Stillwater, Okla. ? T.J. Walz stopped the bleeding for Kansas University’s baseball team with aplomb.

After having surrendered 20-plus runs in consecutive games, the Jayhawks nearly turned the tables in a 17-3 rout at Oklahoma State on Friday.

Walz, a junior right-hander, struck out a season-high 11 batters and took a no-hitter into the ninth inning.

“One of the things we talked about after getting boat-raced in the previous two games (against Texas Tech and Wichita State), when you hand the ball to your best guy he has to go up there and stop the bleeding,” KU coach Ritch Price said. “T.J. Walz was absolutely magnificent.”

Walz was dominant in his first start in Stillwater since his freshman season.

He held the second-best offense in the Big 12 hitless through the first eight innings. Following a two-out walk to Kevin Chambers in the second inning, the junior did not allow another base-runner until the seventh, retiring 13 Cowboys in a row.

Oklahoma State didn’t record its first hit until Duren Davis beat out an infield single to lead off the ninth. Walz was looking to become the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium, and the first Jayhawk to toss a no-hitter in a conference game since 1957.

Walz (7-3) ultimately allowed two runs on two hits with three walks.

He had some offensive help.

Kansas pounded out 20 hits, including four each by Brandon Macias, Brian Heere and Tony Thompson as the Jayhawks snapped a three-game losing streak and improved to 26-17-1 overall and 7-8-1 in the Big 12. The Cowboys fell to 24-18 and 5-11.

“One of the things you try to teach to your players is that your impact players have to carry your lineup, and for us that’s our three left-handed hitters (Robby Price, Brian Heere and Jimmy Waters) and (Tony) Thompson,” Ritch Price said. “This thing was going to get turned around with them. They need to take the pressure off the back end of our lineup. Then you saw James Stanfield with an RBI hit, you saw (Brett) Lisher with a couple of hits and (Jake) Marasco with a couple of knocks. We were solid No. 1 through No. 9 in the batting order tonight, and that’s why we were able to put up so many runs.”

The 20 hits were the most by a KU team since a 2007 game against Baylor, and the 17 runs were a season-high.

The top four hitters in the batting order: Macias, Robby Price, Heere and Thompson combined to go 13-for-22 with nine runs scored.

The Jayhawks will try to win a series in Stillwater for the first time in program history today with game two of the three-game set at 2 p.m. The game can be seen nationally on Fox Sports Net. It’s available locally on Sunflower Broadband channels 36, 236 and 145.