Texas baseball mounts comeback to sweep KU in regular season finale

In a trying game for head coach David Pierce and No. 22 ranked Texas baseball in the regular season finale against the Kansas Jayhawks on the afternoon/evening of May 21, this team still managed to come away with the desired result. Texas was down against Kansas for most of the first half of this game.

In fact, it took until the bottom of the seventh inning for the Longhorns to erase a multi-run lead that Kansas held since the fourth inning. Kansas also held the lead in general in this game for four innings.

But it was a massive rally by the Longhorns, spearheaded by Murphy Stehly, that saw this team score a whopping nine runs in the seventh and eighth innings. Texas was able to score five runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to take the lead for the first time over the Jayhawks.

And then, the Longhorns added four more runs in the bottom of the eighth to take a comfortable five-run lead into the ninth. That was enough for the Longhorns to take the win to cap this weekend series sweep of Kansas and to end the regular season on a high note.

Texas got the win over Kansas on May 21 by the final score of 11-6.

The pitching wasn’t as consistent for the Longhorns in this game as in the prior two. Zane Morehouse got the start for Texas, where he gave up three earned runs, four hits, and had five strikes, in 3.1 innings of work on the mound.

Texas’ bullpen did lockdown on Kansas late in this game, though. In the last few innings, the Longhorns only gave up one earned. And the win would wind up going to Jared Southard, his first on the season.

With the bats, the Longhorns were clearly on fire late in this one. Stehly led the way for the Longhorns’ offense as he registered a team-high three hits, two runs scored, two runs batted in, and one home run.

Big games from Eric Kennedy and Murphy Stehly help Texas baseball comeback and sweep Kansas

Stehly was one of five Longhorns players to hit a homer in this one. Texas also got a key home run from Eric Kennedy, who provided another important spark late in this game. Kennedy only got one true hit in this game, which was his two-run home run. But he also had two runs scored, one of which where he was hit by a pitch.

Ironically, the Longhorns had two fewer hits than the Jayhawks in this game. But they timed it well and absolutely raked off the Kansas pitching staff with the aforementioned five home runs.

Texas also had one error in this one compared to two for Kansas.

All in all, the Longhorns pulled it together when they needed to in this game. As a result, they finish the regular season on a high note as they’ve won nine of their last 10 games and five in a row ahead of the Big 12 Tournament.

Following this comfortable five-run win over the Jayhawks, the Longhorns are sporting a record of 39-17 (14-10 Big 12). Meanwhile, the Jayhawks finish up the regular season with a lowly record of 20-35 (4-20 Big 12). Texas finishes the regular season in a tie for fifth place in the Big 12 with the West Virginia Mountaineers, as each team has a record in conference play of 14-10.