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.

After falling to Oklahoma in Saturday’s Big 12 tournament title game, the No. 1 Texas softball team will find out its NCAA fate Sunday when the selection committee unveils its bracket at 6 p.m. on ESPN2.

Texas (47-7), the Big 12’s regular-season champion, couldn’t repeat that run during the tournament held in the Sooners’ backyard at Oklahoma City’s Devon Park, but the loss shouldn’t do too much damage to the Longhorns’ seeding hopes. Texas is all but certain to claim a top-eight seed despite Saturday’s 5-1 loss, which ensures that the Longhorns will host the first two weekends of the NCAA Tournament pending an upset loss. Texas won’t have to travel until the College World Series May 30-June 7 back at Devon Park.

More: Reese Atwood earns player of the year award as Texas dominates Big 12 softball awards

The Longhorns still have hopes of claiming the overall top seed, but three-time defending national champion Oklahoma (49-6) – No. 2 in the latest NCAA RPI ranking, just after Texas – made its case behind pitcher Kelly Maxwell, who allowing just one run and two hits and struck out seven in 5 1/3 innings before giving way to reliever Nicole May. Texas had just two hits in the game, including a RBI triple by freshman outfielder Kayden Henry that drove in Joley Mitchell in the second inning.

“Congratulations to Oklahoma on winning the Big 12 Championship, obviously the last time our two teams will be in this conference,” Texas coach Mike White said, referencing this summer’s departure to the SEC for both OU and Texas. “We have to find ways to learn from the adversity today. I thought we had a couple of opportunities. This is a game of inches, and they made the plays, and we didn’t, and that’s what happens. We have to find a way to recoup and learn from that and be ready to go for the postseason.”

More: NCAA softball selection show: Time, TV channel for Texas’ Women’s College World Series bracket reveal

Texas received a strong performance from sophomore pitcher Citlaly Gutierrez, who had a career-high 10 strikeouts while giving up seven hits in a complete game. Only three of her five runs allowed were earned as the Longhorns committed two errors while having their 18-game winning streak snapped.

“I thought Citlaly certainly did not deserve to give up the five runs she gave up,” White said. “She pitched well enough to win the game; had 10 strikeouts against a potent offense and pitched great.”

Mitchell, Bella Dayton and Katie Stewart all earned all-tournament honors, the most for Texas since 2005.

We have liftoff. The newly enacted Texas Space Commission is up and away after Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan recently appointed the agency’s first nine-member crew, or board of directors.

State officials hope the commission, made up of some of the brightest aerospace minds on Earth, will help Texas scientists and businesses make significant advancements in space research, exploration and commercial travel. The governor’s ambitions extend to colonizing Mars.

The Texas flag flying on the red planet? That’s the dream. But the agency will be ineffective if it doesn’t remain above the political fray that plagues state politics and steer clear of potential conflicts of interest.

The 2023 state Legislature created the commission and its sister agency, the Texas Aerospace Research and Space Economy Consortium, to support and promote the state’s well-established aerospace research and industry ecosystem.

It also set aside $350 million to fund the work of the commission, $200 million of which will go to build a Texas A&M University-led research facility on vacant land adjacent to NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The consortium’s nine-member executive committee, also recently appointed, will advise the commission on how to allocate the remaining $150 million in grants.

In addition to the Johnson Space Center, Texas is home to divisions of giants such as SpaceX, Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin, as well as manufacturing and research operations of thousands of smaller aerospace companies. The state is poised to be a big part of the expected $1 trillion global space industry by 2040, according to the think tank Texas 2036.

The commission’s board includes communications specialist Gwen Griffin; Kathy Lueders, the general manager of Starbase at SpaceX; John Shannon, vice president of Space Exploration Systems at Boeing Co.; Sarah Duggleby, co-founder of Venus Aerospace; Kirk Shireman, vice president of Lunar Exploration Campaigns at Lockheed Martin; Evan Loomis, co-founder of futuristic homebuilder ICON; Heather Wilson, president of the University of Texas at El Paso; Nancy Currie-Gregg, director of the Texas A&M Space Institute; and Brad Morrison, founder of Atlantis Industries.

Both the commission and consortium have lofty goals. But as with any politically appointed body, they can be vulnerable to the political games of favoritism and deal-making that taint the process. We’re glad to see that House Bill 3447, the enabling legislation authored by state Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood, contains a section on conflicts of interest. It requires in part that any board member with a professional or financial interest in any entity seeking grant money must recuse himself or herself.

The commission and consortium also must publish regular reports, which will provide needed transparency to their activities. Both entities will be attached to the governor’s office. The commission will employ 10 people, according to legislative documents.

“Texas will be the launchpad for Mars,” Abbott declared at his announcement ceremony. We can dare to dream.

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