Kansas baseball’s offense exploded on Friday to push the Jayhawks to a 10-4 home win over No. 27 Texas, but the Jayhawks couldn’t keep the momentum going on Saturday and lost the second game of the series 6-2.
In Game 1 on Friday, the lead went back and forth until the Jayhawks caught fire with five runs in the fifth. KU graduate right hander Collin Baumgartner allowed just two earned runs through 6.2 innings.
It was the Longhorns who scored first on Friday, when junior catcher Garret Guillemette hit a one-run double to right field with two outs in the top of the first inning.
In the second, Kansas evened the score when redshirt junior Collier Cranford came home after a wild pitch from Texas left hander Lucas Gordon. And in the third inning, the Jayhawks took the lead, 2-1, on a solo shot from sophomore outfielder Chase Jans.
But Texas had taken the lead right back, 3-2, by the top of the fifth. One of those Texas runs was a solo homer from Guillemette, and the other came after a failed pickoff attempt.
Kansas needed a big response to pull away from the Longhorns, and it got it in the bottom of the fifth.
Junior outfielder Janson Reeder got the scoring started with a two-run blast over the right-center field wall, putting Kansas up 4-3. But KU wasn’t done there. Senior catcher Cole Elvis drove a two-out RBI double to right-center field for another run, and redshirt sophomore outfielder Mike Koszewski tacked on two more runs with a right-field single.
In just one inning, KU had erased its deficit and raced out to a 7-3 lead.
In the sixth, the Jayhawks added to their cushion with a two-run double from redshirt sophomore infielder Michael Brooks, who extended his on-base streak to 17 games. Texas and Kansas each had one more run in the eighth, but the Longhorns were never able to threaten KU again on Friday.
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Saturday’s game was a different story. The Jayhawks couldn’t produce nearly as much offense, and Texas had its own hot stretch midway through the game that put the Jayhawks in a sizeable hole.
The Longhorns scored their first run of the game in the second with back-to-back sacrifices; Texas’ Tanner Carlson got the sac fly RBI. But that was just a taste of Texas’ offense, and in the fourth, the Longhorns piled on the runs.
Junior infielder Dylan Campbell led the inning off by mashing a ball deep to left field, pushing the score to 2-0. And although KU junior right hander Hunter Cashero was able to get back-to-back outs, Texas wasn’t fazed, and the hits kept coming. By the end of the inning, the Longhorns led 6-0, and they’d strung together five runs in the fourth inning alone.
Texas wouldn’t score again for the rest of the game, but it didn’t need another run to come away with the victory.
Kansas still tried its best to get back in the game. Junior left hander Ethan Bradford came in after Cashero was pulled and threw five innings of relief pitching without giving up a run. And Kansas made a mini-run of its own in the bottom of the fourth inning with three straight singles, including one from Cranford that scored freshman infielder Kodey Shojinaga for the Jayhawks’ first run of the day.
In the ninth inning, Kansas was threatening a comeback, and redshirt sophomore catcher Jake English singled to center field to give the Jayhawks their second run of the game, but two straight strikeouts abruptly dashed Kansas’ hopes.
Cashero, who pitched 4.2 innings and gave up six hits and six earned runs, took the loss, his first of the season.
The Jayhawks are now 22-25 (7-13 Big 12), and the Longhorns are 31-17 (11-9 Big 12). Game 3 of the series is at 1 p.m. Sunday at Hoglund Ballpark.
