Sophomore outfielder Savion Flowers crushed a walk-off home run in the bottom of the tenth inning on Thursday, May 21, 2026, to lift top-seeded Kansas to an 8-7 victory over eighth-seeded Baylor in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals at Surprise Stadium in Arizona.
The win advanced the No. 13 ranked Jayhawks to the tournament semifinals and marked the program's fifth 40-win season, improving their overall record to 40-16.
Kansas set a new program tournament record by hitting four home runs in the contest.
Augusto Mungarrieta, Tyson LeBlanc, and Tyson Owens also went deep earlier in the game.
Baylor fell to 29-27 after erasing a six-run deficit late.
The Bears scored four runs in the eighth inning and tied the game with two outs in the ninth.
Flowers entered the game midway through as a defensive replacement for Max Soliz Jr. because starter Brady Ballinger was sidelined with a hamate bone injury, according to KU Sports.
Kansas starting pitcher Dominic Voegele allowed just one earned run on four hits while striking out eight batters over seven innings.
During the game, ESPN interviewed Kansas head coach Dan Fitzgerald, who praised his veteran pitcher's reliability in postseason openers.
"He's been in a rotation for three years, and he's got 400-some starts under his belt," Fitzgerald said.
"He's such a great competitor, such a great worker, a great teammate and all the things that we want.
So to have him open up a tournament is a big deal, and he's doing a great job."
After Voegele exited, Baylor mounted its comeback against Kansas relievers Riane Ritter and Boede Rahe.
A two-run double from Brytton Clements and a game-tying, two-strike single by Pearson Riebock keyed the rally.
Following the loss, Baylor head coach Mitch Thompson expressed pride in his team's resilience.
"They battled their tails off today," Thompson said. "We were down against the top-seeded team in the tournament and never say die.
We got back into it, and different guys stepped up all day long. It was awesome to see so many different guys compete."
Thompson acknowledged that while his team showed significant fight, they ultimately fell short against the regular-season conference champions.
"It was 7-1, and it wasn't looking good, and there haven't been many positives, but all of a sudden, there we go," Thompson said.
"We get four, and then it's 7-5, and we're back in it. I give our guys a lot of credit for that.
The heart and the competitive spirit are fantastic. We just didn't quite have enough.
I give credit to Kansas. They got it done, but our guys fought and competed really hard.
We got a lot to be proud of."
Rahe earned the pitching win after throwing a scoreless top of the tenth inning.
Baylor closer Caleb Bunch took the loss after yielding the decisive leadoff home run to Flowers.
Kansas will face fifth-seeded Oklahoma State in the semifinals on Friday at 6:30 p. m.
Central Time.
