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.