Kansas suffers tough defeat in walk-off loss
FORT WORTH, Texas – Redshirt-junior starting pitcher Ryan Cyr’s magnificent first eight innings was overshadowed by a walk-off home run Saturday evening at Lupton Stadium as TCU defeated the Kansas baseball team, 7-4.
For the second night in a row, the Jayhawks’ (27-24, 8-12 Big 12) hearts were broken as a long ball by Horned Frog (28-20, 10-10 Big 12) catcher Alex Isola buried them in the ninth inning.
Cyr was vying for his fourth-consecutive complete game, but was removed after allowing the first two batters of the ninth inning to reach. Despite not striking out a batter, Cyr allowed just two runs in eight innings of work before heading out for the ninth. He was charged with one earned run out of the five that scored in the final frame.
Offensively, senior center fielder Rudy Karre set the table well with two hits from the leadoff spot, as well as one run scored. Sophomore designated hitter Nolan Metcalf recorded a double and two RBIs to add to the total.
Relievers Nathan Barry and Jonah Ulane came on to pitch the ninth inning, with Ulane ultimately surrendering the final blow.
NOTES
- Redshirt-junior starting pitcher Ryan Cyr has now pitched at least eight innings in his last four starts. His previous three outings were complete-game efforts.
- Kansas is now 24-1 when leading after eight innings.
QUOTES
Head coach Ritch Price
On the tough loss…
“It has been two of the toughest games all year. I will compliment my team – we played as good as we could have played today. That was a tremendous college baseball game last night and today was the same. Ryan Cyr gave us the great outing that we needed to get us into the ninth with the lead. That was the first blown save that we have had all year when we have had the lead in the ninth inning. It ends up being a devastating loss.”
On what made Cyr effective…
“His ability to command his fastball down in the zone and he executed all four pitches for strikes. Once again, he goes into the ninth inning with 80 pitches.”
UP NEXT
Kansas and TCU will finish their series tomorrow with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. Fans can watch the action live on FOX Sports Southwest+ or tune into a radio broadcast on the Jayhawk Radio Network via KUAthletics.com/Radio or on KCTE.
