Both sides turned to their bullpens in the second inning, but Kansas baseball came out victorious to snap a four-game losing streak in Wednesday’s home contest against the Creighton Bluejays, 3-1.
Freshman righty Karter Muck took the mound for the Jayhawks on Wednesday, but his day was short-lived for his second consecutive start in which he did not complete two innings.
Despite a three up, three down first inning, Muck opened up the second with back-to-back singles and a walk to load the bases with no outs. A wild pitch brought home senior shortstop Sterling Hayes who led off the inning with a single, and a pitch that found junior designated hitter Kyle Hess’ knees was the straw that pulled Muck out of the game. Muck exited the game after just 1.1 innings with one earned run on two hits.
Junior righthander Thaniel Trumper managed to escape the bases-loaded mess that awaited him in the second inning to hold the Bluejays at just one run. Trumper went on to cruise through 4.2 scoreless innings with just two hits and recorded two punchouts to earn the win.
The Jayhawks’ bullpen wasn’t the only one to see early action however, with Creighton’s starting righty junior Dominic Cancellieri completing just one inning with two strikeouts. Junior righty Tommy Gross was the first Bluejay to make a relief appearance in the bottom of the second, and redshirt-junior shortstop Collier Cranford had no issues connecting off the Minnesota native for a double down the right-field line for the first Kansas hit of the day.
After Cranford stole third during sophomore catcher Jake English’s at-bat, English drew a walk to put runners on the corners. Second baseman Kodey Shojinaga followed up to reach on a fielder’s choice that brought home Cranford to tie the game at one apiece.
In total, Creighton used eight pitchers in the contest, with the longest appearance coming from senior righty Marc Lidd’s two innings.
With Creighton junior lefty Cade Lommel taking the mound for the third, a walk to freshman center fielder Jackson Cline and a follow-up single by sophomore left fielder Chase Jans allowed the Jayhawks to threaten early in the inning after a wild pitch advanced the runners for senior first baseman Cole Elvis to step to the plate. Elvis ultimately grounded out to redshirt freshman third baseman Ben North, but it was still enough for Kline to cross the plate and break the tie.
Kansas tallied one more run in the contest with an RBI single from Jans in the fifth inning. The Jayhawks had all the cards in their favor to bury the Bluejays in the fifth as they managed to load the bases with just one out, but Cranford grounded into a double play to limit the damage to just one.
Nonetheless, the three runs were enough for the Jayhawks to hold steady over the Bluejays. Sophomore lefty Gavin Brasosky helped finish out the job once Trumper’s day was over, going two scoreless innings with two strikeouts while allowing just one hit before turning it over to Lawrence native and junior lefty Ethan Bradford in the ninth for the save. Though the Bluejays managed to get runners on first and second with one out, a game-ending double play secured the 3-1 win.
Wednesday’s win moves the Jayhawks to 9-14 on the season after suffering a sweep this past weekend at the hands of Big 12 Conference foe TCU. Kansas now looks to bounce back in the Big 12 standings, hosting Baylor for a three-game set this weekend. The first pitch of the series is set for 6 p.m. on Friday.
