KU Jayhawks baseball team wins Big 12 title, program’s 1st league crown since 1949
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- Kansas won its first regular-season league title since 1949.
- KU beat BYU 7-6 in Provo while West Virginia lost to TCU, securing KU the crown.
- KU finished the evening 22-7 in league play and clinched the No. 1 seed.
The Kansas Jayhawks are conference champions in baseball for the first time in 77 years.
The No. 14-ranked Jayhawks, who entered Friday night’s game against BYU with a one-game lead in the Big 12 standings (over West Virginia) with two to play, upended the host Cougars 7-6 at Miller Field in Provo, Utah.
Meanwhile, the second-place WVU Mountaineers fell at home to TCU 4-0, the KU win and West Virginia loss assuring KU its first regular-season league title since 1949 — when KU competed in the Big Seven. KU also won league titles in 1923 and 1924.
KU finished the evening with a 22-7 record in league games to WVU’s 20-9 mark. Just one game remains in the regular season. KU will take on BYU at 2 p.m. Saturday in Provo before returning home to begin preparations for the Big 12 postseason tournament, to be held Tuesday through next Saturday, May 23, in Surprise, Arizona.
“This is four years in the making,” fourth-year KU coach Dan Fitzgerald said in a postgame interview on ESPN+. His players moments before had dumped a container of Gatorade on their coach’s head while wearing Big 12 champion T-shirts and hats.
A league official presented the Jayhawks the title trophy near the visiting team’s dugout.
“It’s our players, families, our wives, our administration. Hundreds of people have led to this moment,” Fitzgerald said. “The entire Jayhawk nation made this possible. It’s pretty special. This is just a special group of guys.”
KU on Thursday squandered a six-run lead in a 9-6 win to open this series at BYU. The lead in that game was regained on a home run by Josh Dykhoff in the seventh inning.
Again, KU led 6-0 Friday before giving up the lead — one that was regained on a Tyson Owens home run in the top of the ninth. KU starter Mason Cook had a no-hitter through 6 1/3 innings, but then he walked two batters and allowed a two-RBI triple.
“Our guys wouldn’t do it any other way,” Fitzgerald joked of dramatic finishes. “BYU is so explosive. They are capable of doing so much damage.”
Rahe, a junior from Marion, Iowa, allowed two infield hits in the ninth. BYU’s Luke Anderson flied out to deep right field to end the game.
Rahe had pitched three innings and thrown 47 pitches in Thursday’s win over BYU before again closing out Friday’s contest for his ninth save.
“He’s a great kid, incredible competitor,” Fitzgerald said of Rahe.
Earlier, Augusto Mungarrieta and Tyson LeBlanc hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth inning. Mungarrieta’s home run was his 13th of the year, LeBlanc’s his 19th. The 19 homers for LeBlanc are third most in a season in school history.
The Jayhawks showered their coach in jubilation as they huddled near first base after the final out was recorded. League officials presented the players the league title trophy not long after.
KU was picked to finish tied for fifth in the Big 12 preseason poll as voted on by the league’s coaches.
Instead, the Jayhawks proceeded to assure themselves a No. 1 seed in next week’s Big 12 tourney.
