Texas baseball, once struggling but now rising, reveals its resilience repeatedly | Bohls

Resiliency is a remarkable quality.

Especially when it repeats itself.

And few teams have as much of it as the Texas baseball team, which has been tested at every turn this season and is standing stronger than ever.

In the Longhorns’ case, it should be re-resiliency because they’ve shown that aspect of their character time and time again. Texas has suffered more than its share of adversity with injuries and ineffectiveness on its pitching staff. But it’s come out the other end, better for it.

On Saturday, that mettle was front and center as Texas remains in the thick of things.

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In the big picture, a Texas team that couldn’t buy a Friday win in the Big 12 showed some serious moxie that paid off with a big victory in the opener and then Saturday's challenging 6-3 win over No. 14 Oklahoma State at UFCU Disch-Falk Field to capture its seventh series in eight conference weekends.

That set up the unranked Longhorns in a tie for second place with West Virginia behind league pace-setter Oklahoma. Those are the same Sooners who lost a doubleheader — and the road series — to the Horns last Sunday.

Texas put up 20 runs in that critical twin sweep in Norman and followed it up with back-to-back wins over a very good Cowboys team to remain two games behind OU with seven league games to play.

“We’re in a good spot,” head coach David Pierce said. “We’ve just got to keep playing.”

A team on the rise? Texas thinks so

He’s right. The Longhorns have ascended into a good position because with every win, they stand a better chance of enhancing their RPI of 55 and their seed in the NCAA postseason. With each series win, they stand a better chance of hopefully avoiding a date with No. 1 Texas A&M in a regional the Aggies are sure to host.

In the latest D1Baseball projections, Texas was already penciled in as a 3 seed and slated to go to a regional hosted by UC-Santa Barbara, not College Station. That’d be a win-win.

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And it’s clear by the animated celebration at the Disch on Saturday that this team believes in itself with a deep lineup laden with power and a bullpen that’s growing in confidence.

In the first two games of the series, both Texas wins went to relievers with Gage Boehm getting Friday's dub with 2⅔ innings of shutout ball and Andre Duplantier II recording his first victory of the season by allowing only a single run on a double-play ball in his 2⅓ innings.

A lot of things went right for Texas in win

It’s just as obvious that they need to remain as resilient as the Longhorns were on a damp, drizzly afternoon to improve their season mark to 30-18.

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For instance:

∙ After Texas’ Kimble Schuessler failed to get down a sacrifice bunt, he followed it up by slashing a single to right that sent Porter Brown to third, and Porter eventually scored on a double-play ball. If at first you don’t succeed, you get a key hit.

∙ When Oklahoma State scored a run in the top of the seventh, Texas scored one in the bottom of the inning.

∙ When the Cowboys plated a run in the top of the eighth, the Longhorns then pushed three of their own across.

When OSU scored in the top of an inning six times in this series, Texas has incredibly rebounded to do the same five times in the bottom.

Pitching, once a weakness, is rounding into form

And when this oft-beleaguered bullpen that was widely criticized, including in this space, got into difficulty Saturday, it came through with flying colors as David Shaw pitched himself into and out of a jam with two critical outs with the bases loaded in the fifth.

Reliever Cade O’Hara, who was once the backup shortstop, came in in a high-leverage situation and got four quick outs. He then gave way to Duplantier, a big, strong right-hander who got a key out in that inning to escape further damage and retired seven of the game’s last eight batters. He also showed some leadership out of the pen.

“Getting outs,” Duplantier said. “You lead by getting outs.”

And by hitting pitches out of the park.

Max Belyeu did that.

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This team is excellent at that, clubbing homers Friday and Saturday to give it a Big 12-leading 97 on the year, seventh best nationally.

Belyeu crushed a two-run shot off a 97-mph fastball that was downright majestic, clearing the right-center field fence with ease in a three-run eighth to seal the game. It was his team-high 17th of the season, a profound emergence for a sophomore who played just 15 games with four starts as a designated hitter a year ago.

He wasn’t sidelined then by a lack of talent, however. No, his path was blocked by All-American Dylan Campbell, who hit .339 with 13 bombs of his own and posted a school-record 38-game hitting streak as the best fielder in school history.

Again, the stout 6-foot-2, 210-pound Belyeu had to stay strong and connected and bide his time.

“It was a lot mentally, not playing, but I think Dylan made me such a better baseball player watching him work and watching EK (Eric Kennedy) and Porter (Brown),” said Belyeu, who had a two-run double in the first and drove in four runs on the day. “I really learned a lot about how to just play the game at the next level.”

Having other power hitters in the lineup in front of him like Jared Thomas and Jalin Flores also helps because those two have 30 homers between them and can ignite a rally in an instant.

“Yeah, it’s just fun to see guys raking and having fun doing it,” Belyeu said. “It’s awesome. We know we can accomplish anything just staying together.”

As long as they are resilient.

Sunday's game

No. 14 Oklahoma State (31-16, 14-9) at Texas (30-18, 15-8), 1 p.m., UFCU Disch-Falk Field, LHN, 1300

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas baseball continues to win with resiliency, pitching and homers