AUSTIN, Texas – No. 22 Texas Baseball finished off the sweep of Kansas with an 11-6 win behind a go-ahead grand slam from former Jayhawk Skyler Messinger.
The Longhorns (39-17, 14-10) trailed 5-2 going into the seventh inning before scoring five runs in the frame to grab the lead. Messinger, who played four seasons at Kansas, came to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs and delivered a storybook blast.
Murphy Stehly went 3-for-5 with two RBI, two runs scored and a homer in his final regular season home game. Fellow senior Austin Todd was 1-for-4 with a homer as well.
Jared Southard pitched 1 2/3 innings out of the bullpen, striking out four batters, to pick up his second win of the season. Aaron Nixon pitched the final two innings and recorded his sixth save of the season.
Kansas opeped the scoring with a solo home run in the top of the second inning to take a 1-0 lead. The Jayhawks expanded the lead to 3-0 in the top of the fourth inning with two-out two-run double to right field.
Two more Kansas runs came across in the fifth inning to extend the lead to 5-0 over Texas.
The Longhorns got on the board in the fifth with Mitchell Daly leading off the inning with a solo homer. Texas trimmed the lead to 5-2 on a sacrifice fly by Ivan Melendez.
Texas grabbed its first lead of the day with a five-run seventh inning, pulling ahead 7-5. With two outs, Eric Kennedy was hit by a pitch and Ivan Melendez singled to put two runners on. After a pitching change, Stehly drove in a run with a single to left field.
Todd loaded the bases with a walk and Messinger smashed the go-ahead grand slam to left-center field to give Texas the lead.
Kansas got a run back in the eighth off of Nixon to trim the lead to 7-6.
The Longhorns put the game away with three home runs in the eighth inning. Eric Kennedy hit a two-run shot before Stehly and Todd went back-to-back.
Texas will now turn its attention to the Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship, which starts Wednesday, May 25 at Globe Life Field in Arlington.
