The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Kansas State
Baseball mounts seven-run rally in the ninth but falls on a walk-off at K-State
03.30.2018 | Baseball
Texas scored seven two-out runs in the ninth inning to tie it, but K-State hit a walk-off single to win, 11-10.
MANHATTAN, Kansas—Despite a furious ninth-inning rally that saw Texas Baseball score seven two-out runs to tie the game, Kansas State walked it off in the bottom half to win game two by an 11-10 final score.
K-State picked up the first run of the ballgame in the bottom of the first inning when the Wildcats hit back-to-back one-out doubles to make it 1-0 off starter Nolan Kingham.
Texas responded in the top of the second when right fielder Andy McGuire, making his first start in nearly four years (April 22, 2014), took the 1-0 offering over the center field wall for his first career home run.
The Wildcats regained the lead in the bottom half of the inning, however, thanks to a double, a groundout and a wild pitch. In the third, K-State added to its lead with a three-run homer off of Nico O'Donnell, who'd entered in relief at the start of the frame.
Down 5-1 in the fourth, Texas loaded the bases and, with two away, Jake McKenzie singled to right field to cut the deficit to 5-3. The teams exchanged zeroes in the fifth and sixth innings, but K-State broke things open in the sixth with a four-run inning.
In the ninth, Texas began to mount a comeback. Tate Shaw opened the inning with a single and Kody Clemens added his second hit of the night with one away to put runners on the corners. Zach Zubia followed with his second hit of the ballgame to make it 10-4 before Michael McCann walked to load the bases with two outs. McGuire then drove a base hit up the middle to plate two and cut the deficit to 10-6. After back-to-back walks to David Hamilton and McKenzie made it 10-7, Shaw, who led off to start the inning, ripped a double into the left-center gap to clear the bases and tie the game at 10-10.
Despite the late two-out rally, Beau Ridgeway (1-2) was unable to send the game to extras and a bases-loaded single sent Texas to its first Big 12 Conference series loss of the season.
Shaw, McGuire, and McKenzie each finished with three RBI in the game. The Longhorns will look to salvage a game in the series on Sunday afternoon in a 1 p.m. contest.
