Kansas University’s baseball team made the afternoon even more enjoyable with a 24-2, seven-inning victory over Illinois-Chicago.

“Man, it was a beautiful day to play baseball,” KU coach Bobby Randall said.

Randall and the Jayhawks would use the convincing victory to propel them through the week.

“You don’t get many games like that,” he said. “We are going to enjoy it. This is a team that beat Northwestern, and Northwestern beat us.”

KU scored eight runs on six hits in the first inning and nearly ran through the entire lineup twice.

At the end of two innings, KU led, 9-2.

Matt Tribble and Jesse Gremminger homered for the Jayhawks in the third and fourth innings respectively.

“I was seeing it pretty good today,” Gremminger said. He was 4-4 and had three RBIs.

“It was easier to swing the bat with a lead of eight runs. It’s pretty huge for us. We’ve been able to score runs, but not shut the door on teams. This was good for us to prove we can pile on the runs.”

In the fifth, Casey Spanish scored on one of Illinois-Chicago’s seven errors. After Spanish scored, Ryan Klocksein hit a smash to first baseman Chris Kerpan, who threw the ball into the Flames’ dugout. Klocksien was 4-for-6 with three RBIs.

“This was a confidence booster for me,” Klocksein said. “I had two hard hits, which shows how hard I’ve been working. I think we played a good game all around, especially with 24 runs.”

Jeff Davis was the winning pitcher.

Next for the Jayhawks is a doubleheader with Illinois-Chicago today. The first game is set for 3 p.m. Doug Lantz and Pete Smart will pitch for KU.