No. 21 Texas maintains its winning ways with a dramatic victory in College Station

COLLEGE STATION — During the fifth inning of Tuesday night's Texas vs. Texas A&M game at Blue Bell Park, a fan ran onto the field.

Carrying a sign and political message painted across his bare chest, the masked man wandered across the infield and temporarily dropped his pants. He then jogged into the outfield, hopped the fence and was apprehended by a waiting officer.

So, that fan's no longer streaking. The Longhorns, however, still are.

No. 21 Texas grabbed an early lead and then fended off the Aggies in a 5-2 conquest. The victory extended UT's winning streak to 15 games. It's the longest active streak in the nation.

Ranked in the D1Baseball poll for the first time this season, the Longhorns (19-7) also secured their first win in College Station since 2011. The Aggies beat Texas both in Austin and in Omaha last season and Texas hadn't won a game in this series since 2018.

"A lot of the guys have never got to experience this," fourth-year infielder Peyton Powell said. "(Fifth-year outfielder Eric Kennedy) in all of his years has never beaten A&M. Neither have I, so I'm right behind him. It was nice to get that and feel that on their home field and take it back to Austin."

Texas bested the Aggies (15-10) behind patchwork pitching. Lebarron Johnson Jr. threw 47 pitches over the first three innings. Heston Tole (11 pitches) and David Shaw (38) got Texas through the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. Lucas Gordon worked a 15-pitch seventh. And Zane Morehouse (49 pitches) finished the job.

It was Gordon's first midweek appearance of the season. Texas coach David Pierce said Gordon — the Longhorns' Friday night starter — was scheduled to throw a bullpen session anyway on Tuesday, and that Gordon's start this weekend could be pushed back if needed.

"We've been talking about getting our best five, six guys in the mix," Pierce said. "If he would have got extended, we would have pushed him to Saturday instead of Friday. So we felt really comfortable; he threw 15 pitches. He was definitely in the mix for today."

By pitching the final two innings, Morehouse recorded his third save. There wasn't a lack of drama in his outing, though.

With two outs in the eighth, Morehouse allowed a single and then issued a four-pitch walk. After A&M cleanup hitter Jace LaViolette took two balls, the well-known counting chant from Aggies fans reached a bellowing "Ball 7." Morehouse, though, rallied and threw three straight strikes.

After the game, Morehouse said he had drowned out the noise. Texas A&M announced a crowd of 7,347 for the game.

"You just get up there and you compete," Morehouse said. "You get tunnel vision and you don't really pay attention to it, honestly. It's crazy, but it's true."

In the final frame, a Texas A&M team that has now lost four straight games got runners to second and third base with one out. Texas had two options ready in the bullpen, but Pierce stuck with Morehouse because he said he liked the matchups. Morehouse responded with two strikeouts to close out the game.

"I think he did a really good job of closing the door," Powell said.

Texas struck first with Porter Brown's two-run double in the opening frame, and a slew of singles led to a third-inning run. Texas entered the eighth inning with a 3-2 lead and loaded the bases before adding two runs when Garret Guillemette was hit by a pitch and Brown grounded into a fielder's choice.

Texas outhit the Aggies 15-6, and Powell reached base on five of his six plate appearances. The Longhorns did strand 15 runners and struck out 13 times, though.

"I think we did really good," Powell said of UT's offensive performance. "We won, so that's No. 1. I think we showed good fight in the box."

The reigning Big 12 player of the week, Brown finished with three RBIs and two hits. The transfer from TCU played for current A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle in Fort Worth from 2019-21. Brown is hitting .363 with a team-high 28 RBIs.

"I'm happy Porter's having a great season," Schlossnagle said. "He's an awesome guy, model young man. I just don't like it happening against the Aggies."

One fast relay saved the day

Key play: With Texas leading 3-1 in the fourth inning, the Aggies tried to get something going against Tole. With two outs, Trevor Werner lined a double into right field, but he tried to extend that into a triple. But Texas cut him down on a relay play that started with right fielder Dylan Campbell and ended with Powell making the tag at third base, with shortstop Mitchell Daly as the middle man.

This Longhorn knows the Aggies well

Notable number: 3. Tuesday marked the third straight season that Tole pitched against Texas A&M. A transfer from Arkansas, he threw an inning of scoreless relief in the Razorbacks' 13-0 win over the Aggies in 2021, and last season he pitched two innings and allowed a solo homer in an 11-10 loss.

On deck: No. 17 Oklahoma State

Up next: A return to Big 12 play and a weekend trip to Oklahoma State's O'Brate Stadium is on deck for Texas. Oklahoma State (20-5, 4-2) is No. 17 in this week's D1Baseball poll. Texas went 2-4 last season against the Cowboys, one of those an elimination game at the Big 12 Tournament.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas holds off rival Aggies to extend nation's longest winning streak