Inside Texas Today: Baseball takes down Bama, Hoops' win in Morgantown, Swimming and Diving

Welcome to Inside Texas Today! Each weekday morning, Inside Texas Today will provide the latest news and notes from around the Forty Acres, including notable events, player honors, and where to watch Longhorn sports that day.

Here’s the Sunday, February 27, 2022 edition.

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TEXAS BASEBALL TAKES DOWN ALABAMA

For the second straight night, No.1 Texas (7-0) took down the Crimson Tide from Tuscaloosa. The win clinched the weekend series that concludes today at 1pm on Longhorn Network, where the Horns can sweep the SEC power Alabama (5-2) with a win. 

The Longhorns (7-0) will go for the series sweep, with Tanner Witt on the mound facing Crimson Tide starting pitcher Grayson Hitt from Disch-Falk Field in Austin. 

Righty starter Tristan Stevens had another great outing, adding six shutout innings, four strikeouts, zero walks, and allowing only four hits. Over his last two appearances of the season, Stevens pitched 12 scoreless innings with seven strikeouts.

Freshman Luke Harrison pitched outstanding in relief for the Horns, tossing three scoreless innings with four strikeouts. Harrison earned his first career save to close out the win for the burnt orange faithful. 

Douglass Hodo got Texas started on the board with a third inning with a double to right center field, scoring SS Trey Faltine, who also hit a double in an earlier at-bat.

Austin Todd gave the Longhorns a 2-0 advantage in the bottom of the fourth, with an RBI single. Ivan Melendez started the inning with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt, and scored later that inning. 

The Longhorns’ stack of arms recorded its fourth shutout of the season and has now notched 63 innings on the bump and allowed only three earned runs.

UT BASKETBALL STOPS WVU IN MORGANTOWN

Senior Timmy Allen notched a season-high 26 points and 10 rebounds, with senior Jase Febres adding a season-high 14 points to pace No. 20/22 Texas (21-8, 10-6 Big 12) to an 82-81 victory against West Virginia (14-15, 3-13 Big 12) at the WVU Coliseum on Saturday afternoon. For the second consecutive contest, UT trailed by double digits midway through the second half before pulling out the victory. 

Allen converted 7-of-9 field goals and a season-best 12-of-16 free throws, adding three assists, two blocks, and a steal in on Saturday. He had 17 points (4-4 FG, 9-12 FT), seven boards in the second half while playing all 20 minutes.

Febres went 5-of-6 from the field, including 4-of-5 from three-point range, in 21 minutes after reaching double figures in scoring for the first time since Nov. 13 at No. 1/1 Gonzaga. 

Senior Marcus Carr tallied 15 points hitting 6-of-6 field goals and 2-of-3 from the charity stripe. Carr scored had 11 of his 15 points in the second half.

NOTES (by UT athletics) – 

*The Longhorns improved to 15-10 in the all-time series against the Mountaineers.

*Texas swept the two-game regular-season series against WVU for the first time since the 2018-19 season.

*The Longhorns reached the 21-win mark in the regular season for the first time since the 2013-14 season (22 in 2013-14).

*Texas reached the 10-win mark in Big 12 play for just the third time since the 2014-15 season (11-6 in 2020-21 and 11-7 in 2015-16).

Next up: 10/11 Baylor at home, on Monday, February 28th from the Frank Erwin Center in Austin. It’s an 8:00 tipoff and will be shown on ESPN. 

MEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING WIN BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP

No. 1 Texas Men’s Swimming and Diving won the 2022 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championship The Aquatic Center at Mylan Park on Saturday. The Horns won 18 of 21 events to claim the Big 12 Conference title for the 26th consecutive year and extended its own personal streak of consecutive league titles to 43. 

The streak began back at the 1980 Southwest Conference championship. It’s a total of 64 conference titles (38 Southwest Conference, 26 Big 12 Conference) in that span. 

Andrew Harness started things off for Texas with a win on the Platform, scoring 453.05 points to earn his second title of the meet after winning yesterday’s 3-meter springboard competition. The junior’s Platform win marked the 15th-straight year in which a Texas diver has won the event.

Sophomore Carsin Foster followed with a win in the 200 back-stroke, after defending his Big 12 title with a time of 1:39.42. and became the first person to win the event in back-to-back years since Texas-Ex Jack Conger in 2014-15.

For the fourth-straight year, senior Daniel Krueger won the 100 free, clocking 41.49 to join former Texas swimmer Jimmy Feigen (2009-12) as the only swimmers to win four Big 12 titles in the 50 free and 100 free.

David Johnston defended his conference title in the 1650 free, while posting a season-best time of 14:45.84 for the win.

Casper Corbeau collected his third-consecutive championship in the 200 breast-stroke, notching an a-cut of 1:51.81, then the junior swam the third leg of the 400 free relay, joining seniors Cameron Auchinachie and Drew Kibler to win with meet record time of 2:47.59.