Texas Baseball: Longhorns are back, taking on Rice on the road

After a long 2019-20 offseason, the Texas baseball program is back in action taking on the Rice Owls to start off the weekend.

The matchup that the Texas baseball program opened up the 2020 regular season with came against the in-state Conference-USA foe Rice Owls on Feb. 14. Friday night saw the first opportunity for Texas fans to watch their team take to the diamond to try and rebound from a down 2019 season.

That bad 2019 campaign was one of the worst in recent memory for such a prestigious college baseball program like Texas. Head coach David Pierce saw his team finish up the 2019 season with a record of 27-27. It was also a rarity to see Texas finish dead last in the Big 12 standings. That all came just one year after Texas won the Big 12 and made a magical run to the College World Series.

The Texas Longhorns baseball program held the early lead most of the way over Rice. Two key home runs gave the Longhorns the lead early on. But hopefully the Longhorns can hang on to nab a win in their regular season opener. Texas needed a win for confidence reasons.

This is a team that has a lot of hope heading into the 2020 season. Texas was picked to finish up fifth in the Big 12 in 2020, which would be a big improvement from where they finished up in 2019.

There is also a lot of talent and experience joining this Texas team this year. Texas landed the nation’s top 2019 recruiting class and returns stars like Zach Zubia and DJ Petrinsky. Zubia got off to a nice start helping the Longhorns claim their early lead over Rice.

After the regular season opener, Texas will face Rice two more times in Houston this weekend. This is a good opportunity for Texas to get a winnable weekend series in their back pocket to open up the season, but build confidence against a quality team. Rice is no slouch, but this is a series that Texas should take.