KU’s Super Regional vs. Oklahoma suspended with Jayhawks on brink of elimination
The Kansas baseball team will face an uphill battle Monday as it tries to advance to the second College World Series in program history.
The Jayhawks’ NCAA Tournament Super Regional game against Oklahoma, which was delayed from the start for 2 1/2 hours because of rain and lightning, was postponed at 10:30 p.m. Sunday with the Sooners leading KU 8-1 in the bottom of the third inning.
The game will resume at 12:02 p.m. Central on Monday (ESPN2) with KU down seven runs and less than 1/3 of the game completed.
OU defeated KU 8-1 in Sunday’s Super Regional opener in this best-of-three series. For KU to advance to the CWS in Omaha, the Jayhawks must rally to defeat OU, then win another nine-inning game Monday.
If necessary, that final game would begin at 4:06 p.m. Central.
Oklahoma, which was the designated home team, took a 1-0 lead in the first. Jason Walk doubled, then moved to third on a bunt single by Camden Johnson in which third baseman Dylan Schlotterback was slow in charging the baseball. Starter Mason Cook induced Deiten Lachance into a 6-4-3 double play that scored the run.
KU tied the game with a run in the top of the second. The big hit was Jordan Bach’s single through the shift on the left side of the infield, which scored Josh Dykhoff from second base.
The Sooners knocked out KU starter Cook in a second inning in which OU scored six runs off three hits with one KU error.
Dasan Harris rapped an RBI single that beat the shift and gave OU a 2-1 lead. With two on and one out, a Cook wild pitch put runners on first and third. Kyle Branch plated a runner from third on a safety squeeze in which Cook bobbled the ball for an error.
After a balk put runners on second and third followed by a walk, KU coach Dan Fitzgerald removed Cook in favor of reliever Riane Ritter. Johnson walked to force in a run and make it 4-1. Lachance then socked a two-run double to make it 6-1. Brock was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to make it 7-1.
KU coach Fitzgerald inserted closer Boede Rahe to start the third inning. Dayton Tockey greeted him with a home run as OU’s lead grew to 8-1. At that point, a lightning bolt forced a delay.
