The Kansas baseball team is back from Texas after a lengthy trip to open the season, but the Jayhawks haven’t fully escaped the Lone Star State just yet.
The Jayhawks’ first home series of the year, a four-game stretch that begins at 3 p.m. Friday at Hoglund Ballpark, will be against Texas Southern, before they open Big 12 Conference play by hosting TCU next weekend.
Texas Southern plays in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, where it was picked fourth of six teams in the West Division prior to the season, but as it happens has already gotten a taste of the Big 12, and it didn’t go particularly well.
The Tigers, after splitting their first four games of the season, traveled to Lubbock, Texas, for a road series at Texas Tech over the weekend and proceeded to get outscored 68-14 in a three-game sweep, including a 32-5 loss last Friday in which the Red Raiders reset their program record for single-game runs.
It was unsurprisingly a tough weekend for TSU starters Carlos Marquez, Domenic Martinez and Josiah Castro, as Castro lasted the longest at 3 2/3 innings.
Martinez actually posted arguably the best line of any pitcher for the Tigers against a Division I foe in a loss the prior weekend, when he shut out Prairie View A&M for four innings but allowed three runs, two earned, in the fifth. Meanwhile, the TSU offense couldn’t put anything across after the second inning as the Tigers lost 5-3.
TSU did sweep non-NCAA Wiley University in a midweek doubleheader Wednesday to improve to 4-5 on the year. It was the sort of doubleheader in which the Tigers had a combined no-hitter among five pitchers in the top half and then scored 12 runs on just five hits in the bottom half.
As it looks to improve its fortunes further in Lawrence, the player to watch is shortstop CJ Castillo, a preseason all-conference first-team selection and the only all-league pick for his team. Castillo is just 3-for-15 so far on the year, though he has hit a home run and driven in five runs (including two on the eventual game-winning single against Southern on Feb. 13), but the senior can also make an impact on the mound and has appeared thrice there this year.
Texas Southern infielder C.J. Castillo (0) during an NCAA baseball game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Friday, March 25, 2022, in Houston.
Texas Southern starting pitcher Domenic Martinez, right, throws against Houston battater Brandon Uhse, left, during an NCAA baseball game on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Houston.
Transfer designated hitter Jason Lazo, from Johnson County Community College, is a solid 8-for-27 (.296) at the plate to open the year, closely followed among qualified hitters by veterans Michael Goudeau, Jaden Jones and Chase Cromer.
As it happens, the Tigers and Jayhawks already have a common opponent this year in Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Islanders took down TSU 8-4 on Feb. 21, just a day after they lost 13-7 to KU.
After that victory, the Jayhawks had an up-and-down Round Rock Classic that featured a victory over Texas State and narrow losses to Washington State and Kentucky that dropped them to 3-4 on the year.
“Overall, I think we’ve got a long way to go but we’ve got a lot of great pieces and I think we have the makeup to do it and sometimes it just takes time,” KU coach Dan Fitzgerald said in a press release. “My goal is never to be the best team in the country on February 25. This is just a part of that part of that climb and part of us trying to figure out what we need to get better at.”
It hasn’t necessarily been smooth sailing for the revamped KU pitching staff. Starters Reese Dutton, Dominic Voegele and Patrick Steitz have combined to allow just seven earned runs in 27 combined innings this year (although that belies the six unearned with which Steitz was charged in Sunday’s 8-5 loss to Kentucky), but the bullpen has struggled at times. It gave up a 4-1 lead against Washington State in what became a 5-4 loss, not to mention eight runs in what had been a 5-5 game against Illinois-Chicago on Feb. 17.
On the other hand, the Jayhawks’ offense has had quite a few dazzling performances. Catcher Jake English, who batted .219 last year, is currently 10-for-20 with seven walks, four home runs and 10 RBIs; star infielder Kodey Shojinaga and New Mexico transfer Lenny Ashby have hit three more home runs each. Returners Collier Cranford (10-for-28) and Michael Brooks (8-for-23, six RBIs) have also started particularly strong.
They’ll all get another chance to succeed against what has been a vulnerable TSU pitching staff.
Kansas shortstop Collier Cranford slides to catch a ground ball during an NCAA college baseball game against Baylor on Saturday, April 1, 2023, in Lawrence.
AP Photo/Colin E Braley
AP Photo/Michael Wyke
AP Photo/Michael Wyke
AP Photo/Colin E Braley