LUBBOCK, Texas – A windy Saturday night that featured seven home runs combined between Kansas and Texas Tech ended with a shutout homer as Texas Tech beat Kansas 8-7 in 10 innings at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park. Luke Leto, Collier Cranford, Michael Brooks and Cole Elvis all homered for Kansas.
The Jayhawks battled throughout the game, coming back from a four-run deficit and a two-run deficit early. Leto and Cranford hit back-to-back home runs to help tie the game at 4-4 in the fourth. Then Elvis hit a game-tying home run in the eighth that eventually sent the game to extra innings. Texas Tech’s Gavin Kash hit a walk-off home run to end it with two outs in the 10th.
Texas Tech (36-19, 11-12 Big 12) took the lead first for a second day in a row on Friday. Three runs in the second inning and one run in the third gave the Red Raiders a 4-0 lead. Dillon Carter hit a solo home run in the second and Austin Green had a solo shot in the third.
The deficit did not phase the Jayhawks. In the fourth inning, KU scored four runs to tie the game. The inning started with singles by Elvis and Sam Hunt. Jake English drove in Elvis from third base on an RBI fielder’s choice for the first run of the inning. Leto was next and crushed a 472-foot home run to right field to make it 4-3. Cranford followed Leto and went back-to-back with a solo homer to tie the game at 4-4.
The Red Raiders loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth with no outs. They were able to score two runs in the inning on a pair of sacrifice flies. That made the score 6-4 in favor of Texas Tech.
The teams traded runs in the fifth inning. Brooks launched a solo home run for his eighth blast of the season. The Red Raiders got the run back in the bottom half of the inning on an RBI single by Nolen Hester. After five innings, Texas Tech led 7-5.
Neither team scored in the sixth or seventh innings, but Elvis had a big moment for a second straight night. In the eighth, Brooks led off the inning with a single. Elvis came next and hit an opposite-field home run to right to tie the game at 7-7. He hit a go-ahead home run in the ninth inning on Thursday.
After a scoreless ninth inning, the game went to extras. Kansas left a runner on first in the top half of the 10th. The Jayhawks were able to get the first two outs in the bottom of the 10th, but Kash sent a 3-2 pitch to right field to win it.
Hunter Cashero started for Kansas and allowed four runs over 2.2 innings. Ethan Bradford, Kolby Dougan, Steven Andrews and Stone Hewlett followed from the bullpen for Kansas. Andrews threw a scoreless inning of relief. Hewlett suffered the loss after giving up the walk-off home run.
PITCHERS OF RECORD
Win: Kyle Robinson (1-1)
Final line: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO
Loss: Stone Hewlett (0-5)
Final line: 2.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 3 SO
NOTES
• Kansas dropped to 2-1 in extra innings this season.
• Kansas hit back-to-back home runs for the second time this season (Luke Leto and Jake English vs. Oakland on February 26, 2023). The Jayhawks hit four home runs in the game.
• Elvis hit his team-leading 14th home run of the season. The last Jayhawk with at least 14 home runs in a season was Tony Thompson in 2009 when he hit 21 homers.
• Koszewski pushed his on-base streak to 14 games.
• Leto hit his seventh home run of the season. According to TrackMan data, the home run’s distance was 472 feet.
• Cranford hit his sixth home run of the season.
• Brooks hit his eighth home run of the season. All eight of his home runs have come in the last 17 games. Brooks had three hits in the game to push his season total to 57 hits and his donation to Lawrence Schools Foundation to $1,140.
• Kodey Shojinaga had his 18-game hitting streak snapped.
NEXT
Kansas (24-29, 8-15 Big 12) plays Texas Tech in the final game of the regular season on Saturday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 2 pm CT. The Jayhawks will go for the series win.
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