ROUND ROCK, Texas – Kansas and Washington State played a tight game on Saturday afternoon that ended in favor of Washington State by a score of 5-4 at Dell Diamond. The Cougars hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the eighth inning that proved to be the game-winner.
Freshman Dominic Voegele started and threw six innings while only allowing one run on the day. New Mexico transfer Lenny Ashby hit his second home run of the season for the Jayhawks and freshman Ty Wisdom had a pair of RBIs in the defeat.
HOW IT HAPPENED
• Washington State took a first inning lead on Saturday with a solo home run by Alan Shibley.
• Kansas responded immediately in the top of the second inning. Jake English worked a leadoff walk to setup Lenny Ashby for a 2-run homer and give KU a 2-1 lead.
• Both teams stayed quiet offensively over the next three innings until the sixth. With two out outs and two runners on, freshman Ty Wisdom delivered a 2-run double down the right field line to score Collier Cranford and English. The double from the Kansas City native made the score 4-1.
• The Cougars got one run back in the seventh on an RBI single by Jacob Morrow. At the end of seven innings, Kansas held a 4-2 lead.
• In the eighth inning, Washington State’s Joey Kramer hit a go-ahead three-run homer to put the Cougars ahead 5-4.
PITCHERS OF RECORD
Win: Kaden Wickersham (1-0)
Final line: 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO
Loss: Grant Adler (0-1)
Final line: 0.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 0 SO
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Dominic Voegele: The freshman from Columbia, Illinois, earned his first career quality start. Voegele, who was drafted in the 20th round of the 2023 MLB Draft, tossed six innings of one-run ball. He only walked one batter and struck out four.
SOCIAL POST OF THE GAME
Clutch city
.@tywisdom3 coming up big with a 2-run double in his first career start!
TOP 6 | KU 4, WSU 1 pic.twitter.com/kZKmk45eEG
— Kansas Baseball (@KUBaseball) February 24, 2024
Wisdom’s two-out, two-run double gave Kansas a 4-1 lead at the time.
QUOTABLES & NOTABLES
“A lot of good, a lot of bad. Certainly, six games into the year after every game it’s just an evaluation on what we can grow and what we can get better at. We put together some really good innings offensively and just didn’t get a two-out hit. Then, I thought we had some really good innings on the mound. We were at two strikes all day long and had a hard time putting them away. That’s a good team. They battle at the plate. They’re really sound defensively. We were not and that showed.” – Head Coach Dan Fitzgerald
• Voegele collected his first career quality start.
• Ashby hit his second home run of the season. He has hit safely in five of six games this season.
• Wisdom made his first career start and went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.
• Cranford has recorded three-straight multi-hit games. He went 2-for-4 with a run scored on Saturday.
UP NEXT
Kansas (3-3) will play Kentucky on Sunday in the finale of the Karbach Round Rock Classic at 12 p.m. CT at Dell Diamond. The game will be broadcast on D1Baseball.com and live audio will be available on the Jayhawk Sports Network.
