For the first time in the month of April, the No. 3 Texas Longhorns (33-9, 12-3) lost a baseball game. UT’s winning streak ended at 16 games this afternoon when No. 24 Oklahoma State (24-12-1, 7-8) handed it a 7-3 defeat reminiscent of UT’s Sunday loss at Baylor in a sweep situation.

Kolby Kubichek’s control was awful and Oklahoma State’s top bullpen arm, Brett Standlee, struck out 10 Longhorns across 6.0 impressive innings. Longhorn fans would probably prefer not to read a recap about today’s performance. So, I’m going to share what’s bouncing around in my head about this team.

--- A road series victory against Oklahoma State, now No. 17 in RPI, is a big deal regardless of what happened today and how it looked. I think it would be foolish to suspect today’s performance is a sign of things to come because it would be ignoring the 16 wins that came before it.

--- Considering he entered today with just five earned runs across his last 24.2 innings, sounding an alarm about Kubichek’s status in the weekend rotation is probably premature. However, Kubichek has issued 22 walks his last six starts with just 14 strikeouts. Whenever a pitcher has a higher walk rate than strikeout rate, that’s a red flag; this one is a hidden red flag because Kubichek is at his best when his sinker is dancing, missing barrels, and finding infield gloves.

Pete Hansen actually came in behind Kubichek with no outs in the second inning and gave up one run, on a homer, over 2.0 innings with three hits, a walk and three strikeouts. If Kubichek struggles his next start, we could see David Pierce entertain the idea of slotting Hansen into the Sunday starting spot. I believe Hansen is a better bullpen fit on weekends than Kubichek is because he’s more likely to throw strikes, but Hansen’s increased usage of secondary stuff has led to better results recently, making him more capable of pitching deep into games.

--- Speaking of missing bats, Ty Madden’s 12 strikeouts Saturday afternoon were important because he showcased a dominant fastball, particularly up in the strike zone, against a good college lineup...

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