Inside Texas Today: Baseball sweeps, Women's basketball wins, USFL draft

Welcome to Inside Texas Today! Each weekday morning, Inside Texas Today will provide the latest news and notes from around the Forty Acres, including notable events, player honors, and where to watch Longhorn sports that day.

Here’s the Thursday, February 24, 2022 edition.

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Baseball completes midweek sweep of A&M-Corpus Christi

The No. 1 Longhorn baseball team completed a midweek sweep of the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders with a 5-4 win on Wednesday at Whataburger Field. Texas recorded 10 hits while Lucas Gordon, Daniel Blair, Luke Harrison, and Aaron Nixon combined to allow two.

Gordon surrendered four unearned runs over five innings, but Longhorn relievers helped shut down A&M-CC in the final four innings, allowing one hit. Blair took home the win while Nixon earned his first save in the closest contest the Longhorns have played in during the young season.

Silas Ardoin and Austin Todd added RBI doubles, while Ivan Melendez drove in one run in the fourth to make it 3-1. Trey Faltine singled to make it 4-1 in the fifth before the Islanders battled back in the bottom half to tie it at 4-4. Pinch hitter Skylar Messinger broke the tie in the seventh with a sacrifice fly that scored Ardoin.

Nixon allowed one baserunner in the ninth before ending the game with a 6-3 groundout.

The Longhorns face Alabama this weekend, with the schedule altered from the original plans. Softball also announced a change in schedule, which can be found here.

With the threat of inclement weather this weekend, we’re shifting around our game times vs. Alabama.

Friday — 4:30 p.m.
Saturday — 1:30 p.m.
Sunday — 1 p.m.

See y’all there! https://t.co/Dw2uSRqoJj

— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) February 24, 2022

Longhorns in the USFL Draft

Even with the NFL season finished, plans still exist for football this spring. The USFL is scheduled to begin play on April 16, and the league and its eight teams drafted players over the past two days. Four Longhorns were selected in the process that assigned a position to each round.

Nick Rose, a kicker from 2012 to 2016, was selected by the New Jersey Generals. Defensive tackle Chris Nelson was picked up by the Philadelphia Stars. So too was Brennan Eagles, who went undrafted in 2021 after a three-year career. Rounding out the group of Longhorns picked was Davante Davis, who will play for the Tampa Bay Bandits.

15 Longhorns receive the Big 12’s highest academic honor

A school-record 15 Texas student-athletes received the Dr. Gerald Lage Academic Achievement Award, the Big 12 Conference’s highest academic honor.

Via a school press release, here were the recipients.

Baseball
Murphy Stehly, Strategic Communication (Graduate Certificate)
Tristan Stevens, Strategic Communication (Graduate Certificate)

Football 
Derek Kerstetter, Sport Management Graduate Program
Gabriel Watson, Postgraduate Coursework

Rowing 
Katelyn Bouthillette, Sport Management Graduate Program
Katie Casey, Nursing

Soccer
Jennessa Groves, Applied Movement Science
Emma Regan, Marketing

Men’s Swimming & Diving
Andrew Couchon, Government
David Johnston, Communication & Leadership
Daniel Krueger, Electrical Engineering
Charlie Scheinfeld, Sustainability Studies
Matt Willenbring, Petroleum Engineering Honors

Women’s Swimming & Diving
Janie Boyle, Biochemistry

Men’s Track & Field
Tripp Piperi, Strategic Communication (Graduate Certificate)

Women’s basketball wins in Manhattan

Chris Beard’s team wasn’t the only basketball program on the Forty Acres to notch a Big 12 victory on Wednesday. Vic Schaefer’s squad traveled to Kansas State and topped the Wildcats, 62-51.

Both the women’s and men’s programs can now boast 20-win regular seasons.

HOW 'BOUT THEM HORNS#TexasFight pic.twitter.com/lJqlcthGvn

— Texas Women's Basketball (@TexasWBB) February 24, 2022

The Longhorns received double-digit scoring efforts from Aliyah Matharu, Lauren Ebo, and Joanne Allen-Taylor, with Big 12 freshman of the week Rori Harmon one point shy of joining them with nine. Ebo also brought down seven boards.

Texas earned its eighth Quadrant 1 win in Manhattan, Kan., and will welcome the TCU Horned Frogs on Saturday at the Erwin Center.

Texas viewing for 2/24

Swimming and Diving – Big 12 Championships – The Aquatic Center at Mylan Park – Morgantown, W. Va. – 9:00 a.m. – ESPN+