It only took one season. The Texas Longhorns baseball team has won the regular season SEC title in its first year in the conference. Texas secured the title with a come-from-behind 7-4 win in Norman against the Oklahoma Sooners. Texas’ magic number for a share of the SEC title heading into the Oklahoma series was one.
Down 3-1 in the seventh inning, Texas got big hits from Tommy Farmer IV and Kimble Schuessler to take a 4-3 lead to the eighth inning. But the Sooners clawed back thanks to a Jaxon Willits RBI single to tie the game 4-4.
The ninth inning will be remembered on the 40 Acres for a long time. Playing his first game in since injuring his thumb in March, Max Belyeu belted a three-run game winning home run to center field. The big hit showed how much the Horns have missed the left fielder in the 26 games he’s been out of action.
Closer Dylan Volantis shut the door on the Sooners in the ninth inning and the Longhorns stormed the field after as SEC co-champs.
It took about an hour for the Longhorns to secure the outright SEC title thanks to Tennessee’s 10-7 win at Arkansas. The conference championship is an amazing achievement for the baseball program in its first SEC season and for Jim Schlossnagle in his first year as Texas’ head coach.
Schlossnagle left Texas A&M for the 40 Acres in the offseason and the fortunes of both programs have done an about face. Texas baseball had been stagnant for several years, while the Aggies were last season’s College World Series runner up. Now, Texas is SEC champ (something A&M has never accomplished) and the Aggies are projected to miss the NCAA postseason tournament.
The Longhorns still have two more games in Norman before the SEC postseason tournament starts on Tuesday. Texas will likely host an NCAA Tournament regional in two weeks.
Contact/Follow us @LonghornsWire on X/Twitter.