Another Big 12 series slipped through the Longhorns’ fingers Sunday afternoon. Texas dropped the rubber match to Kansas, 4-3, on Sunday, dropping two of three games to the Jayhawks this past weekend. 

All three games were decided by one run as the Longhorns (19-15, 4-8) are now 9-7 in games decided by one run this year.

In game one, the Longhorns pushed the Jayhawks to 12 innings with the score tied at six before dropping the contest, 7-6, off a walk-off RBI single with two outs. 

The Texas offense was productive in the series opener. Both Ty Marlow and Ben Johnson each had solo home runs in the second. Three straight hits by Erich Weiss, Mark Payton and C.J Hinojosa followed to put the Longhorns up, 4-0. The Jayhawks battled back in the third inning, getting two runs before taking the lead in the fifth with a two-run home run. Texas tied it up twice to force the game into extra innings. 

The Longhorns evened the series on Saturday afternoon with a 2-1 victory over Kansas in game two. Sophomore Dillon Peters pitched a complete-game surrendering one run off six hits. Payton scored first for the Longhorns off a walk in the second before playing Brooks Marlow in the third for the 2-0 advantage. The Jayhawks struck back in the seventh with an RBI double to cut the Longhorns lead to 2-1, but were unable to mount a comeback. 

In Sunday’s series finale, the Longhorns had a chance to take their first conference series since beating Kansas twice in three games last April. Texas got up early with an RBI single in the top of the first from Hinojosa before Kansas responded in the third to tie the score. A two run fourth inning by the Jayhawks gave them the lead. Texas came back in the fifth with two runs, consisting of an RBI single by Weiss and a sacrifice fly by Ty Marlow to tie the game. 

The Jayhawks got the go-ahead run in the sixth thanks to two errors by the Longhorns defense. Texas struggled in the field Sunday afternoon, committing three errors that resulted in several runs. Junior Nathan Thornhill threw nine innings for the Longhorns and grabbed the loss to fall to 2-3 on the season. 

The Longhorns will host UT-Pan American on Tuesday night at 6 p.m. Texas beat UT-Pan American 6-1 in their last meeting March 5.