What to know about KU Jayhawks baseball team’s run to Big 12 title, league tourney
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kansas captured its first regular-season conference championship in 77 years in 2026.
- KU earned the No. 1 seed for the Big 12 postseason tournament in Surprise.
- Coach Dan Fitzgerald led KU to a No. 7 national ranking and a 21-of-23 stretch.
The Kansas Jayhawks baseball team captured its first regular-season conference championship in 77 years, finishing atop the Big 12 standings ahead of this week’s conference tournament.
Picked to finish tied for fifth in the preseason, No. 13-ranked KU earned the No. 1 seed heading into the Big 12 Tournament — which opens for KU on Thursday.
Here is what to know:
• Kansas defeated BYU 7-6 in Provo last Friday night while West Virginia lost to TCU 4-0, clinching the Jayhawks’ first regular-season league title since 1949 when KU competed in the Big Seven.
• KU finished Big 12 play with a 22-8 record to West Virginia’s 21-9 mark, securing the No. 1 seed for the Big 12 postseason tournament being held Tuesday through Saturday in Surprise, Arizona.
• Fourth-year coach Dan Fitzgerald, two-time winner of the Big 12 coach of the year award, led a team that climbed to No. 7 nationally — the highest ranking in program history — and won 21 of 23 games at one stretch this season.
• The Jayhawks drew a program-record 2,674 fans for a 9-7 victory over Nebraska on April 21 at the 2,500-seat Hoglund Ballpark, where KU went 18-5 overall and 12-3 in league play.
• West Virginia briefly kept the title race alive by sweeping KU 4-1, 5-2 and 13-2 at Hoglund Ballpark, ending a stretch of seven consecutive Big 12 series wins — the first such streak in program history.
• Tyson LeBlanc hit his 19th home run of the season Friday, the third most in a single season in school history, while teammate Augusto Mungarrieta added his 13th homer in back-to-back at-bats during the sixth inning.
• Kansas surpassed its program record of 20 conference wins set in 2025, becoming the first Big 12 team with 20 league wins in back-to-back seasons since Nebraska in 2000 and 2001.
The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.
