Texas Baseball: Horns exit Big 12 Tournament early after loss to OK State

Coming into the Big 12 Tournament, it looked like No. 2 ranked Texas baseball had a pretty clear path to make it through their division at the very least. Texas and the Big 12 Coach of the Year David Pierce didn’t have either of the other two of three top seeds in the conference tournament on their side of the divisional bracket.

Instead, the top-seeded Longhorns had to get through the Oklahoma schools more so than anything else.

But it all started on the wrong foot for the Longhorns as they were upset by the eight-seed West Virginia Mountaineers in their first game of the Big 12 Tournament. West Virginia got on a roll to start off the Big 12 Tournament, winning their first two games over the Longhorns and Kansas Jayhawks.

Following their loss to West Virginia earlier in the week, the Longhorns had to face the rival and five-seed Oklahoma Sooners in Oklahoma City, OK, on May 27. Texas responded well following the four-run loss to West Virginia with a big three-run win over Oklahoma heading into the weekend.

That set up the Longhorns with a matchup to get to essentially the equivalent of the division two finals against West Virginia to get revenge on the loss in the tournament opener. And the Longhorns got the job done on May 28 with a win over the Mountaineers by a slim one-run margin.

Texas baseball falls short in key Big 12 Tournament matchup vs. Oklahoma State

After knocking off West Virginia in the second meeting with them in the Big 12 Tournament, the Longhorns were set to face Oklahoma State in the final set of matchups on this side of the divisional bracket. Texas had the 6-foot right-hander Kolby Kubichek on the mound to face the Pokes on the afternoon of May 29.

Kubichek was pretty solid for the Longhorns all season long, but he faltered early against the Pokes. He gave up four earned runs on just over four innings on the mound. Adding to that mark, Kubichek had two strikeouts and two batters walked.

The bats for Texas were hot and cold in this game. Corner infielder Zach Zubia continued his hot streak, though, in the Big 12 Tournament on this day. He went 2-for-4 but didn’t get any runs in. Zubia was one of the Longhorns’ best hitters, but it wasn’t enough against the Pokes this weekend.

Texas did go into the ninth inning in this game tied. But reliever Aaron Mixon wound up walking in a run, which gave Oklahoma State a 5-4 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth. Texas was not able to recover in the bottom of the ninth, leading to the one-run win for the Pokes.

As they exit the Big 12 Tournament with a subpar record of 2-2, the Longhorns will look ahead to the seeding for the regionals from the NCAA selection committee. Texas should still be one of the higher-seeded hosts in regionals next month.