No. 24 Texas lands No. 2 seed in College Station Regional

After the No. 1 seed Texas Longhorns and No. 16 seed Texas A&M Aggies battled through a tight Austin Super Regional over the weekend that saw the Longhorns emerging as Women’s College World Series-bound by the narrowest of margins, the NCAA baseball tournament path for head coach David Pierce and the No. 23 Texas Longhorns runs through College Station, a decision announced on Monday as the selection committee paired Texas with the No. 3 national seed Texas A&M Aggies, the highest in program history for the Aggies and eighth national seed overall.

No. 3 seed Texas (35-22) faces No. 2 seed Louisiana (40-18) on Friday at 5 p.m. Central on ESPNU after host Texas A&M (44-13) faces off against No. 4 seed Grambling (26-26) at 12 p.m. Central on ESPN+.

Here’s the full regional schedule:

It’s the second straight season the Longhorns and Cajuns have faced each other in the opening game of a regional — last year, Texas beat Louisiana 4-2 before sweeping through the Coral Gables Regionals with consecutive wins over the No. 9 national seed. In the all-time series, the Longhorns now lead 34-8.

A late-season surge by Pierce’s team vaulted the Longhorns into the third seed in the Big 12 Tournament, but for a second straight season Texas flamed out of Globe Life Field with consecutive losses to dull that momentum.

Louisiana finished 23-7 in the Sun Belt to lead the conference, but suffered a similar conference tournament fate in dropping games to Ole Dominion and James Madison. A strong away team this season with a 14-5 record on the road, the Cajuns have fared poorly in neutral sites with an 0-5 mark. Led by Sun Belt Player of the Year Kyle DeBarge, considered the nation’s best shortstop, Louisiana put five players on the all-conference team, including DeBarge and Pitcher of the Year LP Langevin. Left-hander Chase Morgan won Freshman of the Year honors after leading the Sun Belt with a 2.76 ERA.

The real storyline is whether Texas can advance past Louisiana to produce the matchup this regional was designed to feature — the Lone Star Showdown between the Longhorns and the Aggies, set to again become conference rivals in little more than a month. The two teams played a non-conference matchup at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on March 5, a dominant 9-2 win by Texas A&M coming off the three Texas weekend losses at the Astros Foundation College Classic that put the flaws of Pierce’s team on full display.

While Texas went on to bottom out with midweek home losses to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and UTRGV, Texas A&M finished second in the SEC West behind Arkansas with a 19-11 conference record. Like the Longhorns and Cajuns, the Aggies also lost both games in the conference tournament, falling to Mississippi State and Tennessee. Against opponents outside of the SEC, Texas A&M went 25-0 this season.

Grambling arrives in College Station courtesy of the SWAC’s automatic bid, winning four straight games in the conference tournament to emerge as champions from the loser’s bracket. What to know about the Tigers? The Longhorns are in trouble if they have to play them.

The winner of the College Station Regional advances to face the winner of the UC Santa Barbara Regional with a trip to the College World Series on the line.