🥎 Jayhawks Split at Second Day of Tiger Classic
BATON ROUGE, La. – The Kansas Softball team split a pair of games at the LSU Tiger Classic on Saturday. The Jayhawks topped Central Arkansas to start the day, before dropping a close contest to No. 5 LSU 5-3 in the nightcap.
The Jayhawks are 1-3 on the young season and will complete play at the LSU tournament on Sunday at 10 a.m., against No. 25 Duke.
Shelby Gayre had five hits on the day, including a home run and three against the Tigers. Shortstop Sydnee Ramsey had a four-hit day.
Game 1: Kansas 4, Central Arkansas 2
Tatum Goff gave up just one earned run and struck out 11 in a complete game effort to lift Kansas to the win.
The sophomore from Rusk, Texas tossed the third complete game of her career, while the 11 strikeouts establish a new career high. Goff gave up five hits and walked one, needing just 99 pitches to earn her first victory of the season.
Goff got all the offensive support she needed in the first inning when the Jayhawks opened the game with a four-spot in the bottom of the first. Brittany Jackson started the rally with an infield single, before stealing second. Ramsey then homered to center with one out to give Kansas a very quick 2-0 advantage.
Gayre kept the rally going with a double and scored later in the inning on an RBI single from Ashlyn Anderson. Kansas made it 4-0 when Miranda Rodriguez reached on an error, scoring Morgyn Wynne.
Central Arkansas scored one in the second, and then added an unearned run in the fourth to cut the lead to 4-2. From there, Goff was on cruise control and kept the Jayhawks in front.
She gave up an infield single in the fifth, but nothing else. She retired the side in order in the sixth, before picking up three strikeouts in the seventh and easily working around a two-out double to complete her gem and finish off the win.
Ramsey led the way offensively, going 3-for-4 with two RBI, a run scored and a double. Gayre also had a multi-hit game, going 2-for-4 with a run. Tarin Travieso reached base twice with a hit and a walk.
Game 2: No. 5 LSU 5, Kansas 3
Gayre and Haleigh Harper both homered for the Jayhawks and Hailey Reed pitched into the fifth, but the Tigers outlasted the Jayhawks.
Gayre gave Kansas an early lead when she hit a solo home run in the second inning to make it 1-0. Gayre, a second-team All-American from a year ago, had 11 longballs last year and already has two in four games this year.
LSU tied it up in the second and then took a 2-1 lead when it scratched a run across in the fourth. But the Jayhawks answered right back with a pair of runs in the fifth to take a 3-2 lead.
Harper homered to lead off the inning and make it 2-2. Jackson then drew a one-out walk and advanced to second on a single from Madison Hirsch. Following a line out, Gayre singled to left with two outs to score Jackson and put Kansas up one.
But LSU answered back with three runs on two home runs in the fifth to go up 5-3, which stayed as the final. Reed started for Kansas and went 4 1/3 innings, giving up five runs on seven hits, while striking out four. Lexy Mills tossed 1 2/3 scoreless innings in relief.
