Kansas Baseball Splits 4-Game Series with Minnesota

The Kansas baseball had its first real test of the season against Minnesota, and sort of passed. The Gophers and Jayhawks played a four-game series, and each team won two after KU beat Minnesota, 8-3, in Sunday's series finale.

Ended the series with a W 👏#RockChalk pic.twitter.com/KiZRzPr6Un
— Kansas Baseball (@KUBaseball) March 1, 2026

Kansas has yet to lose a series and is 7-4 overall after Sunday's victory.

The Results

Game 1: Kansas 8, Minnesota 7
Game 2: Minnesota 12, Kansas 5
Game 3: Minnesota 10, Kansas 3
Game 4: Kansas 8, Minnesota 3

Jayhawks defense struggled against Gophers

Prior to Kansas's four-game series against Minnesota, the Jayhawks defense had been solid. But that was far from the case this weekend. KU made eight errors in its four-games series, including a pair of three-error games.

Giving team extra outs isn't a recipe for success, and quite frankly, Kansas was lucky to squeeze out a pair of wins considering how poorly they played defensively.

Grad Transfer Jordan Bach continues to thrive in leadoff role

Jordan Bach has played his fair share of college baseball, and he's played for his fair share of schools, too. Kansas is Bach's fourth team after previous stops at SIU-Carbondale, Northeast Oklahoma, and St. Xavier University, but the outfielder has had an immediate impact for the Jayhawks.

Bach batted leadoff in every game this weekend, and through 11 games, Bach leads the KU offense in just about every offensive category (batting average, hits, doubles, home runs, extra-base hits, total bases, slugging percentage, on-base percentage,e and stolen bases).

Jordan Bach has been hitting the cover off the ball since joining @KUBaseball from Southern Illinois, ripped this RBI double to deep RF, his 3rd two-bagger of the year, leading Kansas in batting (.412) thru the first 2 weeks pic.twitter.com/DX8KLIDZCF
— Patrick Ebert (@PatrickEbert44) February 28, 2026

Without him, KU might not even be .500. Bach has been a pleasant surprise for Kansas, and if he continues to perform, he could hear his name called in the MLB Draft or sign with an MLB Partner League/Independent League team.

Jayhawks rotation takes major step back

Last weekend, I touched on how Kansas's starting staff really stepped up against McNeese State, but that wasn't the case against Minnesota. Each of KU's four starters failed to go past the fourth inning, and all four allowed two or more runs.

Three of KU's four starters have ERAs over four, and none are missing all that many bats. The bullpen wasn't all that much better, but the backend did just enough to hold down the win in both of KU's victories this weekend.

The bottom line is Kansas's starting staff continues to struggle to go deep into games, and the Jayhawks' offense is going to have to score at least six or seven runs a game if they're going to consistently win. And that's asking a lot, even for an offense as talent as KU's.

Next up for Kansas

The Jayhawks next game is on Thursday against St. Thomas. First pitch in KU's home opener is at 3 p.m. (CT) and is available via ESPN+.