Kansas Athletics
LAWRENCE, Kan. – No. 23 Kansas baseball capped off an undefeated homestand with a 10-7 victory against South Dakota State on Wednesday night at Hoglund Ballpark in the annual Autism Awareness Game. The Jayhawks finished the homestand a perfect 6-0 and improved to 24-6 on the season, matching the best 30-game start in program history.
Jackson Hauge and Brady Counsell each hit home runs in the win as the Jayhawks scored double-digit runs for a third consecutive game. On the mound, Kansas used nine pitchers in the game with Patrick Steitz, Malakai Vetock, Jake Cubbler, Thaniel Trumper, Dalton Smith and Alex Breckheimerall having scoreless outings.
HOW IT HAPPENED
• Kansas took the lead early with a run in the first inning. Derek Cerda led off the first with a triple and Brady Ballinger drove him in with an RBI double off the wall in center field to give Kansas a 1-0 lead.
• The Jayhawks built a cushion on their lead in the third inning with four runs. Hauge hit a three-run shot to right-center field and Tommy Barth had an RBI single to make it a 5-0 Jayhawks advantage.
• South Dakota State (4-19) got its first run of the game in the fourth inning on a solo homer off the bat of Luke Luskey.
• KU added two runs in the fifth on a two-run homer by Counsell. His seventh home run of the season made it a 7-1 game.
• The Jayhawks tacked on two more runs in the sixth inning on a two-run double from Dariel Osoria. That stretched the game to a 9-1 Kansas lead.
• The Jackrabbits fought back and put up six runs in the seventh inning to cut the game to 9-7. Carter Sintek, Dayton Franke and Mason Lang all had run-scoring hits, while Owen Siegert had a sacrifice fly and Bryce Ronken drew a bases loaded walk.
• Kansas did push the lead back to three runs with an RBI single by Sawyer Smith in the bottom of the seventh. That wrapped up the scoring at 10-7.
• Breckheimer came on for the Jayhawks and pitched two scoreless innings to close it out.
PITCHERS OF RECORD
Win: Patrick Steitz (2-0)
Final line: 1.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 SO
Loss: Drew McDowell (0-2)
Final line: 2.0 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 1 SO
Save: Alex Breckheimer (1)
Final line: 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 SO
SOCIAL POST OF THE GAME
QUOTABLES & NOTABLES
"Love getting the win. Ugly seventh but you take that out and we played really clean baseball. We knew it was going to be a bullpen day going into it with trying to get Patrick (Steitz) back on track. We really wanted to have all those guys throw one inning…We had some timely hitting and some really good at-bats. We had 11 walks and we only punched out twice, and obviously winning that freebie battle is huge. The seventh inning was ugly, but it did give us an opportunity to have to then really button it up and make some plays and make some tough pitches. You hate to have that, but I do think those things show. That happens in baseball where an inning can get away from you and they bleed one in, but I love that that our brains were good. There was no panic and we just finished the game out." – Head Coach Dan Fitzgerald
"On a personal level, that's one of the coolest moments of my entire career doing the lineup card with Max. That was a really special thing. I've been moved by a lot of things that have happened in my career, the student section tonight honoring the sound for those first couple of innings was one of the coolest things I've ever seen a group of college kids do. It was really moving and really mature for a group of unbelievable fans that are crazy rowdy. For them to show that respect, and that was not something we communicated to them, I was moved by that." – Head Coach Dan Fitzgerald
"I got two balls right away and then I was looking for a pitch. Fitz always says do damage, so I got a pitch in the middle of the zone and put a good swing on it. We work on it a ton. Fitz teaches it and preaches it, just staying in the zone and controlling the 17 inches across the plate. I think we did a great job of that today." – Brady Counsell
• Kansas extended its winning streak to six games to cap off a perfect 6-0 homestand.
• Kansas improved to 24-6 to match its best 30-game start in program history with 1993, the only year Kansas has ever made the College World Series.
• Kansas has hit 63 home runs this season through the first 30 games. The program record for home runs is 75 in 2006 and 2023. Kansas is 22-2 this season when hitting a home run.
• Kansas has scored at least 10 runs in three consecutive games for the first time this season.
• Hauge hit his team-high 13th home run of the season. He is tied for eighth in school history for home runs in a season. Hauge has reached base safely in each of his last 16 games.
• Brooks has reached base safely in 19 consecutive games.
• Counsell hit his seventh homer of the year.
• Ballinger extended his hitting streak to 10 games.
• Cerda pushed his hitting streak to nine games.
• Breckheimer got his first career save.
UP NEXT
Kansas will travel to UCF this weekend for a three-game conference series, beginning on Friday at 5 p.m. CT. All three games will be broadcast on ESPN+.