Texas baseball dominates WVU in doubleheader sweep to take series

Head coach David Pierce saw his Texas baseball team completely turn the page compared to what we witnessed from them last weekend in a tough series sweep at home at the hands of the No. 8 Oklahoma State Cowboys. Texas came out firing on all cylinders on May 7 in a key doubleheader on the road in Morgantown against an underrated Big 12 foe in the West Virginia Mountaineers.

A strong effort through and through from the Longhorns in Morgantown in the first two games of three this weekend against West Virginia saw the men in burnt orange essentially take the series handily.

The driving forces for the Longhorns to come up with a clean doubleheader sweep of West Virginia on May 7 was the performances on the mound from starters Pete Hansen and Lucas Gordon.

The first leg of this doubleheader this weekend saw Hansen spin a gem with just two earned runs and six hits allowed, with an impressive eight strikeouts, in what was nearly a complete game on the mound. Hansen got 8.2 innings of work in on the mound on May 7 before Pierce called in Tristan Stevens to get his first save of the season.

Texas baseball led to a big pair of wins over West Virginia behind Pete Hansen and Lucas Gordon

It looked like Hansen was going to get the complete game in the first leg of this doubleheader. But he worked himself into some trouble in the bottom of the ninth, which Stevens was able to clean up with just one out.

Texas got the win over the Mountaineers in the first of these two games on May 7 by the final score of 5-2. The Longhorns got a home run and two runs batted in from Ivan Melendez to spark the bats in the first of two wins on this day.

And then, the Longhorns got an absolutely brilliant performance on the mound from Gordon in the back end of these two games. Gordon pitched all the way through a seven-inning affair in a dominant 11-0 win over West Virginia to conclude this doubleheader.

This was definitely the best start of the season so far for Gordon, who shut out the Mountaineers with just two hits allowed and five strikeouts.

Texas got yet another big effort from Melendez with the bat in the second win over West Virginia on May 7. Melendez doubled his RBI total and tripled his hit total in the second game of this doubleheader. He came up with three hits (two of which were two-run homers) with four runs batted in.

It was insane to see Melendez pop off for four home runs on the day.

All in all, this is what we need to see from Pierce and the Longhorns in order to generate some momentum heading into the postseason. It would be nice to see Texas come up with the weekend series sweep of West Virginia if they can close out in Morgantown with a win on May 8.

Following this pair of wins over the Mountaineers on May 7, Texas is now sitting on a three-game winning streak with a record of 34-16 (11-9 Big 12). Texas will face West Virginia on May 8 in the series finale, with the first pitch time set for 12 Noon CT.