Kansas Suffers Setback in Big 12 Opener at Texas Tech

Friday, March 13

Lubbock, Texas

6:30 p.m. CT

University of Kansas

10-7

Texas Tech

12-5

Kansas

Texas Tech

Kansas Suffers Setback in Big 12 Opener at Texas Tech

3/13/2026 10:39:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Season Statistics

LUBBOCK, Texas – Kansas baseball dropped the conference opener 11-4 to Texas Tech on Friday night at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park. Brady Ballinger hit his first home run of the season despite the defeat.

The Jayhawks used five pitchers on Friday evening. Mason Cook got the start and went two innings and allowed two runs. The bullpen was unable to stop the Red Raiders bats as they had nine runs on 10 hits over the next seven innings.

HOW IT HAPPENED
• Texas Tech (12-5, 1-0 Big 12) got on the scoreboard in the first inning. The Red Raiders had an RBI groundout and Logan Hughes hit a solo home run to make it a 2-0 game.
• Kansas (10-7, 0-1 Big 12) was able to cut the deficit in half in the top of the fourth inning. Ballinger hit a solo home run, his first blast of the season.
• The Red Raiders had an immediate response with five runs in the bottom of the fourth. Robin Villeneuve hit a two-run homer and then a two-run single by Linkin Garcia and a sacrifice fly stretched the lead to 7-1.
• The teams traded runs in the fifth inning with an RBI single from Dylan Schlotterback and Texas Tech matching it with a sacrifice bunt. At the end of five innings, Texas Tech led 8-2.
• Kansas trimmed the Red Raiders lead in the sixth with two runs. Cade Baldridge scored on a throwing error and the other run came in on an RBI single off the bat of Augusto Mungarrieta.
• However, the Red Raiders got one of those runs back in the bottom half of the sixth on an RBI single. That made it a 9-4 game.
• Texas Tech added two unearned runs in the eighth inning to bring the score to 11-4.

PITCHERS OF RECORD
Win: Lukas Pirko (3-1)
Final line: 5.2 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 SO
Loss: Mason Cook (1-1)
Final line: 2.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 2 SO

QUOTABLES & NOTABLES
"They were fantastic offensively tonight and we weren't great on the mound. It was great to see Brady connect on a long one and he hammered that ball down the first base line as well. Their offense is very momentum driven and they did a really good job of passing the bat onto the next guy in the fourth inning. The good news is we play tomorrow. The bad news is this game doesn't feel sorry for anyone, so we have got to adjust and come out tomorrow and play solid baseball and be ready to compete again." – Head Coach Dan Fitzgerald

• Kansas was defeated in the conference opener for the first time since the 2023 season.
• Ballinger hit his first home run of the season. He tallied his fifth multi-hit game of the season.

UP NEXT
Kansas will play the second game of the three-game series on Saturday afternoon. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. CT and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.