A 10-6 loss to Minnesota on Tuesday night suggested the Kansas baseball team might be in for a much tougher time against power-conference competition than against the mid-majors who had given KU its 14 early-season victories in 15 games.
The Jayhawks dispelled any such concerns on Wednesday afternoon, matching a team record with seven home runs in a game and scoring its highest single-game run total ever against a Division I opponent in a 29-1 seven-inning demolition of the Golden Gophers at U.S. Bank Stadium.
In the third inning, KU effectively put the game out of reach with eight runs, including five home runs by consecutive batters: Chase Diggins and Max Soliz Jr. off Caden Capomaccio, then Minnesota transfer Brady Counsell, Brady Ballinger and Minnesota native Jackson Hauge against Adam Urban, all in a row.
“It was awesome,” Hauge said in a press release. “I actually didn’t know we had four when I went up to the plate because they made a pitching change. It was Diggins, Soliz and then a pitching change. I was just going up there thinking this would be awesome to go back-to-back-to-back. When I got back in the dugout they yelled ‘FIVE!’, so it was pretty cool.”
That tied an all-time NCAA record previously set by games in 1992 (Centenary vs. Stephen F. Austin), 1998 (Eastern Illinois vs. Morehead State) and 2006 (South Carolina vs. Georgia).
“I’ve never seen that,” KU coach Dan Fitzgerald said in the release. “We hit three in a row earlier in the year, and of course been a part of some of those, but never five in a row. It was super cool and I love how engaged our guys were today. I thought our approach at the plate was awesome.”
Diggins and Hauge hit two home runs apiece on the day and finished with seven RBIs each. Counsell, Michael Brooks and Sawyer Smith also each finished 3-for-4 as KU totaled 21 hits to Minnesota’s four.
Five Jayhawk relief pitchers combined to shut out the Gophers over the final six innings after Minnesota briefly went up 1-0 against starter Manning West.
“I thought Manning West wiggled out of the first and then for the pitching staff to throw up six zeros after that on a day when the ball was flying was outstanding,” Fitzgerald said.
KU improved to 15-2 on the season and will begin Big 12 play on Friday when it welcomes Baylor to Hoglund Ballpark for the start of a three-game series.
Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World
