Longhorns Look to Bounce Back in Midweek Against Texas Southern

The Longhorns are looking to shake off a sweep at the hands of Oklahoma and get back in the win column.

Life comes at you fast in baseball, which is a lesson the Texas Longhorns learned the hard way over the weekend against the Oklahoma Sooners.

The Longhorns came into their series against the Sooners ranked No. 14, atop the Big 12 and in strong position to host a regional come June. Now, though, none of those statements are true.

Rather, after a sweep at the hands of Oklahoma the Longhorns dropped completely out of the top 25, dropped out of first place in the Big 12 and will have a lot of work to do if they want to host a regional. 

Lucky for Texas, though, there are still 14 games left in the regular season for it to bounce back and compete for both a conference title and regional host bid in the NCAA Tournament. 

Now, though, the Longhorns turn their attention to another midweek game in which they will hope to bounce back when they welcome the Texas Southern Tigers to Austin.

How to watch/listen: 

Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. CT (Longhorn Network/TexasSports.com/Audio)

A look at Texas Southern's season so far

The Tigers have been a very streaky team so far this season, with winning streaks of six games and nine games followed by losing streaks of four games and three games respectively. How good of a game they give Texas on Tuesday will depend on which version of the Tigers show up. 

Texas Southern by the numbers

Record: 24-15

Runs scored: 333

Runs allowed: 240

Team Avg.: .324

Team ERA: 5.31

Texas Southern wins this game if...

The Tigers can do what teams who have beaten the Longhorns have done recently and get to the bullpen. Pitching has been the strength of the Longhorns all season long but in recent weeks the bullpen has started to show cracks. If the Tigers can take advantage of the shaky current nature of the Texas bullpen then they could hand the Longhorns their fourth straight loss. 

Texas wins this game if...

It can take care of business in a similar fashion as it did against ACU in its midweek game last week. The Wildcats entered their game against the Longhorns with a strong offense only to get shutdown in a 20-0 run rule win for the Longhorns. If that version of the Longhorns shows up against the Tigers, they should get back in the win column ahead of an important conference series against TCU this weekend.

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You can find Connor Zimmerlee on Twitter @Connorjz98

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