{"id":146687,"date":"2026-02-06T23:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T23:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/146687\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T23:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T23:34:10","slug":"jayhawks-open-2026-season-with-pair-of-run-rule-wins-in-tampa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/146687\/","title":{"rendered":"Jayhawks Open 2026 Season With Pair of Run-Rule Wins in Tampa"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2013 Kansas softball opened the 2026 season in dominant fashion Friday, sweeping Bethune-Cookman and Illinois State with back-to-back run-rule victories behind explosive offense and strong pitching performances from Kaelee Washington<\/a> and Chloe Barber<\/a>.
\nKansas improved to 2\u20130 on the young season and will look to carry its momentum into Saturday’s matchups against tournament host USF and Big Ten opponent Michigan.<\/p>\n

“We saw a lot of really good things today. Our hitters came out aggressive, our pitchers attacked the zone and we played good defense behind them,” head coach Jennifer McFalls<\/a> said. “It’s a great way to start the season, but we know the competition only gets tougher tomorrow, and we’re excited for that challenge.”<\/p>\n

How It Happened | vs. Bethune-Cookman
\n \n<\/p>\n


\n\tKansas opened the game with a quick defensive top of the first, retiring the side in order with two straight groundouts.
\n\tIn the Jayhawks’ first at-bat of the season, Aynslee Linduff<\/a> tripled to left center to score the first run, and back-to-back doubles from Anna Soles<\/a> and Campbell Bagshaw<\/a> pushed the lead to 3\u20130.
\n\tFreshman Ella Boyer<\/a> then launched a home run to left field to extend the surge.
\n\tPresley Limbaugh<\/a> later drove in Kadence Stafford<\/a> to cap a six-run first inning and give Kansas a 6\u20130 lead.
\n\tThe Jayhawks continued their momentum in the second, holding their opponent to just one hit and no runs on defense. Kansas added to the lead with a double and a single before Bailey Amezcua<\/a> launched a three-run home run to left field, giving the Jayhawks an 11\u20130 advantage by the end of the inning.
\n\tIn the top of the third, Kennedy Diggs<\/a> relieved Washington in the circle and continued the pitching staff’s dominance, holding Bethune-Cookman to no runs, no hits, and no errors in her first appearance in the circle.
\n\tThe offense added one more run to extend the lead to 12\u20130 heading into the fourth inning.
\n\tThe Jayhawks carried their 12\u20130 lead into the top of the fifth and retired the side in order. Diggs recorded two strikeouts, and a final groundout sealed Kansas’ first victory of the 2026 season. <\/p>\n

PITCHERS OF RECORD
\nWin: Kaelee Washington<\/a> (1-0)
\nFinal line: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 SO
\nLoss: Mia Gonzalez (0-2)
\nFinal line: 2.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 1 SO<\/p>\n

How It Happened | vs. Illinois State\u00a0
\n \n<\/p>\n


\n\tKansas struck first at the top of the inning as Linduff walked and later scored on Anna Soles’<\/a> RBI double to right center. Bagshaw followed with an RBI single to give the Jayhawks a 2\u20130 lead.
\n\tIllinois answered with a run in the bottom half, but Kansas limited the damage to take a 2\u20131 lead after one inning.
\n\tBarber took command in the circle in the bottom of the second, recording a strikeout swinging to end the inning, keeping the score at 2-1 in Kansas’s favor.\u00a0
\n\tKansas broke the game open in the fourth. Bagshaw’s leadoff double and singles from Amezcua and Kadence Stafford<\/a> loaded the bases before Tehya Pitts<\/a> delivered an RBI single to make it 3\u20131, and a wild pitch pushed the lead to 4\u20131.
\n\tThe Jayhawks kept rolling as Linduff hit a two-RBI ground-rule double (6\u20131), Cripe followed with an RBI double (7\u20131), and Bagshaw added another RBI single (8\u20131).\u00a0 Amezcua lifted a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 9\u20131 before Stafford capped the inning with a three-run home run to left center, pushing Kansas in front 12\u20131.
\n\tKansas added insurance in the fifth when Flanagan opened the inning with a solo home run to left center, extending the lead to 13\u20131.
\n\tIllinois State threatened in the bottom half with a late rally, scoring four runs to cut the deficit to 13\u20135, but the comeback fell short as Kansas still secured the run-rule victory. <\/p>\n

PITCHERS OF RECORD
\nWin: Chloe Barber<\/a> (1-0)
\nFinal line: 3.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 4 SO
\nLoss: Hannah Meeks (0-1)
\nFinal line: 4.1 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 1 SO<\/p>\n

Up Next:

\nKansas continues tournament play Saturday against host USF and Big Ten opponent Michigan. The USF matchup will be streamed on ESPN+, and fans can follow the rest of the weekend’s action on Kansas Softball’s X (Twitter) account or via live stats.
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2013 Kansas softball opened the 2026 season in dominant fashion Friday, sweeping Bethune-Cookman and Illinois State…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-146687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}