BYU baseball defeated No. 14 ranked Kansas 5-4 at Miller Park, with shortstop Ryder Robinson hitting a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th inning on May 16.
The game concluded BYU’s regular season and featured strong performances from both teams, but it was Robinson’s homer—his fourth hit of the game—that secured the win for the Cougars. The junior from American Fork, Utah also contributed a double and two RBIs.
“Ryder is one of the best defenders in the country and he’s really tough at the plate. He showed that again tonight,” said BYU baseball head coach Trent Pratt. “Hats off to our pitching staff today. Cayson (Bell), Ashton (Johnson) and Dan (Brousseau) came in and really battled. To hold the Big 12 champions to just four runs and give us a chance to win was impressive.”
BYU outhit Kansas with a total of 15 hits compared to Kansas’ 10, stranding one less runner on base during Saturday’s matchup. Key highlights included Matt Hansen’s two-run home run, Ezra McNaughton’s double, and strong pitching performances by Ashton Johnson and Dan Brousseau.
Kansas took an early lead with three runs over two innings before BYU responded in the third inning with an RBI single from Robinson. The Cougars tied it up by the sixth inning following Wolfgramm’s single and Hansen’s home run, later taking their first lead in the eighth before Kansas forced extra innings with a sacrifice fly in the ninth.
Reliever Dan Brousseau held Kansas scoreless through two extra frames before Robinson delivered BYU’s third walk-off home run of the year for victory.
Looking ahead, BYU will compete as No. 9 seed at the Big 12 Baseball Championship presented by Allstate from May 19-23 in Surprise, Arizona. They are scheduled to play No. 12 seed Texas Tech on Tuesday, May 19 at 4:30 p.m., with live broadcasts available on ESPN+ as well as several radio platforms.
