Campbell extends hit streak as Texas stays alive for Big 12 title with win over West Virginia

On3 imageby:Steve Habel05/19/23

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Dylan Campbell plated runs with a first-inning double and a second-inning solo home run and Lebarron Johnson allowed two runs in 5.1 innings as Texas waylaid sixth-ranked West Virginia 10-3 on Friday in Game 2 of a pivotal three-game Big 12 Conference series at Disch-Falk Field in Austin.

The win, along with Oklahoma’s 5-0 win at home over Oklahoma State, means that a Longhorns (37-18, 14-9 in Big 12 play) can clinch a share of the conference regular-season title with the Mountaineers with a victory on Saturday in the series finale.  If Texas and Oklahoma State both win on Saturday, they will both share the title with West Virginia.

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Campbell was 2 for 5 and extended his program-record hitting streak to 32 games, the second-longest in Big 12 history. He scored three times and led the Longhorns’ 11-hit attack.

Jared Thomas and Peyton Powell also had two hits, scored twice and recorded a home run each and Eric Kennedy scored twice and drove in two for the Longhorns, who have won seven of their past eight games.

Johnson (7-2) gave up five hits and walked two while striking out 11 batters in 109 pitches. He was followed to the mound by Ace Whitehead, Heston Tole and David Shaw, with the latter recording the final two outs.

Blaine Traxel (7-5), the first of four Mountaineers pitchers, took the loss for West Virginia after allowing eight runs on nine hits in five innings. 

The Longhorns continued their offensive prowess from Thursday’s series-opening 12-2 win and effectively took the Mountaineers (35-15, 15-8 in Big 12) out of the game early on. Texas answered a home run by West Virginia’s Landon Wallace in the top of the first inning by jumping to a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the frame on Campbell’s RBI double, a sacrifice fly by Garret Guillemette and Kennedy’s two-run home run.

Thomas added to the lead in the second on Thomas’ two-run round tripper and a solo shot by Campbell. 

West Virginia got a run back in the third on a bases-loaded infield single by Braden Berry, but Johnson got out of the inning with a flyout to centerfield. Johnson then got out of a jam in the fourth with runners at first and second by striking out the inning’s final two batters.

Texas pushed its advantage to 8-2 in the fourth on Porter Brown’s two-out RBI single and extended toe margin with runs in the sixth (on Powell’s solo homer) and in the seventh (on Jack O’Dowd’s two-out run scoring single.

West Virginia pinch hitter Sam White had an RBI single off Tole in the ninth to get the Mountaineers to within 10-3 but Shaw snuffed out the rally.

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The Longhorns and Mountaineers finish the series on Saturday with first pitch about 2:30 p.m.. It will be Senior Day for Texas.

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