As the final week of the regular season begins, newly-ranked Texas working to solidify postseason resume

It only took winning five consecutive Big 12 series and eight of nine conference sets overall, but with one week remaining in the 2024 regular season the Texas Longhorns have earned a spot in the top 25. Their work to get to that point despite some lackluster series losses and midweek morasses has them safely in the NCAA Tournament with the ability to earn a stronger seed as the season closes and postseason play opens.

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D1Baseball and Baseball America both placed the Longhorns within the top 25 of their polls after Texas took two of three at Central Florida over the weekend. D1Baseball had the Longhorns as the No. 25 team while Baseball America ranked Texas at No. 24. The Horns close the regular season this weekend with a Thursday through Saturday slate against the Kansas Jayhawks with the Big 12 Tournament to follow.

There have been ups and downs for the Longhorns this season, but the offense has remained remarkably consistent. The Horns rank 10th in the country with home runs at 103, 18th in slugging at .535, and 44th in OPS at .912.

Oklahoma has locked up the Big 12 regular season title, but second place is still up for grabs and with it a first-round bye in the Big 12 Tournament. Texas is tied for third with WVU at 17-10. Oklahoma State has a half-game lead on the Longhorns and Mountaineers with a 17-9 record as their most recent Sunday game was rained out.

Texas faces Kansas with a 15-12 record this weekend in Austin. West Virginia heads to TCU, who has a 13-14 conference record. Oklahoma State will battle Houston on the road. The Cougars carry a 7-19 Big 12 record and will miss the conference tournament.

Pitching has been up and down throughout the season with some reshuffling of the weekend rotation, but Friday night starter Max Grubbs and Saturday stalwart Ace Whitehead have greatly helped to stabilize the ship over the final two months of the season. In addition, bullpen power Gage Boehm boasts a 0.95 WHIP as part of a crew that has done enough to make sure the Texas offense’s efforts are not in vain.

As far as hosting goes, the Longhorns are on the outside looking in. D1Baseball has Texas as the No. 44 team in RPI with 12 Quadrant 1 wins, which are games at home against Nos. 1-25, at a neutral site against Nos. 1-40, and on the road against teams Nos. 1-60. However, some midweek struggles have resulted in a whopping eight Quadrant 4 losses, easily the most among the top 50 in RPI. However, they’ve still earned a place in a NCAA Regional, likely as a two-seed like last year.

In D1Baseball’s most recent field of 64 projections, the Longhorns were thought to be a two-seed in the Fayetteville regional with the No. 5 overall seed Arkansas Razorbacks. In the same regional was No. 3 St. John’s and No. 4 Little Rock.

The Longhorns are currently 32-20 with a chance to get to 35 wins for the sixth time in seven full seasons under David Pierce.

Texas’ series with Kansas starts on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. It continues Friday at 6:30 p.m., and concludes Saturday at 2:30 p.m. All games are on Longhorn Network.

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D1Baseball Top 25

1. Tennessee Volunteers
2. Kentucky Wildcats
3. Arkansas Razorbacks
4. Clemson Tigers
5. Texas A&M Aggies
6. Oregon State Beavers
7. North Carolina Tar Heels
8. Wake Forest Demon Deacons
9. Georgia Bulldogs
10. Florida State Seminoles
11. Duke Blue Devils
12. Oklahoma Sooners
13. East Carolina Pirates
14. Arizona Wildcats
15. UC Irvine Anteaters
16. Mississippi State Bulldogs
17. NC State Wolfpack
18. Virginia Cavaliers
19. Oklahoma State Cowboys
20. Indiana State Sycamores
21. Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns
22. UC Santa Barbara Gauchos
23. Oregon Ducks
24. South Carolina Gamecocks
25. Texas Longhorns