Texas baseball toppled as West Virginia avoids series sweep

In the finale of this weekend series for head coach David Pierce and Texas baseball against an underrated Big 12 foe in the West Virginia Mountaineers, this team put up a good fit but ultimately fell short. Texas looked like they could take control of this game on the afternoon of May 8 at times. But West Virginia would ultimately rally to avoid the sweep to cap the weekend.

Pierce and the Longhorns had Zane Morehouse starting in this series finale on May 8. Yet, Texas utilized more of a pitching-by-committee approach against West Virginia to cap the weekend. Morehouse only got two innings of work on the mound, while giving up three earned runs and four hits, before getting yanked in the third inning.

Morehouse was pulled from the game for Tristan Stevens, who was looking to continue moving his pitching in the right direction. But Stevens did anything but that as he claimed the loss for the Longhorns in this one.

Tristan Stevens gives up three earned runs in the loss for Texas baseball, despite a big day from Dylan Campbell

Stevens gave up three earned runs and three hits in three innings of work to pick up his sixth loss of the season. His record on the season now sits at 5-6 following this loss to the Mountaineers.

Moreover, despite the pitching staff having another tough day giving up eight earned runs, 11 hits, and three walks, the bats nearly gave this team a chance to come away with the win. The offense was led by the outfielder duo of Dylan Campbell and Douglas Hodo III. Campbell probably had the best day of any Longhorns player with the bat.

Campbell gave the Longhorns two runs batted in on the day (tied for a team-high with Hodo) on three hits, with no strikeouts, and one run scored in five at-bats. This was one of the best games in Big 12 play so far for Campbell offensively.

Although, Texas couldn’t take advantage of their 10 hits and the one West Virginia error on the day. Texas left twice as many runners on base compared to West Virginia, which would cost this team in the end.

West Virginia got three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and one in the bottom of the eighth to take control of the game. That gave the Mountaineers the win by the final score of 8-6.

Following this loss to the Mountaineers on May 8, the Longhorns are sporting a record of 34-17 (11-10 Big 12). Next up for Pierce and the Longhorns is a one-game midweek series at home at UFCU Disch-Falk Field against Texas Southern on May 10. That is one of five games remaining in the regular season for the Longhorns.