Kansas suffers tough loss to Oklahoma State
LAWRENCE, Kan.– Kansas was hurt by a strong wind blowing out and a record-breaking number of home runs as they fell to Oklahoma State, 27-6, on Friday afternoon at Hoglund Ballpark.
While fighting against a heavy wind, it was difficult for the Jayhawk pitchers to contain the Cowboys’ bats. Oklahoma State (21-11, 7-3 Big 12) launched 12 home runs in the contest, breaking the record for the most home runs hit by a Kansas (17-16, 2-8 Big 12) opponent.
The Cowboys knocked around Jayhawk starting pitcher Ryan Cyr (2-4) early, collecting two runs in the top of the first frame. The Jayhawks evened the score with two runs of their own off of Oklahoma State starter Jensen Elliott (4-2) in the bottom of the inning, with sophomore Tom Lichty and junior James Cosentino each driving in a run.
It was after the first inning that the Cowboys started their attack, adding a run in every frame that followed and scoring 25 additional runs.
Kansas put up a four-spot in the sixth inning after an RBI-single by Conner VanCleave and a bases-clearing single by redshirt-freshman Dylan Ditzenberger, but the deficit proved too big to overcome.
Junior Benjamin Sems recorded a 3-for-3 performance with a walk and a run scored and sophomore Skyler Messinger recorded two doubles to extend his hitting streak to seven games.
GAME NOTES
- Redshirt-freshman Dylan Ditzenberger’s two RBIs tied his career high.
- Junior Benjamin Sems has recorded 12 hits in his last five games.
- Sophomore Skyler Messinger recorded two doubles and extended his hitting streak to seven games.
- Kansas starting pitcher Ryan Cyr gave up 10 runs for the second time this season, with the first time coming against Texas Southern on February 23, 2019.
- Oklahoma State’s 12 home runs mark the most ever given up in a single game by a Kansas team.
- The Cowboys’ 27 runs are the most scored by a Kansas opponent, breaking the previous record of 25 held by Oklahoma State (3/27/85).
QUOTES
Head coach Ritch Price
On bouncing back and looking to win the series…
“I think the thing that you try to preach to your players is that when you get boat-raised like we did today, the whole momentum in baseball is about the next day’s starting pitcher. That’s what you see at every level of baseball. You’ll see a team get boat-raced and then they hand the ball over to the guy the next day and he goes out an can have a dominating performance, which is exactly what happened against West Virginia last year, and that’s what’s going to happen tomorrow. This is obviously a really tough day to pitch. If you hit a ball in the air today, the ball was a home run. We’ll need Ryan Zeferjahn’s best effort tomorrow to keep the ball in the ballpark.”
On how much impact the wind had on the game…
“I think, when you get behind, you pitch young guys and the game got away from us today. Every time they hit a ball in the air, it blew out of the park. I was actually pleased with the way we played. We played good defensively, we swung the bats good, and we hit a lot of line drives that were caught. The thing was, we never hit a fly ball. If we would’ve hit a ball in the air, we would’ve had a few home runs too. Obviously, we have to throw more strikes and we have to keep the ball in the ballpark tomorrow.”
UP NEXT
The Jayhawks and Cowboys meet for game 2 of the series Saturday, April 12 at Hoglund Ballpark at 2 p.m.
