Box Score AUSTIN, Texas – The West Virginia University baseball team closed the 2021 regular season with a 12-2 loss to No. 2 Texas in eight innings on Saturday night at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin, Texas.
 
The Mountaineers (23-25, 8-16 Big 12) held an early lead before the Longhorns (40-13, 17-7 Big 12) responded in a big way. WVU finished with two runs on four hits with three errors, while UT tallied 12 runs on 15 hits and no errors.
 
Junior left-handed pitcher Adam Tulloch took the loss on the mound for West Virginia, while Texas' Pete Hansen grabbed the win.
 
WVU had the momentum early, as junior outfielder Austin Davis registered a base hit on the first pitch of the game and later scored on senior catcher/outfielder Paul McIntosh's sacrifice fly to left field to give WVU a quick, 1-0 lead. From there, Tulloch ran into a bit of trouble in the bottom of the first but was able to get out of the frame without yielding a run.
 
However, the Longhorns struck for three runs in the second, spelling the end of Tulloch's outing. Texas went on to score four more in the third, two in the fourth and one in the fifth to take control with a 10-1 advantage.
 
In the seventh, redshirt sophomore infielder/outfielder Alec Burns hit a solo home run, his fourth of the year. But the Longhorns scored a run in the bottom half of the inning, before ending it with a run in the eighth.
 
Davis finished 1-for-1 with three walks and a run scored for the Mountaineers. Burns, sophomore catcher/infielder Matt McCormick and freshman infielder William Bean collected the other three hits for the visitors. Of note, Bean's seventh-inning single was the first of his collegiate career.
 
Along with Tulloch, WVU used five relievers on Saturday, including junior right-hander Madison Jeffrey (1.0 IP), sophomore right-hander Skylar Gonzalez (1.2 IP), junior left-hander Beau Lowery (1.1 IP), freshman right-hander/infielder Ben Abernathy (2.0 IP) and redshirt sophomore righty Noah Short (0.2 IP).
 
With the loss, West Virginia fell to 14-10 all-time against the Longhorns, including 7-8 in Austin. With the regular season in the books, the Mountaineers will head to the 2021 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship, from May 25-30, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
 
A full bracket and matchups will be announced soon.
 
For more information on the Mountaineers, follow @WVUBaseball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.