Texas baseball trying to avoid first sweep of the season

In what could be a first for head coach David Pierce and No. 7 ranked Texas baseball this season, this team could be facing a sweep in a three-game series. Texas dropped the first two games on the road in Manhattan as part of this three-game holiday weekend series against the Big 12 foe Kansas State Wildcats.

On April 14, Pierce and the Longhorns blew a four-run lead thanks to an offensive explosion from the Wildcats in the sixth and seventh innings. Kansas State would take the win on April 14 by the final score of 8-5.

And then, things didn’t get much better for the Longhorns against Kansas State on April 15. The bullpen didn’t do much to help this team’s cause as a once-close game through the first five innings was blown wide open to let Kansas State get their second straight win over Texas by a score of 8-1.

Kansas State was up by a mark of just 2-1 heading into the sixth inning, which is when the game started to get more out of hand for the Longhorns.

David Pierce and No. 7 Texas baseball relying on Lucas Gordon to avoid the sweep vs. Kansas State

Moreover, the issue the Longhorns are facing in this series against Kansas State is pretty clear. For most of the season now, it was the bullpen that let the Longhorns down. But Texas’ top two starting pitchers weren’t effective to start this series.

Pete Hansen had one of his worst starts of the season so far, giving up six earned runs in the 8-5 loss to Kansas State on April 14. And then, Tristan Stevens gave up four earned runs in the loss on the following day.

Texas will now be looking to the sophomore left-hander Lucas Gordon to help them avoid this series sweep. Gordon is at least coming off a solid start where he allowed just two earned runs in nearly six innings of work on the mound in a win last weekend over the TCU Horned Frogs.

Maybe Gordon can come through with another quality start to help the Longhorns get back on the right track in what has turned out to be a very disappointing showing through two games in Manhattan. Texas is definitely going to need it in this one.

Texas carries a record of 25-12 (5-6 Big 12) into this series finale against Kansas State on April 16. Gordon and the Longhorns will have the first pitch time in this series finale set for 4 p.m. CT at Tointon Family Stadium in Manhattan.