No. 14 KU Baseball Beats BYU, Sits One Win Away from Big 12 Title

After beating the BYU Cougars on Thursday night, the Kansas baseball program is just one win away from securing its first ever Big 12 regular season championship.

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The No. 14-ranked Kansas Jayhawks got a much needed win on Thursday after defeating the BYU Cougars 9-6 on their home field in Provo, Utah.

In front of a solid Cougar crowd at Miller Park and one of the most picturesque backdrops in college baseball, KU rebounded from their disappointing three-game losing streak at home last weekend to West Virginia to capture a much-needed conference win that now puts them at 21-7 in Big 12 play (38-15 overall).

"I thought our guys played really tough tonight against a really, really talented and well-coached BYU team,” said Kansas head coach Dan Fitzgerald following the win. “The key was getting out in front and scoring some runs. Dom hit a wall there in the fifth. He got those first two outs in the fifth and then they did a really good job of scrapping through some at-bats. I thought, obviously, it was enormous of Boede to come in and slam the door. It was a great win. Thought we played tough and really proud of these guys."

The 21 conference wins is now the most in Kansas baseball history, breaking the record of 20 that was set a season ago. More importantly, the win puts the Jayhawks just one more win away from a Big 12 championship – which would be the program’s first since winning the Big Sevon Conference title back in 1949.

With one more win by the Jayhawks or one more loss by the No. 9 ranked Mountaineers (who are currently hosting TCU in Morgantown, West Virginia), KU will clinch at least a share of the Big 12 regular season title. To win the conference outright, the magic number for Kansas now sits at two. Any combination of KU wins or West Virginia losses that totals two by the end of this weekend will give the Jayhawks sole position of first place in the final Big 12 standings.

First pitch for game two of this weekend’s series versus BYU is set for 7 p.m. CT Friday night with the game airing live on ESPN+.