Big 12 Baseball - What's Going on in Texas?

By Big12-Fans Writer Zach Ocken

They were the consensus #1 team in the land. They were obviously the best team in the Big 12. They were already making hotel reservations in Omaha.

Now, twelve games into the season, they are playing .500 baseball.

It all started the first series of the season against a seemingly sure bet San Deigo team. The sure bet went to sure hell in a hurry as the Longhorns lost the series in a sweep by a combined score of 22-10. At the time most of the talk in the baseball world was that it was a fluke and that Texas was still for real. The following games seemed to back that up.

Texas won their next 3 games which included a 15-1 drubbing of Texas Pan-American and a 5-4 win over then #1 Rice. But just as soon as they seemed poised to make the rebound they once again stumbled, losing 2 of 3 to a Stanford team that lost 2 of 3 to Kansas.

The beginning of Texas’ season has been a lesson in inconsistency. You really never know what you are going to get on any given day. You could see 15 runs put up one day and a shutout the next against the same team.

Some of this has to be expected with a very young lineup, but with only 3 batters over the .300 mark right now something has got to change. Drew Stubbs cannot carry this team on his own, no matter how good he is. Kyle McColloch was injured in his first game but did not miss any time because of it. A 4.20 era and 0-2 record will not cut it, especially against the lower tier teams he has faced.

Now I know the baseball season is a marathon and not a sprint but it is time for this Longhorn team to step up. They have a stretch coming up against some good teams, including Long Beach State, another date with Rice and a game against Arizona State.

If Texas can't pull it together soon they risk entering Big 12 play at .500 and will have to make a huge push in the Big 12, which is looking very strong this year, to get a favorable draw in the Regionals.