Texas baseball’s Big 12 title odds on life support after loss to Kansas
The top-seed Texas baseball and head coach David Pierce started the Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship on the wrong foot on May 24. The Big 12 regular season champs Texas looked like it had a very winnable contest to open up the Big 12 Tournament at the home of the MLB’s Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field in Arlington, TX, this week.
Texas faced the No. 8 Kansas Jayhawks in Game 2 of the Big 12 Baseball Championship on the afternoon of May 24, coming in as a heavy favorite. But the Longhorns were never able to get much going with the bats, thus letting the Jayhawks hang around for way too long.
While standout junior starting pitcher Lucas Gordon was dealing on the mound for most of the game against the Jayhawks, the Texas bats couldn’t take advantage. Gordon gave the Longhorns five quality innings of work on the mound, allowing two earned runs while striking out five Kansas batters.
Kansas staying within striking distance until the late innings of Game 2. allowed it to get the game-winning run on one swing from designated hitter Janson Reeder. The Jayhawks took advantage of the opportunity to take the lead in this game against the struggling redshirt sophomore pitcher Travis Sthele.
Travis Sthele and Texas baseball fall short of Kansas in Game 2 of the Big 12 Tournament
Sthele has now given up at least two earned runs in nine straight appearances for the Longhorns, dating back to March 25. He’s also posted an earned run average north of 10.00 in the last five appearances.
Against Sthele, Reeder hit a grand slam in the top of the seventh inning that gave them the lead by a score of 6-2. Ironically, Sthele and the Longhorns intentionally walked the batter prior to Reeder to load up the bases with two outs in the top of the seventh.
In hindsight, that obviously turned out to be the wrong decision as Reeder made Texas pay with one swing of the bat.
All the Longhorns could muster in response to Reeder’s grand slam in the top half of the seventh was one run from a Jack O-Dowd home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. O’Dowd closed the Kansas lead to three runs, resulting in a final score of 6-3.
Sthele notched his fourth loss of the campaign, moving his record on the season to 3-5 with a 5.68 ERA.
The loss to Kansas means that the Longhorns will be fighting to stay alive in the race for the Big 12 Tournament crown on May 25. Texas will have a very early game in the loser’s side of the Big 12 bracket on May 25 against the five-seed Kansas State Wildcats, with the first pitch time set for 9 a.m. CT.
Kansas State took a battering at the hands of the four-seed TCU Horned Frogs in Game 1 of the Big 12 Baseball Championship on May 24, which ended by a score of 16-3 in seven innings.
Texas will need to muster a strong response against the other Kansas school in the Big 12 to continue its quest to win the Longhorns’ first conference tournament crown since 2015.
Next. 5 best Longhorns ever in the MLB. dark
Texas’ record on the season following the loss to No. 8 Kansas now sits at 38-19 (15-9 Big 12). If the Longhorns want to ensure it is in a spot to host a regional in Austin this postseason, it will need to start by taking care of business against Kansas State on May 25. You can catch the matchup between Texas and Kansas State in an elimination game on May 25 broadcast live on Big 12 Now/ESPN+.