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    AUSTIN, Texas _ Fresh off their first ASUN series victory at Bellarmine over the weekend, the University of Central Arkansas Bears head in the other direction on Tuesday, taking on the No. 2 Texas Longhorns down in Austin.

    The Bears (7-11, 2-1) will meet the Longhorns (17-5) for just the second time at 6:30 Tuesday at Disch-Falk Field. Texas won the previous meeting 4-2 back in 2012 when they were ranked No. 20 in the nation.
    
    The current Longhorns were 11-0 and No. 1 in several polls a few weeks ago before going 6-5 in their past 11 games.However, they swept Incarnate Word last weekend in a non-conference series to improve to 9-1 at home this season. The Longhorns outscored their last four opponents (Citadel, UIW) by a combined score of 59-8.

    The Bears piled up 39 hits in the 2-1 series win over Bellarmine and hit .355 for the weekend. Junior right hander Andrew Shoultz recorded both of the Bears' wins out of the bullpen. Junior catcher Noah Argenta led the Bears at the plate, hitting .600 with his first home run. Sophomore center fielder Drew Sturgeon had a team-best eight runs batted in.

    UCA's pitching staff struck out 28 Knights in the three-game series. Bellarmine won the opener 4-2 but UCA got hot at the plate and won the next two 15-9 on Saturday and 10-6 on Sunday.

    The Bears kept it close with the Longhorns in the prior meeting, UCA, one year prior to its 2013 NCAA Regional appearance, was tied 2-2 with Texas through six innings before the Longhorns added single runs in the seventh and eighth innings to secure the victory. First baseman Bryan Willson and catcher Michael Marietta had two hits each for UCA.
    
    John Curtiss, who played for five different MLB teams from 2017 through 2021, picked up the victory on the mound for the Longhorns. Corey Knebel, an All-American and the 39th overall pick in the 2013 MLB Draft, pitched the final two innings for the save.

    Texas will be UCA's second Top 5 nationally ranked opponent so far this season. The Bears played No. 5 Vanderbilt close (5-2 loss) back on March 1 in Nashville. UCA also has Top 10 Arkansas coming up twice on the schedule, on April 5 in Fayetteville and on April 26th at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.