No. 1 Kansas 8, No. 8 Baylor, 7 – There’s more work to be done, but the Big 12 regular season champion, the Kansas Jayhawks, appear to be the team to beat at the conference tournament in Surprise, Arizona.
However, the Baylor Bears gave them a run for their money.
The odds of this game going to extras were low. Very low. Kansas led 7-1 after seven innings, powered by three home runs.
Augusto Mungarrieta kicked things off with a 395-foot blast in the third, and Tyson LeBlanc and Tyson Owens went back-to-back in the bottom of the fifth.
That was more than enough run support for right-hander Dominic Voegele, who was dominant in his seven frames. The junior struck out eight and allowed just one run on four hits, showing little to no emotion on the mound.
Baylor stormed back in the eighth, plating four on Brytton Clements’ two-run double and a grounder that got past Josh Dykhoff at first base. Dykhoff’s error scored two and cut the deficit to 7-5.
Down to their last strike in the ninth, Baylor second baseman Pearson Riebock lined a two-run base knock through the vacated hole between second and first base.
Kansas outfielder Savion Flowers, who had just 10 at-bats throughout the entire season before today’s contest, drilled a walk-off solo homer to the turf beyond right field in the bottom of the 10th.
Flowers, who showed that improbable things happen more often than not in baseball, was not in the starting lineup.
Clearly, the sophomore was not phased by the moment.
Kansas’ victory sets up a matchup with No. 5 Oklahoma State at 4:30 p.m. MDT at Surprise Stadium.
Photo: Kansas outfielder Savion Flowers celebrates while rounding the bases against Baylor in the Big 12 Tournament (Courtesy of Kansas Baseball)
