Texas Baseball: Longhorns await loser of OK State-WVU in Big 12 Tourney

A pretty inconsistent start to the Big 12 Tournament thus far for the Texas baseball program was not the way that head coach David Pierce envisioned his team headed to start off this big weekend. Texas fell short on the diamond earlier this week to the upstart eight-seed West Virginia Mountaineers.

West Virginia was the early Cinderella story of the Big 12 Tournament, as they took down the Kansas Jayhawks and Texas to move to an early 2-0 record in the first two rounds. Now West Virginia is taking on the four-seed Oklahoma State Cowboys on the afternoon/evening of May 28 to try and figure out who will move on to the final round of games in this division.

Texas got seeded at the top of the division two bracket in the Big 12 Tournament. That did allow the Longhorns to avoid the two other of the top three seeds in the conference at least until the final round of the tournament in general. They might not have to face the two-seed TCU Horned Frogs or three-seed Texas Tech Red Raiders until the final round of the Big 12 Tournament.

But for Texas to be able to even have a shot at facing TCU or Texas Tech, they have to get through their division first. And with their opening game loss to West Virginia in the festivities in Oklahoma City, OK, this week, they’re now behind the eight ball heading into the weekend.

That aforementioned loss to West Virginia leaves no room for error for Piece and the Longhorns on the diamond. They will now await who they face in Game 11 of the Big 12 Tournament, which will be the loser of the Oklahoma State-West Virginia game that’s going on as we speak on May 28.

Texas baseball and HC David Pierce looking to build momentum after win over Oklahoma

A good sign is that the Longhorns got a strong response in their second outing of the Big 12 Tournament on May 27. Texas downed the rival and five-seed Oklahoma Sooners on the afternoon of May 27 in a convincing 4-1 win.

Redshirt junior right-hander Tristan Stevens got his ninth win of the season with a strong performance on the mound in the Longhorns win over the Sooners. In seven innings on the mound, Stevens gave up just four hits and one earned run, along with four strikeouts.

Getting that type of performance from Stevens is something that the Longhorns need on the mound from here on out. The best-case scenario in this division for the Longhorns is that they face a West Virginia offense that was red-hot of late as they look to cool them down. Or they have to face a well-rounded Oklahoma State team at least once.

Beating Oklahoma kept Texas alive in the Big 12 Tournament. But if the No. 2 ranked team in the entire country, and the top seed in the Big 12 Tournament wants to make it any further, they will have to retire either Oklahoma State or West Virginia (the loser of their May 28 meeting in OKC) on the night of May 28.

Texas currently owns a record of 41-14 (17-7 Big 12) following their May 27 win over Oklahoma. They will either be facing a borderline top 25 team in Oklahoma State this weekend, or a West Virginia team that would be handed their first loss of the Big 12 Tournament by the Pokes.