Texas travels to Houston for Children College Classic

Texas Longhorns baseball is back in the groove after a six-game home stretch that ended on Tuesday, in which they bested the UTSA Roadrunners (6-2), the Lamar Cardinals (6-1), the Boise State Broncos (a three-game sweep: 6-1, 7-0 and 2-1 in 10 innings) and the Sam Houston State Bearkats (4-1) – the latter of whom, arguably, was the best team Texas has faced this season.

That won’t be the case for the 9-0 Longhorns this weekend, when the team heads down Interstate-10 to Houston for the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic at Minute Maid Park. They’ll face the No. 11 LSU Tigers on Friday to open their tournament. Texas will then follow up with a game against the No. 6 Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday and another game against the Missouri Tigers on Sunday. We’ll get to the game times, et cetera, below.

It’s the first time in six years that the Longhorns have competed in the Children College Classic. Here’s what you should expect as Texas faces off against some of the SEC’s best.

Last season, almost a year to the date, then-No. 18 Texas swept then-No. 1 LSU in three games straight at UFCU Disch-Falk Field (8-1, 8-4 and 7-6). But that was towards the beginning of what would even out to a .500 season for the Longhorns. This year, Texas is coming in on a hot hand while LSU has dropped three games so far in 2020, including to the Nicholls State Colonels, the Eastern Kentucky Colonels and the Indiana Hoosiers. So despite how the Tigers have shown a prowess on the mound in 2020 – against the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs earlier this week, LSU used eight pitchers to combine for just five hits, seven strikeouts and one run – Texas has shown so far to be a near complete team, if not outright complete, as well.

If the current rankings prove true, though, LSU won’t be the biggest test of the weekend. Arkansas undoubtedly will. Like the Longhorns, the Razorbacks are currently undefeated with a 7-0 record, with their latest wins coming in a four-game sweep over the Gonzaga Bulldogs last week (7-5, 9-3, 5-0 and 9-5). Last season, Texas and Arkansas split their two-game matchup in Austin, with then-No. 9 Texas besting Arkansas in game one (11-4) and then losing to the Razorbacks in game two of the series (7-6). This year, Arkansas has proven they can swing a bat as they’ve recorded double-digit hits in three of their games.

Then we have Missouri, a middle-man of the pack team so far this year, with a less than impressive 4-4 record to show for it. Notably, the Tigers have struggled offensively early on in 2020. Against the Jacksonville State Gamecocks earlier this month, Missouri batters struck out 20 times over the course of the three-game series to start the regular season.

No starters have been announced just yet.

First pitch for the matchup against LSU is scheduled for 7 p.m. Central Friday.

The game against Arkansas is scheduled for 7 p.m. Central Saturday.

The weekend finale against Missouri is scheduled for 3 p.m. Central Sunday.

All games will be available on AT&T SportsNet in Houston Astros viewing areas. You can live-stream the entire tournament at Astros.com or MLB.com. Tune in on 104.9 The Horn.