DYERSVILLE, Iowa — The Kansas baseball team battled the Iowa Hawkeyes in a fall exhibition on Saturday, but one that featured a special twist: It took place at the Field of Dreams, serving as the first Division I college baseball game on the site of the 1989 film of the same name.
Iowa won the scrimmage 15-10 across all 16 innings of action in the corn. The exhibition was split into two games, with the Hawkeyes winning the first nine-inning game 13-5 and the Jayhawks taking game two 5-2 in seven innings.
“We did a lot of things really well,” Kansas head coach Dan Fitzgerald said. “I think more than anything, got the guys on the road, a long bus trip, and got them in a hotel and through the process of what it looks like to play on the road, so mission accomplished there.”
“I didn’t think we played well in game one at all,” Fitzgerald added. “A lot of things we can learn from, but again you’re running guys out there for one-inning stints, so some stuff that we’ll need to learn, but I loved how they bounced back and took game two. We have an incredibly long way to go, which is the good news and the bad news; it’s the beginning of the journey.”
Senior catcher Gavyn Schlotterback crushed a three-run home run in the sixth inning of game two, the first Kansas home run of the day. While unofficial, it was his first since a routine physical uncovered that a portion of his aorta was almost three times its regular size when he transferred to Kansas in 2025. Schlotterback had to undergo open heart surgery last September and missed the entire 2026 season.
“It’s about as cool as it gets,” Fitzgerald said of Schlotterback’s home run. “I’m proud of that kid and he’s just an incredible human being, incredible teammate, and he’s just so tough. His ability to grind it out and just continue to put his foot on the gas and move forward is incredible.”
“That was a special moment,” Fitzgerald added, “I’ll remember that one forever.”
The stadium, located around 500 feet west of the original movie set, opened in August and is the home of an annual Major League Baseball game that began in 2022. The MLB series was suspended from 2023 until 2025 to allow for the construction of a permanent structure.
In the first nine-inning game of the exhibition, Augusto Mungarrieta collected an RBI single in the first inning and sophomore infielder Walt Jones, a transfer from Weatherford College in Texas, added a bloop two-RBI double to shallow right field in the second to get the Jayhawks offense going early.
Iowa scored its first run in the bottom of the second before the Hawkeyes piled on with a six-spot in the fourth against Jayhawks sophomore left hander Ben Couvreur, a transfer from Cochise College who grew up in France.
Kansas hit both of its home runs during the exhibition matchup during game two. Schlotterback’s homer in the sixth was the first, and freshman infielder Logan Honkiel added a solo shot of his own in the seventh.
On the pitching side for Kansas, senior right-hander Riane Ritter started the first game and worked a scoreless first inning, allowing just one baserunner via a walk. Five other righties delivered scoreless outings in game one of the scrimmage, including senior Boede Rahe.
Jayhawk pitching held Iowa’s offense to two runs in game two, with both charged as unearned runs to Trevecca Nazarene transfer senior Logan Harrell in the bottom of the 11th. Harrell was the only Jayhawk to complete two or more innings of work in the exhibition.
Returning sophomores Madden Seidl and Emerson McKnight each turned in quality performances in their innings of work, with Seidl striking out two and McKnight three. Three other Jayhawk pitchers kept clean scorebooks in game two.
Saturday’s game was the second of four fall semester scrimmages that the Jayhawks have on their schedule, and their only one outside of Kansas. The Jayhawks will head to Manhattan next Saturday to take on Kansas State in another exhibition.
