Texas was unable to complete the sweep this weekend against Kansas and fell 4-2 in the final game on Saturday in Lawrence, Kan. Sam Stafford started for Texas and picked up his first loss of the season.
“I’m never happy when we lose, but today, I can’t fault our guys with the way they played,” said Texas head coach Augie Garrido. “Kansas was just able to come up with more runs than we did today.”
The Jayhawks got on the board quickly when leadoff hitter Brandon Macias hit Stafford’s third pitch of the game for his second home run of the season. Stafford (5-1) surrendered three earned runs in only 3.1 innings.
Erich Weiss tied the game in the fourth inning with a leadoff home run of his own, which cleared the 16-foot wall in center field.
“It felt like a home run off the bat,” Weiss said. “I got a good pitch to hit and was able to square up on it. If you hit it over that wall in center field, you know you hit it well.”
Weiss finished the game 2-for-4 with two RBI and one run. The freshman has hit safely in 12 consecutive games, the longest streak by a Longhorn this season.
“I try to start every day fresh,” he said. “Coach tells us to start each day with a clean slate, so that’s what I do. I guess right now I’m comfortable at the plate and swinging at good pitches.”
The Jayhawks reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning. Kansas began the inning with a single and a hit by a pitch, and Casey Lytle moved both runners into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. Kendal Carrillo entered the game for Stafford but threw a wild pitch that scored a run, and catcher Kevin Lusson let a ball pass him to score another to put Kansas up 3-1.
Texas answered in the fifth with a single from Weiss that scored Brandon Loy but left two men on base and couldn’t cut into the lead any further. Kansas tacked on another run in the sixth inning for insurance.
“Sometimes, two teams play well, but only one team wins,” Garrido said. “That’s what happened today.”
The Longhorns (30-10, 13-5) hit four balls that were caught along the warning track and were able to put runners into position to score but couldn’t find one more hit to drive them home.
“It’s a tough loss, but we know it’s going to happen from time to time,” Loy said. “If we won every game that we played well in, we’d have more than 30 wins. Every game has a winner and a loser.”
