tallied 184 pitches through 13 2/3 combined innings. Expect another strong outing from Wicker today.
Chansen Cole (4-0, 3.62 ERA) takes the mound for West Virginia.
Last time out, he held a potent Arizona State offense to just one run in 5 1/3 IP. However, that nearly went to waste, as reliever David Perez surrendered four runs in 3 2/3 IP, though WVU’s nine runs were enough to secure the win.
Wind is moving out to right field, but with temperatures struggling to get out of the 40s in Morgantown today, it’ll be a tough power-hitting afternoon.
In that event, the offensive playing field is more even. WVU carries a 115 wRC+, while UCF has a 99.
It comes down to pitching, and Wicker has proven to have more legs in his starts than Cole.
Oklahoma State ML -140 vs. Cincinnati
Start Time: 2 p.m. ET
Sundays have been a struggle since the Bearcats exited a favorable nonconference schedule. Through March, Cincinnati started three different arms on four Sundays, and those starters surrendered 16 runs (44 runs allowed total).
After allowing Adam Brouwer (2-3, 6.34 ERA) to go far too long in his two starts against BYU and Utah — he was moved to Saturday for this weekend — Cincy gave freshman Connor Blue (2-0, 4.39 ERA) the nod last weekend.
Now we’ll see the fourth different Sunday starter in five weeks, as senior Logan Knight (2-2, 6.16 ERA) will take the bump for Cincinnati.
Knight, a transfer from North Dakota State, is a strike-thrower, walking just eight batters against 31 strikeouts in his six starts.
I’d expect Oklahoma State to go with opener Hudson Barrett before turning to Stormy Rhodes in the series finale; the Pokes used that combination in each of their last two Sundays.
Oklahoma State’s bats have found more consistency as conference play opened up. Against a pitcher it knows will throw strikes, expect the Pokes to be aggressive early on to get ahead of a potent Cincinnati lineup (121 wRC+, 21st nationally).
