Doomed by two home runs and a dropped fly ball, Texas baseball's recent woes worsened Tuesday night in a 9-2 loss to No. 7 Texas A&M at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.

No. 24 Texas (7-5) has now lost four straight games heading into its three-game series at No. 17 Texas Tech this weekend. Since 2020, Texas is 13-19 against teams from the Southeastern Conference.

"We could take this as a negative way or take it as a blessing in disguise," Longhorns catcher Kimble Schuessler said. "It's early in the season, we've only played (12) games. It's not how you start out, it's how you finish."

It didn't take Texas A&M (12-0) long to grab a lead in front of an announced crowd of 8,060 as Braden Montgomery crushed a two-run homer with one out in the opening inning. Texas cut into the lead in the fourth frame, but the Longhorns were looking at a 3-1 deficit at the end of the sixth after a couple of baseballs hit by Porter Brown and Casey Borba died at the warning track.

A&M blew open the game in the seventh inning following a rare error in left field by Brown. A dropped ball — which was just Brown's second error in two years — led to four unearned runs, and the Aggies' lead never dipped below five runs after that UT implosion.

The game ended on the 12th strikeout of the night by a Longhorn. This is Texas' longest in-season losing streak since 2019. (Texas lost five straight games between the 2022 and 2023 seasons.) This past weekend in Houston, Texas lost 6-3 to No. 3 LSU, 11-10 to Texas State and 14-11 to No. 9 Vanderbilt.

"When we pitch, we don't play defense. When we play defense, we're not hitting more. (When we have) really hot bats, then the combination of pitching and defense," Texas coach David Pierce said. "We're not playing three phases. Until we play three phases, it's going to continue."

One of six Texas pitchers to work on Tuesday, starter Tanner Witt was hit with the loss. Before his night ended with one out in the fourth, he had struck out three batters while allowing three hits, two runs and one walk. The fourth-year right-hander also plunked two Aggies.

Over 3⅓ innings, Witt threw 68 pitches. Those innings and pitches were highs for Witt since he returned from elbow surgery following the second weekend of the 2022 season.

"I thought he did really good," Schuessler said. "He reminded me of how he was before TJ today. His fastball had a lot of lift on it, and I think he's trending in the right direction. He's a guy that we're really going to need and he's showing good signs."

Tuesday marked the end of a run of annual nonconference games between the Longhorns and Aggies that dated back to 2016. Texas went 2-6 in those midweek battles, and the two teams also split their two games in a 2018 NCAA regional and the 2022 College World Series. Texas is joining A&M in the SEC next season and the conference has already designated UT and Texas A&M as permanent rivals who will play each other every year.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Longhorns extend baseball losing streak with loss to Texas A&M Aggies