It had been a long time since Erich Weiss last made a slow trot around the bases. 

In his 38th game and 135th at-bat of the season, the third baseman finally connected on his first home run of the season in the first inning of the Longhorns’ 4-0 victory over Houston on Tuesday.

“It was awesome,” Weiss said. “I hope it will get me going. It is kind of a weight off, you just got to play the game and take what it gives you.”

The home run also marked the first hit by Weiss since he was forced to leave Friday night’s game against West Virginia after a pitch hit off his helmet and broke his nose. Weiss made his first start since the injury on Tuesday after pinch-hitting in Sunday’s game.

Neither team scored again until the fifth inning, when C.J Hinojosa hit a single to right field to drive home Weston Hall and extend his team leading RBI total to 24. Texas would add two more runs in the bottom of the sixth on a run-scoring wild pitch and an RBI double by Hall. 

Josh Urban was dynamic in his third consecutive Tuesday start, as he allowed just one hit in four scoreless innings while striking out one. Travis Duke pitched three scoreless innings to lower his ERA on the season to 0.64, and Ty Marlow came in from first base to pitch the final two frames.

The Cougars struggled to get anything started on offense, recording only four hits in the game. Only one of those hits went for extra bases, and they went down in order in five different innings.

Following the win, head coach Augie Garrido was pleased with the way his team fought to win the game and acknowledged the urgency to compile wins throughout the rest of the season.

“It was a grind on offense,” Garrido said. “We just had to keep grinding it out. Every game is big for us. Every game’s a must-win game. There is nothing left for us to do than win every game we possibly can. We all know that and you can’t hide from that.”

With the win, Texas evened the season series against Houston one game to one. The Cougars took the first matchup by a 4-3 score on March 19 in Houston.

The Longhorns are now 22-17 on the season and 18-8 at home. That said, they will need to pick up several key wins on the road this weekend at Baylor to improve their standing in the Big 12. Texas is 5-10 in conference play this season and is tied with Texas Tech for last place in the Big 12.

Texas will look to pick up its first Big 12 series win of the year this weekend in Waco, with the first game scheduled to begin Friday at 6:35 p.m. 

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