photo by: AP Photo/Doug Murray

Kansas's Blakely Barber during an NCAA softball game on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026 in Boca Raton, Fla.

The Kansas softball team came back from a gut-wrenching loss on Friday night to claim a series win at Houston over the weekend.

“This was a great team win and an important step for us in conference play,” KU coach Jennifer McFalls said in a press release after the Jayhawks won 11-8 on Sunday. “Our hitters stayed aggressive, our defense made key plays when we needed them, and it was good to see contributions throughout the lineup. Taking a series on the road is never easy, and I’m proud of the way our team competed all weekend.”

KU came extremely close to a sweep against the Cougars, who had been picked to finish last in the league in the Big 12’s preseason poll. The Jayhawks pulled ahead 6-5 in the sixth inning on Friday with a three-run homer by third baseman Kadence Stafford, and Tehya Pitts scored on a wild pitch. Hailey Cripe provided additional insurance in the seventh and KU took a 9-5 lead into the bottom half with Kaelee Washington in the circle.

Washington got the first out, but then allowed a single. A fielding error put a second Cougar on base before Maddie Hartley drove in one run for Houston. Makenna Mitchell came to the plate as the tying run and promptly drove a 2-1 pitch for a three-run homer.

Washington escaped the inning, but KU stranded two runners in the eighth and ended up losing. With runners on first and third, KU intentionally walked Hartley, only for Mitchell to draw a walk-off walk on four straight pitches and win the game for Houston, 10-9.

The Jayhawks bounced back in emphatic fashion on Saturday with the most home runs in a single game in program history. Freshman Ella Boyer hit two and Campbell Bagshaw, September Flanagan, Aynslee Linduff, Tehya Pitts and Stafford were responsible for one each. Flanagan’s came in her return to action after a month long absence. Four of the home runs came in a single inning, the first time KU has accomplished that since 2003.

Blakely Barber pitched all five innings of the run-rule victory and allowed one run on three hits and four walks as KU took the 18-1 victory.

The Jayhawks’ offense remained productive on Sunday, although the pitching let Houston hang around. Bagshaw homered again early, and Pitts, Presley Limbaugh and Linduff contributed to a sixth-run sixth inning that made it 10-1 in KU’s favor. The Cougars, however, staved off the run rule in the bottom half of the inning. Freshman Lila Partridge had to battle her way through the inning after allowing a leadoff home run to Hartley and double to Mitchell. Madox Mitchael and Gabby Rawls drove in one more run each before Partridge got Mandy Esman to ground out for the third out.

Flanagan homered for the second straight day and made it 11-4 in the seventh, but Partridge’s replacement Chloe Barber allowed some late drama in the form of a two-out grand slam by Savanna Luther (who was previously 0-for-6 in her career). Mitchael grounded out to end the game.

The Jayhawks are now 20-8 and 2-1 in league play. They were originally slated to host South Dakota for a doubleheader on Tuesday, but it was postponed and reduced to one game on Wednesday at 12 p.m.

BASEBALL DROPS TECH SERIES

KU baseball salvaged its three-game series at Texas Tech with an explosive 18-7 victory in eight innings on Sunday, but the Jayhawks’ pitching struggled as the Red Raiders took the series win for the weekend.

Mason Cook moved into KU’s weekend rotation after he had started a game during the four-game series against St. Thomas the prior week. He allowed a pair of runs in the first inning, and then Riane Ritter replaced him after two innings.

Ritter got through one inning with the aid of a double play, and the Jayhawks had gotten on the board with Brady Ballinger’s first home run of the year, but Ritter allowed five runs on five hits in the third that made it 7-1.

KU was never particularly close from then on, and multiple throwing errors on the same fielder’s choice in the eighth inning generated a couple of additional runs for Tech as the Red Raiders ended up winning 11-4.

Saturday’s rematch was a back-and-forth contest that could have gone either way with numerous ties and lead changes. Augusto Mungarrieta, Josh Dykhoff and Ballinger all homered early, and Dykhoff put KU ahead 5-3 with an RBI single in the fifth inning, as Cade Baldridge also scored a second run on an error.

However, the Jayhawks’ struggling ace Dominic Voegele was not able to maintain the lead, as the Red Raiders mounted a two-out rally in the bottom half of the fifth with an RBI double by Caden Ferraro and two-run homer from Matt Quintanar.

KU eventually evened the score at 7-7 in the top of the seventh with the help of a throwing error. Then the teams started trading runs. Ferraro homered off one of KU’s top bullpen arms, Boede Rahe. Dariel Osoria managed to get Tyson Owens home on a groundout. Toby Scheidt allowed another home run, this time to Tracer Lopez.

The Jayhawks tied the game once more in the ninth after Dylan Schlotterback reached third base on a passed ball and Ballinger hit a sacrifice fly. But Ferraro’s one-out double in the ninth set up Quintanar for a walk-off single as Tech won 10-9 and KU’s season-high 17 hits fell by the wayside.

KU did one better on Sunday with 18 hits, and they led to 18 runs. Osoria hit three home runs, the first Jayhawk to do so since 1997. The top seven players in the Jayhawks’ lineup all recorded multi-hit games.

Mathis Nayral allowed four earned runs in his four innings and Tech kept the game close for a while, but KU pulled away against the Red Raiders’ bullpen with 10 runs in a three-inning span on nine separate scoring plays to activate the run rule. Osoria’s three homers, by the way, had all taken place in the first five innings.

“It feels really nice to get it going today,” Osoria said in a press release after Sunday’s win. “The last couple of weeks I’ve been hitting the ball pretty hard and nothing has been falling. I’ve just been coming out here every day sticking with the process and trusting what I got. Today, seeing the ball getting down and going over the fence really felt nice.”

The Jayhawks are 11-8 and 1-2 in Big 12 play as they await a midweek matchup with rival Missouri at Hoglund Ballpark on Tuesday at 6 p.m. The Tigers are much improved this season and recently won 13 straight games, although they are coming off a home sweep at the hands of Auburn.