🥎 Jayhawks Gear Up for First of Back-to-Back Home Tournaments

LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Kansas Softball team is set to host the Jayhawk Invitational this Sunday, March 13-Monday, March 14 at Arrocha Ballpark. 

The tournament will feature five teams including, Kansas, Missouri State, SEMO, Iowa and Wichita State. 

The Jayhawks, who are 7-11 on the season, will play three games in two days, looking to break a seven-game losing streak. Their weekend play will start on Sunday at 3 p.m. CT against the Iowa Hawkeyes. On Monday, Kansas has a doubleheader starting with Wichita State at 1:30 p.m. CT, followed immediately by the final game of the tournament against SEMO at 4 p.m. CT. 

Kansas is currently led by sophomore Lyric Moore with 19 hits. She also is 10th in the Big 12 with a .410 batting average. Junior Ashlyn Anderson leads the team and the conference with seven doubles thus far this season. She also has a triple and three home runs to her name. Senior Shelby Gayre has five home runs, which is good for the team lead and tied at sixth in the individual conference standings. Sophomore Kasey Hamilton has 31 strikeouts in the circle this year, and freshman Katie Brooks is not far behind with 25. 

Iowa currently has an 11-5 record, which puts them in sixth place in the Big 10 Conference. They have two players in the conference top-10 for the batting average and on base percentage categories. Sophia Maras has a .452 average and .500 on-base percentage. Nia Carter has a .426 average and .509 on-base percentage. Pitcher Denali Loecker ranks fourth in the Big 10 with a 1.13 ERA and third for holding her opponents to a .171 batting average. She is currently 7-1 in the circle this year. 

Wichita State is third in the American Athletic Conference with an 11-7 overall record. The team ranks first in batting average (.329), doubles per game (1.88), home runs per game (1.76), scoring (7.41) and slugging (.598) in the American Athletic conference. Sydney McKinney leads the American Athletic Conference in batting average and hits with .484 and 30. Addison Barnard leads the team and the conference with eight home runs and Zoe Jones leads the team and conference with eight doubles.

SEMO has a 9-7 overall record and currently ranks third in the Ohio Valley Conference. Pitcher Rachel Rook leads the conference with 75 strikeouts. She also averages 9.8 strikeouts every seven innings. Additionally, Rook was named the Ohio Valley Conference pitcher of the week for the week of 2/21/22. Both Kaylee Anderson and Aubrie Shore rank among the top 10 of the conference in batting average and slugging percentage. Anderson is batting .400 with a .644 slugging percentage and Shore is batting .386 with a .727 slugging percentage. 

Up Next 

The Jayhawks will host the Rock Chalk Challenge next week featuring South Dakota, Tulsa and Nebraska. Play will start on Friday, March 18 and go through Sunday, March 20.Â