Kansas Baseball wins the first series of 2023, 2-1.
The Kansas Jayhawks headed south to Corpus Christi, Texas, amid a ton of anticipation for their first series of the 2023 season. With Dan Fitzgerald leading the Jayhawks into game action for the first time, a lot of questions would be answered, at least temporarily, against the Valparaiso Beacons. Through this series, a lot of firsts for the program occurred.
The Kansas Jayhawks picked up a dominant victory in game one by a final score of 5-1. The Jayhawks wasted no time to get new head coach Dan Fitzgerald, his first win in program history.
Coach Fitzgerald sent out his most experienced pitcher, Collin Baumgartner. Baumgartner (1-0) finished the game throwing five innings, giving up three hits and one run, and recording six strikeouts. Following Baumgartner would be Gavin Brasosky, who pitched all four remaining innings. In that time, he only surrendered one hit, no runs and one walk while recording six strikeouts. You could not have asked for a better outing from your pitching staff.
The Jayhawks started the party at the plate early getting the first run just three batters into the game. Mike Koszewski singled up the middle and was moved to second on a Luke Leto sacrifice groundout. Catcher Cole Elvis brought him home with a double past the third basemen down the left field corner. Koszewki got the action going in the bottom of the 3rd, leading off the inning with a double. Leto followed with a walk before Janson Reeder's clutch double down the right-field line scored both Koszewski and Leto. The scoring didn't stop as two batters later, with two outs, Collier Cranford would send a ball down the right field line scoring Reeder, who moved over on a sac fly to left field. The Beacons were able to get one back on a solo home run in the top of the 4th, but Kansas got an insurance run was scored in the seventh inning when Cranford's sacrifice fly brought home Elvis, making the score 5-1.
Coach Fitzgerald had this to say about game one: "It's a great team win. They executed on so many things, kept it simple, and played really fundamental baseball. We asked them to do two things before the game-stay locked in on every pitch and be a great teammate-and I thought they did that. I was super proud of my staff. They were prepared and had their plans in order from the first pitch. It was a great team effort and great to get that one under our belt."
Saturday had all the makings of a pitchers duel, as Kansas pitcher Sam Ireland didn't allow a hit until the fifth inning. The Jayhawks didn't have much success either, getting a single hit in each of the first two innings. But the sixth inning is where it all started to fall apart. Ireland gave up a couple hits and a run in the 5th but was able to escape. But he wasn't so lucky in the sixth, as after getting the first two outs, he gave up a solo home run and put one on base before being pulled. In all, he tossed 5.2 innings, giving up four hits, three runs, and two walks, and recorded six strikeouts.
The run really got going for the Beacons at that point, as Thaniel Trumper gave up a wild pitch and a walk before giving up a three-run home run. The seventh inning was quite for both teams, but the eighth was disastrous. Five different pitchers appeared for Kansas, as they gave up six runs on just 2 hits. After 8 innings, the Beacons led 11-0. Kansas scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth, but it was too little too late.
Game 3
The Jayhawks looked to make an impression in the rubber match of the series. Coach Fitzgerald sent Hunter Cranton to the bump, and he pitched well, going four innings, giving up two hits, one run, four walks, and five strikeouts. Cranton handed over the baseball to Kolby Dougan, who pitched two innings and gave up two hits, three runs, and one walk, and recorded five strikeouts. Stone Hewlett followed Dougan, shutting the door on the Beacons. Hewlett pitched the final three innings of the game, giving up one hit, no runs, one walk and one strikeout. He was credited with the save.
The bats would come alive again in game three as Janson Reeder worked an eight-pitch walk to lead off the second inning. The walk would be immediately followed up by a big home run from freshman Kodey Shojinaga as the Jayhawks took a 2-0 lead. Valparaiso took a 3-2 lead in the fifth on a Nolan Tucker two-run homer. They added their final run of the game off another home run from Jake Skrine in the top of the sixth.
But the bottom of the sixth saw the Jayhawks flip a switch. Collier Cranford struck with a two-out single, scoring Reeder and making the score 4-3. Kansas was not finished, with Chase Jans coming to the plate to hit an absolute shot over the left-center field fence for three runs. That made it 6-4 in favor of the Jayhawks which would ultimately be the final score.
Coach Fitzgerald was pleased with the win saying, “I’m super proud of them. We had an opportunity in the middle innings when they tacked on that solo shot and went up two runs that the game could have gone either way. We strung together base runners and a bunch of stuff with two outs. It was super gritty. The dugout was great. I’ve said it 30 times this weekend, but I told them to be locked in on every pitch and be a good teammate. You have to simplify it to that on opening weekend. I thought they did that to a tee today. They were in every single pitch. I’m really proud of them and gritty, gritty bunch.”
Next Up
The Jayhawks will stay in the state of Texas and head to Cleburne to play Oakland in a four-game series at The Depot at Cleburne Station. The first game is slated for Friday, February 24th at 3:00 pm CST.
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