The Kansas softball team picked up five wins in four days at the Texas A&M Invitational — including three by run rule — but one in particular gave a jolt to their season.
KU defeated the host Aggies, who were ranked No. 17 in the nation, 1-0 on Saturday night, behind Kasey Hamilton’s seven shutout innings in the circle and Olivia Bruno’s go-ahead home run in the final frame.
“I’m so proud of Kasey Hamilton,” KU coach Jennifer McFalls said in a press release. “I thought she was just dealing and truly let her defense totally help and support her tonight. Our defense has played great these last few games and kept us in the game. I was really proud of Olivia Bruno stepping up and just doing what she does by driving in that run for us tonight.”
The Jayhawks fell behind 5-0 and 6-1 early Sunday morning against North Dakota State but rallied to run-rule the Bison 15-6 behind a career-high six RBIs from catcher Lyric Moore.
“We just went in with a gameplan and Coach (Rich Wieligman) told us what we were looking for,” Moore said in a release. “We started off really flat and I just wanted to be that igniting piece for us, because we all bounce off of each other.”
On the whole, KU went 5-0 in the tournament to improve to 9-5-1 on the year with two victories over NDSU, two over UTSA and the one over A&M. The Jayhawks will face Austin Peay in Clarksville, Tennessee, on Thursday.
Baseball
A sweet start at the competitive Round Rock Classic turned sour for the Jayhawks — they beat Texas State 7-4 after a four-run first inning Friday night, then led Washington State 4-1 after six innings Saturday. But the Cougars scored three runs against Gavin Brasosky and one more off Grant Adler, as KU squandered six innings of one-run ball from freshman Dominic Voegele and fell 5-4.
The Jayhawks didn’t have much more luck against No. 24 Kentucky on the tournament’s final day Sunday, as despite outhitting the Wildcats 13-9 they left 11 runners on base and fell 8-5.
KU dropped to 3-4 on the year but will host Texas Southern at Hoglund Ballpark for a three-game series beginning Friday at 3 p.m.
Track and field
In a busy weekend at Big 12 Conference indoor track and field championships, four KU athletes won their respective events, as the men’s team finished fourth overall and the women’s team sixth.
All four winners were on the men’s team: Michael Joseph (who won the 400 meters with a time of 45.46 seconds), Grant Lockwood (600 yards, 1:07.79), Devin Loudermilk (high jump, 2.26 meters) and Clayton Simms (pole vault, 5.68 meters).
Mason Meinershagen finished second in the women’s pole vault at 4.45 meters.
The NCAAs are next up and will take place in Boston from March 8-9.
This story has been updated to correct the date of the NCAA indoor championships.
AP Photo/Colin E. Braley
