“I don’t even think we played defense in the first four innings,” junior outfielder A.J. Van Slyke joked. “We were making jokes out there that we could have gone and rested on the bench.”

Nothing against the Bison (0-10-1), who put up solid fights against the Jayhawks on Friday and Saturday, but the get-away game belonged to Quick as Kansas completed the three-game sweep with a 17-2 victory at Hoglund Ballpark.

The 17 runs and the 22 hits were season highs for the Jayhawks.

Quick worked the first five innings for the Jayhawks (16-8) and simply was dominant, allowing no runs on three hits with six strikeouts. His day was highlighted by the second inning, in which he struck out the side.

Jared Soares/Journal-World Photo

Sunday was the first time this weekend when the Jayhawks were not playing from behind. Kansas jumped out on top in the first inning thanks to an RBI single by junior shortstop Ritchie Price.

Trailing 2-0 with KU coming to bat in the bottom of the third, the Bison fell apart. NDSU starter Jake Laber was chased after one out, and his replacement, Greg Plecki, let things get out of hand.

Plecki faced four batters and threw just one strike. He also hit three batters and walked another and was out of the game without retiring a batter. Even though none of the runners he left on base scored, it was 6-0 after three, and NDSU didn’t score until the seventh inning, when it already was in a 9-0 hole.

“I thought (Quick) was really special, and about the middle innings of his outing, I thought he was absolutely nasty,” KU coach Ritch Price said.

Van Slyke keyed the offense through that stretch, going 2-for-3 with a solo home run, an RBI single and an RBI sacrifice fly.

After Kansas was ahead by enough, some of the freshmen got a chance to show their stuff from the plate and took full advantage of the opportunity.

The biggest impact came from freshman outfielder Brock Simpson, who went 3-for-3 with a double, a triple, a solo home run and three runs scored.

“There’s always that pressure to get your first home run, and now that’s off,” Simpson said of his first longball as a Jayhawk.

More than anything, the weekend sweep of the Bison was huge for the Jayhawks in terms of growth. Aside from confirming Quick as the team’s Sunday starter, many of the team’s freshmen had break-out weekends with Big 12 Conference season around the corner.

Freshman second baseman Ryne Price (9-for-11) and freshman outfielder John Allman (5-of-11 in lead-off duty, replacing the injured Matt Baty) had huge weekends.

“We’re really proud of our freshman class, and we think our freshman class is as good as any freshman class in the Big 12,” coach Price said. “My freshmen have played the 20 games now that it takes to be a Division-One player.”