Kansas Athletics
Kansas Sweeps Texas Southern, Winning the Buck O’Neil Classic
The Kansas Jayhawks are playing good baseball, and it showed against a talented Texas Southern baseball team. The offense is clicking, scoring 19 runs total, and the pitching staff is settling in, limiting the big innings. The Jayhawks swept Texas Southern and improved to a 17-15 this season. Kansas also remains undefeated at Hoglund Ballpark.
Game 1
The Kansas and Texas Southern played an honorary game to the Negro Leagues by playing in the Buck O'Neil Classic held at Legends Field in Kansas City, Kansas. Kansas wore jerseys representing the Kansas City Monarchs, and Texas Southern honored the Homestead Grays. The President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, Bob Kendrick, tossed out the first pitch.
The Jayhawk bats did not disappoint as they would hit three home runs in the contest. Kansas would score first when Kody Shojinaga crushed a solo home run over the left-field porch. The Jayhawks would add two more runs making it 3-0 in the 2nd inning. Texas Southern would respond with two runs on a rare error from the Kansas defense in the 4th inning. The Jayhawks would make it 6-2 on Jackson Cobb's first career home run over the short wall in right field. Chase Jans would also destroy a baseball widening the Kansas lead to 7-2. Jans would finish the game going 2-for-3, driving in two runs, scoring two, and walking twice. Head coach Dan Fitzgerald was pleased with the offensive performance saying, “We had some really good at-bats in the middle innings, moving the ball and taking advantage of a couple mistakes that they made."
With this being a mid-week series, we anticipated some different starters and freshman Karter Muck took to the mound. Muck would complete three innings giving up four hits, two unearned runs, and one walk while recording four strikeouts before handing the baseball to Kolby Dougan. Dougan would toss 2 1/3 innings and only walked two batters, striking out three. Dougan, followed by Trumper, Hewlett, and Cranton, would combine for four hits, three unearned runs, one walk, and five strikeouts, shutting the door on Texas Southern. Coach Fitzgerald was pleased with the pitching saying, "I thought Coach Scott called an unbelievable game, and we had some big innings out of our bullpen.”
Game 2
The Jayhawks would return to Hoglund Ballpark and take on Texas Southern in a home game. The Kansas bats would erupt again as they would combine for 11 hits, ten RBIs, and six walks. Kody Shojinaga would go 2-of-5, hitting another home run, his 5th of the season. He would collect three RBIs and score two runs. Luke Leto also had a day, going 3-of-4, driving in one RBI, and scoring two runs. The Jayhawks also managed to steal five bases.
The pitching staff performed well, with starter Hunter Cashero tossing six innings, giving up nine hits, three runs, and two strikeouts before handing the baseball to Stone Evers. Evers and Parker Grant would combine for 2 2/3 innings of no runs. JJ Tylicki would take to the mound and give up two hits, four runs, and two walks before Gavin Brasosky would finish the game. Cashero pitched tremendously against a talented opponent in Texas Southern. He provided six quality innings, showing he can be a reliable starter when called upon.
The Jayhawks will welcome the Kansas State Wildcats for a three-game home series. The first game is Friday, April 14th, at 6:00 PM CST. Game two is Saturday, April 15th, at 2:00 PM, and game three is Sunday, April 16th, at 1:00 PM.