Sacramento State ended a Kansas six-game win streak on Wednesday, beating the Jayhawks, 7-4, at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence.
Kansas head coach Dan Fitzgerald said the Jayhawks let the Hornets stay in the game.
“When you do that in baseball, the ball is going to find holes,” Fitzgerald said.
Neither pitching staff or defense broke enough to allow a run in the first three innings. Both teams had early chances on offense, though. Kansas left five runners on base through three innings. Sacramento State left two runners on in the second inning.
“Their starter held us at bay for the first three,” Fitzgerald said. “And then we missed some opportunities to score.”
In the middle innings, the game saw that offense translate to runs for both teams.
The Hornets offense broke through in the fourth inning. Three singles scored the first run of the game for them.
The Jayhawks answered quickly. Augusto Mungarrieta hit a leadoff home run in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Kansas added on in the fifth inning. Josh Dykhoff hit a triple off the high part of the center field wall with two runners on to give the Jayhawks a 3-1 lead.
Sacramento State answered the Kansas scoring rally with a big sixth inning. Three hits before the first out, including a double from Jakob Poturnak, scored the first two runs, before a pair of groundouts scored Poturnak from third.
The Hornets led 4-3 after the sixth inning, and would lead the rest of the game.
The Jayhawks would struggle to bring across runs for the remainder of the game. In the bottom of the sixth inning, two runners got on base for Kansas. With two outs, Cade Baldridge got hit by a pitch on the elbow with two strikes. However, the home plate umpire, Mark Wagers, said that Baldridge leaned into the pitch. This resulted in strike three and the end of the inning.
Fitzgerald said the Jayhawks’ offense was the problem in the game, citing the 14 times that Kansas players struck out.
“That was about as bad of an offensive performance as we’ve had in a long time,” Fitzgerald said.
Sacramento State added on in the seventh inning. Brett Ott hit a ground ball to Dykhoff at first base. The ball bounced off of Dykhoff back into the infield and Ott was safe at first. The next batter, Erick Dessens made the Jayhawks pay for that error when he hit a home run.
Fitzgerald called that home run, “the big one” in the game. Dessens had not recorded a hit to that point, but he put the Hornets out in front for good.
The Jayhawks added one last run to their tally in the eighth. Dariel Osoria was on third base with one out when Brady Ballinger hit a ground ball. The Hornets took the out at first base and Osoria was safe at home.
Sacramento State added one more insurance run in the ninth inning, but Kansas couldn’t score any of the three runs that it would have needed to tie the game.
The Jayhawks travel to Cincinnati this weekend to play the Cincinnati Bearcats. The Big 12 series is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. on Friday. The games will be streamed on ESPN+.