Texas is being shipped to Texas A&M.

I get that. I really do. Even David Pierce expected as much.

Compelling narrative. Tremendous rivalry. A no-brainer, really. Television nirvana.

But a 3 seed? Really?

Seriously. Come on, NCAA selection committee.

“I’m a little surprised that we ended up as a 3 seed,” Pierce said. “I still thought our résumé was enough to be a 2 seed, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter.”

The Longhorns finished third in the Big 12, a league that has two of the top 16 seeds that are hosting regionals and six teams in the field.

And third seed in College Station as well?

That’s preposterous.

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Must be payback for seeding the Aggie softball team 16th and making it play in Austin. Didn’t turn out too well.

Pierce admits Texas’ 47 RPI didn’t do it any favors, but 14 other teams with invites — some of them automatic qualifiers — are ranked lower.

A 3 seed for the baseball team seems pretty drastic. It's the first time the Longhorns will be a 3 seed since 2015 when they failed to get out of the Dallas Baptist Regional.

Now there’s a catch as there always is. We in Austin all know that Texas has played like a 3 seed lots of times in this strangest of seasons. Even Pierce admits that.

“We can beat anybody in the country,” the eighth-year Longhorn head coach said.

He’s right. They can.

Texas beat regional host Oklahoma twice in Norman. Texas beat regional host Oklahoma State twice as well. Texas won nine of 10 Big 12 series this spring. That’s impressive in any league. And it will face a very solid Louisiana team on Friday before A&M hosts Grambling.

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“But we can be embarrassed by anybody in the country,” Pierce added honestly.

Also true. That’s what happens with perhaps the most unsettled pitching rotation in school history although it’s a very capable one, too, especially if Lebarron Johnson Jr. settles into a groove.

Texas lost four straight, including one to A&M 9-2 at the Disch, and five of six games early in the year. But the Longhorns also lost to the, uh, other A&M, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Don’t think it got an NCAA invitation.

They lost two to Washington, and the Huskies didn’t even throw Michael Penix Jr.

They lost a home series to BYU. They lost big — like 17-9 big — to the, uh, other UT, UT Rio Grande Valley.

They lost two straight in the Big 12 Tournament non-NCAA teams Texas Tech and Cincinnati, allowing 14 runs, and didn’t even have to shower.

For the longest time, the Longhorns couldn’t win a Friday Big 12 opener to save their life. Dropped seven of ’em. Long-time observers know the Longhorns historically have owned Friday openers. Hello, Greg Swindell. Hello, Burt Hooton. Hey there, Calvin Schiraldi and Jim Gideon.

Come to think of it, maybe they should be a 3 seed. At least they’re not a 4.

And honestly, the 3 plays the 2, so it doesn’t really matter who’s 3 and who’s 2 unless a coach wants to play the disrespect card. Motivation shouldn’t be lacking in May, no matter what a team's seeded.

As first baseman Jared Thomas said on Monday, “I think we’ve been underdogs all year. Nobody's expected us to get to the point we’re at anyway. So, we got nothing to lose.”

I’d slow down on that underdog label, JT. Texas was picked to finish second in the Big 12 preseason poll, and champion OU was projected to tie for sixth. TCU was the favorite to win and didn’t even get an NCAA bid. And this was the coaches’ preseason poll.

Jim Schlossnagle, who may have the best team in college baseball, was no help at all and played it safe Monday.

“Texas vs. A&M is always an intense game in any sport, so I’m sure one this weekend could be the same,” the Aggies’ third-year head coach texted. “But we could also not play each other so we are only focused on Grambling at this time.”

Could you try to be any more boring, Jim? Guess he figures the Longhorns already have incentive enough.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas baseball has underachieved but is still underseeded