It had been 77 years since the Kansas baseball team earned a regular-season conference title and a relatively modest 20 since the Jayhawks won the Big 12 tournament.
KU has now accomplished both those feats in the same calendar year.
After a nervous first six innings in which the Jayhawks escaped a series of increasingly treacherous situations with stellar defense, KU’s offense exploded for three seventh-inning home runs and beat West Virginia 9-0 on Friday night in Surprise, Arizona, to claim the Big 12 championship.
In doing so, the Jayhawks became the first team since 2011 to win both conference titles and also earned a measure of revenge for WVU’s three-game sweep at Hoglund Ballpark that had halted KU’s momentum back in early May.
First baseman Josh Dykhoff had the two-out three-run shot off Reese Bassinger that doubled the Jayhawks’ lead from 3-0 to 6-0 and had KU on the verge of championship glory. Jordan Bach, who had a pair of big hits and a key defensive play on the day, and Augusto Mungarrieta followed Dykhoff up with additional homers in short order.
Mathis Nayral started and pitched 4 1/3 labor-intensive shutout innings, and Toby Scheidt, Manning West and Boede Rahe followed him up with scoreless efforts.
In the meantime, the Mountaineers squandered a strong start from Ian Korn, who went 5 2/3 and allowed two runs just two days after pitching 2 2/3 scoreless.
The Jayhawks prevented one potential early scoring opportunity for the Mountaineers with runners on the corners when Nayral got the red-hot designated hitter Sean Smith to ground into a 6-4-3 double play.
Tyson Owens sent Korn’s high fastball out of the yard to give KU a 1-0 lead early.
For WVU, Armani Guzman reached base via a dropped third strike and passed ball and then advanced to second on another passed ball. He made it to third on a groundout. Nayral walked Brock Wills but struck out Tyrus Hall to escape another jam.
The Mountaineers pulled off an impressive defensive play with one out in the second when left fielder Matthew Graveline made a sliding catch to prevent a hit by Dylan Schlotterback, then gunned it to cutoff man Brodie Kresser, who threw to first, where Guzman tagged out Mungarrieta for a double play.
KU responded in short order with a third double play when Paul Schoenfeld lined out to Dykhoff, who stepped on the base before Gavin Kelly could get back.
The fifth inning got off to a difficult start for KU when the bottom of the WVU lineup did some damage. Kresser singled up the middle and Wills got on base with a hard-hit ball that necessitated a diving stop by Cade Baldridge. Hall bunted them over to set up the top of the order with runners in scoring position.
Matt Ineich bounced a high ball in front of the plate that Nayral fielded, and he was able to deter Kresser from coming home, but his throw to first base was weak enough that Ineich reached safely to load the bases.
Nayral exited after 4 1/3 innings as Scheidt was given the task of facing the WVU star Kelly.
Scheidt dealt Kelly a pair of sliders for strikes. Kelly sent a fly ball to right field for the second out, and Bach’s throw hit Mungarrieta in perfect position at the plate, where he made the tag on Kresser for the third.
KU accomplished little in the bottom of the fifth and then once again found itself in trouble in the sixth when Scheidt hit Smith and allowed a base hit to Graveline that moved Smith to third. He then walked Guzman.
Scheidt fell behind 2-0, earned two strikes and then Kresser popped one up in an awkward part of shallow right field. Dykhoff made an impressive over-the-shoulder catch and hit Mungarrieta at home to kick off a lengthy rundown in which both Smith and Graveline found themselves in compromising positions, but neither got tagged out.
It didn’t end up mattering because Wills grounded out to LeBlanc as KU somehow got out of its latest jam.
Dykhoff battled his way to a nine-pitch walk with two outs in the bottom of the sixth, and then Korn hit Mungarrieta in the side of the helmet. Bach delivered a two-out RBI single to right field to make it 2-0.
That was it for Korn as WVU went to Bassinger, who got Schlotterback to ground out.
KU sent West to the mound for his first appearance of the Big 12 tournament, and he pitched a scoreless seventh.
Bassinger walked Dariel Osoria, and Savion Flowers reached on a fielding error by Guzman that sent the ball into right field and Osoria to third base. LeBlanc dropped a first-pitch single into left field for another run.
Owens popped up a bunt for an out, which gave Bassinger a bit of a momentary reprieve. Baldridge hit into a fielder’s choice, but then Dykhoff smacked a 458-foot shot that doubled KU’s lead to 6-0 and ended the night for Bassinger.
Dawson Montesa entered and proceeded to give up two home runs in his first three pitches. KU later added a ninth run thanks to a throwing error in the bottom of the eighth.
LeBlanc was named the tournament’s most outstanding player.
The NCAA will reveal the 16 regional host teams at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, with the rest of the bracket coming on Monday morning.
