Texas baseball falls to Oklahoma 4-2, Big 12 Championship bid hangs by a thread

Sigh.

Does anyone else remember when Texas swept LSU earlier in the year? Or when the Horns took two of three from pre-season favorite Texas Tech in front of a record setting home crowd at the Disch?

Because I sure do. And yet believe it or not, after tonight’s 4-2 loss at the hands of those land thieves from up north, those same Texas Longhorns may see their season come to a finish in what has been an utterly disastrous second half.

Again, let me say it louder for the people in the back.

SIGH.

However, not all hope is lost. Despite their recent play, these Longhorns just won’t die. Out of all the millions of pre-season scenarios of how Texas could make the Big 12 Tournament, there now exists only one way the Horns can find themselves in Oklahoma City next weekend:

— Texas must win BOTH games vs Oklahoma tomorrow

— Kansas must SWEEP Kansas State this weekend

We’re in the endgame now, Horns fans.

Regardless of what outcome we’re handed tomorrow, the only thing we do know right now is that these will be your final two chances to see your Texas Longhorns live and in action at UFCU Disch-Falk Field this season. Last year, the final regular season game provided plenty of drama, as Texas clinched the Big 12 title. About a month later, Texas won the final game played at the Disch in 2018 with a Super Regional series clinching victory that sent the Horns to the CWS.

The stakes may not be as high as last year, but we’ve had a good thing going with home finales lately. And hey, who knows? It’s baseball. Anything can happen.

Now, onto the game...

Texas sent Bryce Elder to start the game on the mound, and the team’s ace immediately found himself in trouble in the top of the first inning. OU scored first with an unearned run — a one-out error at shortstop was immediately followed by an RBI double to right-center.

The Sooners doubled their score and the lead in the second inning after a leadoff walk came around to score on a bloop single. After two innings, the offensively-challenged Longhorns trailed the Sooners 2-0.

Fortunately for Texas, Elder began to settle into a groove after two bumpy and extremely unfortunate innings of work. However, the Texas bats were unable to reciprocate the performance and struggled to get anything going of Oklahoma’s starting pitcher.

Scoring stalled up until the sixth inning, where the Sooners again doubled their lead. Two walks to start the inning both came around to score, and after six innings, Oklahoma held a seemingly insurmountable 4-0 lead.

The Longhorns finally answered back and cut into the Sooners lead with two runs in the bottom of the sixth. Texas came out swinging, with Eric Kennedy lining a single and Duke Ellis following that up with a double. Austin Todd drove in the first run via a sacrifice RBI ground out and Zach Zubia brought in the other run with an RBI single to right field.

Yet, this would turn out to be all the Longhorns could muster on the day, as Texas would ultimately fall 4-2 to OU.

Despite out-hitting Oklahoma and recording 10 strikeouts in the game as a team, the unforced errors (two balks and a wild pitch from Elder, and two defensive errors amounting for three runs) were the differences in this game. As this young team has done all year, they played a close game, but fell on their sword of mistakes and ill-timed lapses in play.

Texas will return to the field, potentially for the final times, tomorrow in a weather-induced double header against Oklahoma. The first game is set to start at 1:00 p.m. Central, and the second at 6:30 p.m. Central. Both games can be seen on Longhorn Network, or heard on 104.9 The Horn.

Cross your fingers, go Jayhawks, and Hook Em.