Texas
Series win over UCF helps Texas remain in tight race for Big 12 tournament’s No. 2 seed
As the regular season winds down, Big 12 tournament seeding and the padding of its résumé for the NCAA tournament will be on the line for Texas.
Texas closed out a weekend in Orlando with Sunday’s 10-7 win over Central Florida. With the three-run victory over a UCF team that it beat on Friday but lost to on Saturday, UT secured its eighth series win in Big 12 play.
Texas (32-20, 17-10) also used Sunday’s score to pull within a half-game in the Big 12 standings of second-place Oklahoma State (34-16, 17-9), which had its Sunday showdown with Texas Tech cancelled by weather. West Virginia (31-19, 17-10) is also tied with Texas for third place. Oklahoma State, Texas and West Virginia all have three conference games left on the schedule as OSU is set to travel to Houston (25-26, 7-19) this upcoming week while UT hosts Kansas (29-18, 15-12) and West Virginia must go to TCU (30-17, 13-14).
The top two teams in the Big 12 standings will receive a first-round bye at the conference tournament. Oklahoma (32-17, 21-6) has already clinched the No. 1 seed and its first-ever regular championship in a Big 12 regular season.
On Sunday, Texas squandered a 5-0 lead before it pulled away behind a three-run sixth inning and the two runs it scored in the eighth frame. The Longhorns were paced offensively by Jared Thomas’ four-hit performance and Rylan Galvan’s two-run homer.
Central Florida, which boasted a top-40 RPI, was able to spoil the homecoming of UT starting pitcher Lebarron Johnson Jr., who hails from Jacksonville. But Charlie Hurley and Gage Boehm combined to pitch 4 2/3 innings of four-hit relief, and those two pitchers were respectively credited with the win and save.
Texas does not have a midweek game on this upcoming week’s schedule. The UT-Kansas series will get going at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Thursday night.
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A Texas state trooper was killed in a crash in the Panhandle, becoming the 244th Texas Department of Public Safety officer to die in the line of duty since 1823, according to the agency.
Sergio Romero, 27, died Wednesday after a semi-truck pulled in front of him as he attempted a traffic stop around 4 p.m. on U.S. 287 in Childress County, DPS said.
In a statement, Col. Freeman F. Martin praised Romero’s courage, integrity, and service.
“Today, we grieve the loss of one of our own,” Martin said. “… Our hearts break alongside his family, friends, fellow troopers, and all who loved him. We will never forget the ultimate sacrifice he made in service of his fellow Texans.”
Romero previously served with the Hall County Sheriff’s Office before joining DPS as part of Class B-2025 in Childress, the agency said.
He is survived by his wife, Francisca, and their two young sons.
Funeral arrangements are pending. The crash remains under investigation.
Flash flood warning in Texas as streets fill with water
Flash flood warnings are active as heavy rain swamps roads across central Texas and rising waters pose danger to drivers.
Texas is keeping more than half of its counties under a state of emergency.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott renewed three statewide disaster declarations on Tuesday, June 16 — covering flooding, drought and border security — which together place 164 of the state’s 254 counties under emergency authority.
Each of the orders, signed by Abbott and filed with Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson, authorizes the use of “all available resources of state government and of political subdivisions that are reasonably necessary to cope with this disaster.”
Here’s a look at what the proclamations are for and which counties are under them.
Flood disaster from deadly 2025 Hill Country storms holds across 30 counties
On July 4, 2025, Abbott issued a disaster declaration following heavy rainfall and flooding that caused widespread and severe property damage, injury and loss of life in several counties.
The Camp Mystic flooding, which killed 27 campers and counselors, also occurred during this time frame. The original declaration included 21 counties located in the Texas Hill Country and the Concho Valley in the central part of the state.The disaster order has been renewed over the past year, expanding to include 30 counties in the June 2026 renewal and does the following:
- Suspends all laws that prevent the transfer of bodies to families as soon as possible.
- Suspends all laws regarding state agencies’ contracting or procurement rules that would impede its emergency response necessary to protect life or property threatened by the declared disaster.
- Temporarily suspended — with written approval from the governor’s office — laws that would prevent, hinder, or delay necessary action to respond to the disaster.
Drought disaster covers 111 Texas counties as wildfire risk persists
Abbott amended and renewed a drought disaster order originally issued on July 8, 2022, and it has been renewed several times over the past four years.
When it was originally signed, the order impacted 158 counties across the entire state, from the Texas Panhandle to the Permian Basin to the Texas Hill Country.
The original order states that the persistent drought conditions in the state have increased the wildfire threat in the region. The June 2026 renewal order states that the Texas Division of Emergency Management has confirmed that those same drought conditions persist; however, only 111 counties are listed in the renewed order.
The order does the following:
- Suspends all laws regarding state agencies’ contracting or procurement rules that would impede its emergency response necessary to protect life or property threatened by the declared disaster.
- Temporarily suspends — with written approval from the governor’s office — laws that would prevent, hinder, or delay necessary action to respond to the disaster.
Border security disaster spans 70 counties in fifth-year renewal
The original order was issued in May 2021 in response to a “surge of individuals unlawfully crossing the Texas-Mexico border posed an ongoing and imminent threat of disaster for a number of Texas counties.”
The original 2021 order affected 34 counties along the Texas border from El Paso to Brownsville, with Abbott saying it was in response to former President Joe Biden’s open-border policy.
“President Biden’s open-border policies have paved the way for dangerous gangs and cartels, human traffickers, and deadly drugs like fentanyl to pour into our communities,” Abbott said in a June 2021 statement. “Meanwhile, landowners along the border are seeing their property damaged and vandalized on a daily basis while the Biden Administration does nothing to protect them.
The order has been renewed and amended several times over the past five years, with the June 2026 order impacting 70 counties from El Paso through the Hill Country and the lower Rio Grande Valley.
The renewed order declares a state of disaster for those counties and for all state agencies impacted by the prescribed disaster.
Mateo Rosiles is the Texas Connect reporter for USA TODAY and its regional papers in Texas. Got a news tip for him? Email him at mrosiles@usatodayco.com.
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