So much for the SEC baseball preview.

If Texas baseball's last four games are any indication of how life in the new league is going to be from now on, did the Longhorns keep the receipt? Is it too late for them to say nah, never mind, and stay where they are?

Yeah, didn't think so.

That said, after suffering its fourth straight defeat on Tuesday night — a 9-2 loss to No 7 Texas A&M at UFCU Disch-Falk Field — Texas had best just put on its big-boy pants and dig in.

Just two days after SEC prime-time clubs No. 3 LSU and No. 9 Vanderbilt got in their punches in the Astros Foundation College Classic, another conference heavyweight came to Austin and delivered another knockout blow for the Longhorns' longest losing streak since 2019. And just as humbling was a come-from-ahead, 11-10 loss to Sun Belt power Texas State, nobody’s slouch.

On a dead-calm Tuesday in front of the largest regular-season home crowd ever — and maybe the quietest — the Aggies waxed Texas in front of a docile audience of 8,060, and the 9-2 loss wasn’t that close. And wasn’t pretty at all. Longhorns coach David Pierce sifted through six pitchers trying in vain to tame a dynamic Aggies lineup. Two of the batters they walked and one that starter Tanner Witt plunked all scored.

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David Pierce: 'We basically laid an egg'

The Longhorns batters, who were so ferocious in Houston, wilted against Chris Cortez and his 98-mph fastball. They had just two hits in 21 at-bats with runners on and were hitless in seven chances with runners in scoring position.

Texas had plenty of chances with baserunners in every inning, but couldn’t find a clutch hit. And the Longhorns are yet to show the legit power arms that a team needs to get to the College World Series and do damage in Omaha, at least not yet other than ace Lebarron Johnson Jr.

Defensively, Texas’ normally reliable fielders had an off night. Left fielder Porter Brown had a liner in the gap glance off his glove to allow in two runs, and right fielder Max Belyeu booted a single in right field, a play that let in two more.

“Tough night,” Pierce sighed. “Tough stretch. We basically laid an egg.”

That’s what the cruel game of baseball does to you. It’s the equivalent of walking around on a sunny day only to get whacked by a two-by-four when you round the corner. And now it’s time for Big 12 play, ready or not, because the stumbling Longhorns must gather their footing quickly before a three-game set on the road against No. 17 Texas Tech, a 10-2 team that has won seven in a row.

Gulp.

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History says to give Texas some time

So what, you say? Texas has started slow out of the gate before and still made it to Omaha as recently as two years ago. And it’s clearly true that No. 24 Texas has lost to better teams.

But is Texas a good team?

No one can be sure at this point, but I’m betting it will be. At 7-5, the Longhorns are pretty much a .500 baseball team and have to show otherwise very quickly, but they should have enough top bats and effective arms to be a Big 12 contender. They’ve already clubbed 22 home runs and are on a pace to hit 101, which should produce a heck of a lot of wins. They run well enough, field plenty well and just need some starting pitchers to start going seven innings and relievers to do their jobs, and they need to sort out a closer.

“Is it a talent deal?” Pierce mused. “I don’t think so. I think it’s just putting it all together.”

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By any measurement, Texas is not elite. But it’s losing to teams that are. Heck, this may be one of the best A&M teams ever, having run off a dozen consecutive wins without a defeat. A&M’s No. 1 pitcher, sophomore Ryan Prager, hasn’t allowed a run all season.

Asked if it could be the best, Aggies coach Jim Schlossnagle said, “I don’t know about that. That 1989 team was pretty amazing.”

And yet that 58-7 team headlined by Chuck Knoblauch, a 12-year major leaguer, and All-American John Byington didn’t reach Omaha, swept in a doubleheader by Ben McDonald and LSU in a regional in College Station.

This A&M team might be earmarked for similar success if not beyond. It’s loaded with a heavy-hitting lineup paced by future first-round draft picks Braden Montgomery and Jace LaViolette — the best one-two punch in college baseball — and a deep, talented pitching staff.

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The Aggies struck first in the opening inning with a two-run, laser shot of a home run by Montgomery. He’s the Stanford transfer who didn’t exactly treat Texas all that well in last year’s heartbreaking super regional with six hits and two RBI in the Cardinal’s two-out-of-three series wins.

And then the visitors tacked on six more in the seventh and eighth innings to pull away from the Horns.

Montgomery’s so talented, one rumor has floated around that he received half a million in NIL money at Aggieland. Schlossnagle said he didn’t know about that, but added about the sum, “He was offered way more than that at four other SEC schools.”

Yeah, they take their ball seriously in the SEC.

And I’m betting Texas gets up to speed so it can join them in good standing. History’s sure on its side. But it’s going to need a big infusion of help from a beleaguered and battered bullpen.

“I have a lot of respect for what David’s done there,” Schlossnagle said. “By the end of the year, they’re either in Omaha or on the brink of Omaha.”

Pierce hopes he’s right.

Few doubt that Johnson will round into ace form and just needs to hold his pitch count down to last longer in games. Charlie Hurley, Texas' No. 2 starter and one of six Longhorns who made it to the mound Tuesday, has good stuff.  And Witt, two years removed from Tommy John surgery, showed some good signs with three strikeouts in three-plus innings but still has command issues and pitches from behind too much.

“At times we look like one of the best teams in the country,” Pierce said. “And at other times, we look like one of the worst teams in the country.”

Three of those five losses, however, came to top-10 clubs.

Pierce wouldn’t have it any other way, at least the schedule part.

“I don’t care,” the eighth-year Longhorns coach said. “I’m not backing down from the competition. Yeah, it’s going to make us better. (If) we play poor teams, we won’t be exposed. We need to be exposed right now.”

And they have been.

Now comes the hard part: fixing the problems

Pierce made it a point to infer there are plenty of ways to get his point across. But he wasn’t invoking an Augie Garrido-style, uh, heartfelt message.

“You can run guys. Or you can scream at them,” Pierce said. “But this generation doesn’t really respond to a lot of that. It’s not like they’re not working.”

Apparently they need to work harder.

The Longhorns barely registered a pulse offensively on Tuesday, other than the two hits apiece from third baseman Peyton Powell and the surging Kimble Schuessler.

“Obviously it’s really early,” said Schuessler, the Texas catcher and one of three .400 hitters in the order. “Our bats have shown really good signs and our pitching has a little ways to go. We could take this in a really negative way, this tough stretch, but we’re going to take it in a positive outlook.”

So, chin up, right?

It’s barely March.

This weekend's series

No. 24 Texas (7-5, 0-0) at No. 17 Texas Tech (10-2, 0-0), Friday-Sunday, ESPN+, 1300

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Early season woes against the SEC dragging down Texas baseball team