Kansas’ baseball team collected 15 hits in an 8-2 victory over Northwestern State on Friday at Hoglund Ballpark, and KU coach Ritch Price tied Floyd Temple as KU’s all-time winningest baseball coach.
Matt McLaughlin, Kaimana Souza-Paaluhi, Rudy Karre and John Remick each had two hits for the Jayhawks, who improved to 3-6. Souza-Paaluhi and Jaxx Groshans each drove in a pair of runs.
“I have the utmost respect for Floyd Temple and what he accomplished at the University of Kansas,” said Price, who has 438 victories at KU. “You don’t accomplish something like this without being around outstanding people. To coach 28 years without the facilities we have today in a cold-weather state — I have unbelievable respect for the job he did here.”
Sean Rackoski allowed one hit in five innings to earn the victory.
“I’m proud of the way Rackoski battled today,” Price said. “He pitched himself in and out of trouble and found a way to get big outs when he needed them. It was a big step forward for him.”
The Jayhawks scored two runs in the second inning and three in both the fourth and fifth to take an 8-0 lead.
“Our focus this week was doing a better job with the pitches that are away,” Price said. “We wanted to get our young guys to understand teams are going to pitch away from them. We grinded and worked really hard this week, and it paid off. Now we have to do it more than one day.”
Kansas and Northwestern State will play game two of the three-game series at 2 p.m. today.
NW St. 000 000 020 — 2 3 0
Kansas 020 330 00x — 8 15 1
W — Sean Rackoski (2-1). L — Nathan Jones (0-2).
2B — Caleb Ricca, NW; James Cosentino, Jaxx Groshans, MJ Farthing, KU. 3B — John Remick, KU.
