The Kansas baseball team rebounded from a season-opening loss on Friday to win its next two games on Saturday and Sunday and claim a series win on the road at UTRGV in Edinburg, Texas.
“First and foremost, UTRGV is a really good team,” KU coach Dan Fitzgerald said in a press release. “What an unbelievable environment to play in and one that we were intentional in scheduling to get an atmosphere like this and get a great challenge early on. Super proud of the guys and how they battled.”
Brady Ballinger and Augusto Mungarrieta hit back-to-back sacrifice flies to give KU the lead in the eighth inning on Sunday, and Toby Scheidt and Caleb Deer pitched one scoreless frame each late. Deer struck out Diego Villescas looking to strand the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth and seal an 8-7 victory to take the series for KU.
“We delivered the first punch, but we knew they were going to throw another punch,” Fitzgerald said. “It became a dog fight. Our bullpen did a fantastic job holding it together. We had some key hits in some key spots to produce some runs.”
UTRGV, out of the Southland Conference, returned quite a few key players from a 2025 campaign in which it went 36-18 (and 3-3 in games against Big 12 teams) but missed the NCAA Tournament. The Vaqueros demonstrated their potential on opening night when they drew two hits, four full-count walks and a hit-by-pitch in the second inning against KU ace Dominic Voegele to take a 4-2 lead on the Jayhawks.
KU drew back within a run midway through the game with timely hitting from Ballinger and Mungarrieta, but last year’s Southland Player of the Year Armani Raygoza homered and Thomas Williams drove in an RBI double. UTRGV pitcher Harrison Thayer locked down the Jayhawks to seal the 7-4 win for the Vaqueros in front of a crowd of 5,863.
The Saturday result went decisively in KU’s favor. JUCO transfer pitcher Mathis Nayral, who is originally from France, allowed just one run on two hits in seven innings. Meanwhile, after KU built an early 3-0 lead via small ball, Josh Dykhoff and Mungarrieta homered in the sixth inning. The Jayhawks went up as many as nine runs and ended up winning 10-3.
Sunday’s rubber match provided the most significant drama. KU starter Madden Seidl, a true freshman from Emporia, was charged with an unearned run on an early passed ball. The Jayhawks jumped in front with four second-inning runs, aided by a key throwing error from right field. But UTRGV got to Seidl in the third with an RBI double by Julius Ramirez and two-run homer from Easton Moomau, then added two more off Carter Fink with another home run by Raygoza in the fourth.
KU was able to tie the game against the Vaqueros’ starter Mason Engel. After Dykhoff drove in Dariel Osoria in the fifth inning, Cade Baldridge homered to chase Engel in the sixth.
Nick Nolan and Daren Barrera kept the Jayhawks at bay for a bit, and Boede Rahe allowed a home run to Ramirez in the seventh to break the tie. However, KU struck back when Barrera hit consecutive batters with pitches and then allowed a single to Jordan Bach to load the bases, setting up the back-to-back sacrifice flies.
The Jayhawks left two runners on base in that inning and went down quickly in the ninth, but it didn’t matter as Scheidt and Deer kept the Vaqueros off the board and clinched the series win.
“Unbelievable job by the entire bullpen,” Fitzgerald said. “From Fink, who passed it to (Riane) Ritter, who passed it to Rahe, then passed it to Toby and then Caleb Deer was absolutely electric. I’m super proud of the entire team, but I’m really proud of how Caleb competed right there.”
Added Deer: “To be honest, I just felt calm and at peace on the mound. I knew my guys were behind me, so I just felt confident and ready to go out there and dominate. Being able to pick up a series win is huge for the team and I thought our guys battled really hard and played really well. It was a great team win and I think this is just the start. It’s a great way to start the year off and it’s going to be a lot more fun going forward.”
KU (2-1) will remain in Texas to face Lamar (2-1), another solid team out of the Southland, on Wednesday at 6:05 p.m.
