photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

KU senior Olivia Bruno waves her hands in the air after hitting a home run against UCF on Sunday, May 4, 2025, at Arrocha Ballpark in Lawrence, Kansas.

The Kansas softball team will open the Big 12 tournament against the only team it has beaten in a Big 12 series this season.

No. 9 seed KU (22-27, 6-18 Big 12) will face No. 8 Baylor (26-26, 11-13) on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. at Devon Park at Oklahoma City, and the series in which the Jayhawks took two out of three from the Bears was their very first in league play this year, from March 7-9.

At Getterman Stadium in Waco, Texas, the Jayhawks dropped the opener in heartbreaking fashion after holding a late one-run lead — something that would prove a theme throughout their league slate — but bounced back for a win the next day behind Olivia Bruno’s 6 2/3 solid innings in the circle, and her two-run home run at the plate for good measure. KU then run-ruled Baylor on its last day in Waco for the series win.

After that, the Jayhawks went 4-17 the rest of league play, including just 1-11 at Arrocha Ballpark.

Perhaps the most surprising stat associated with the slide is that throughout its Big 12 slate, KU is just 3-5 in games that it has led entering the seventh inning. That is because it has obtained several of its victories via run rule and let quite a few more slip away on walk-offs or late-inning collapses, including back-to-back results against UCF over the weekend at Arrocha Ballpark in which the Knights overcame three- and four-run deficits.

As a result of that series, UCF jumped to No. 7 as KU slipped into the No. 9 spot behind Baylor. The winner of Wednesday’s game will face No. 1 seed Texas Tech, led by Topeka native NiJaree Canady, which swept the Jayhawks in late March.

When KU has played well, it has owed much of its success to Bruno. The senior has rediscovered the early-career form that made her an all-conference pick as a freshman, while also increasing her contributions in the circle. She has a 2.88 ERA in 73 innings pitched and meanwhile has batted .326 with 12 home runs and 40 RBIs.

Shortstop Hailey Cripe has taken another step forward and tallied similar stats to Bruno’s at the plate, while center fielder Presley Limbaugh is on her way to another season leading KU in batting average at .367. As a whole, though, the Jayhawks have gotten on base less than any other Big 12 team at .324 (the next closest team is Arizona State at .349) and KU has not had consistent production up and down its lineup. Fifteen players have taken at least 29 at-bats this season.

In the circle, KU has been slightly better overall, even if none of its pitchers has quite put up ace-like numbers. Freshmen Kennedy Diggs and Kaelee Washington, junior Lizzy Ludwig and senior Katie Brooks all have ERAs between 4.04 and 4.59, though all of their numbers are amplified by better pitching in nonconference play; since Big 12 action began, they range from Brooks’ 5.48 to Ludwig’s 7.24, and Ludwig, who was stellar as a freshman in 2023, has only pitched three innings in the last month.

Baylor, for its part, has been solid in the circle in recent weeks (though it lost its final regular-season series against Iowa State with a pair of one-run defeats). Lefty Lillie Walker, a Duke transfer, leads the way with a 2.60 ERA in 134 â…” innings pitched.

Also, the Bears feature several of the league’s top hitters, including the winner of its batting title, first baseman Shaylon Govan. Leah Cran, who as the designated player had a home run and a walk-off single in Baylor’s lone victory over KU earlier in the year, is back from injury and batting .382, while Turiya Coleman’s average is .398. In short, even with the Bears’ middling performance this season, they have three hitters who reach base more often than any of the Jayhawks.

Last year’s Big 12 tournament saw KU take down Houston in the opening round before falling to Oklahoma.