
No. 23 Kansas Falls in Series Finale to Cincinnati
5/4/2025 5:29:00 PM | Baseball
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Brady Ballinger hit his 14th home run of the season and is now tied for fifth all-time in single-season home runs at Kansas. Kannon Carr started and went five innings, allowing only two runs while walking two and striking out three.
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HOW IT HAPPENED
• Cincinnati (27-20, 13-11 Big 12) got on the scoreboard first on Sunday. Landyn Vidourek led off the game with a solo homer and Lauden Brooks hit a sacrifice fly to give the Bearcats a 2-0 advantage.
• Kansas (36-13, 15-9 Big 12) cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the first inning with a solo home run by Ballinger. At the end of the first inning, Cincinnati led 2-1.
• The next run came in the bottom of the fourth when the Jayhawks tied up the game. Jackson Hauge came in to score on a wild pitch to make it a 2-2 game. Â
• The Bearcats took the lead in the sixth inning on three run-scoring hits. Dawson Hokuf had an RBI double, Vidourek delivered a two-run single and Kerrington Cross hit an RBI single. That gave Cincinnati a 6-2 lead.
• In the seventh, Cincinnati extended its lead with four runs. Tommy O'Connor had a sacrifice fly and Derrick Pitts hit a three-run homer. The Bearcats led 10-2 at the seventh inning stretch.
• A squeeze bunt by Brooks in the eighth and a two-run double by Kory Klingenbeck in the ninth made it a 13-2 Cincinnati advantage.
• With two outs and two runners on in the ninth inning, Ty Wisdom came up as a pinch-hitter and sent a two-run single to left-center field. That ended the scoring at 13-4.
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PITCHERS OF RECORD
Win: Kellen O'Connor (3-2)
Final line: 6.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 5 SO
Loss: Thaniel Trumper (4-1)
Final line: 0.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 0 SO
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SOCIAL POST OF THE GAME
ÂSOLO SMASH ??@ballingerbrady7 hits his 14th home run of the season!
— Kansas Baseball (@KUBaseball) May 4, 2025
BOT 1 | Cincinnati 2, Kansas 1 pic.twitter.com/Zs7ySfjkvh
QUOTABLES & NOTABLES
"It's disappointing because it's uncharacteristic. I think that's a very common thread athletically, and really in anything when expectations are high, which we've raised expectations to a great spot in a very short amount of time. When you perform underneath those expectations there's disappointment. I said the disappointment is in that we didn't play to the standard that we have set. It wasn't an effort thing. We had great preparation. These guys love each other. They were competing. Often times it's not who you play, it's how are they playing when you play them…the message (to the team) was the great news is that's not who we are if you evaluate us over the collective body of work. The bad news is that's categorically who we were this weekend and now we have put ourselves in a spot where we have to reset, figure it out and come out and play Tuesday." – Head Coach Dan Fitzgerald
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• Kansas has a program-record 88 home runs this year.
• The last six Big 12 series for Kansas have been sweeps, whether it's recording a sweep or getting swept.
• Ballinger hit his 14th home run of the season. His 14 home runs are tied for the fifth most in a season in program history. He recorded his team-high 20th multi-hit game of the season.
• Sawyer Smith has reached base safely in each of the last 25 games.
• Brady Counsell stretched his hitting streak to 10 games.
• Dariel Osoria extended his on-base streak to 15 games.
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UP NEXT
Kansas will play at Missouri in a midweek game on Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network+.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: O'Connor, Kellen (3-2)
L: Trumper, Thaniel (4-1)
Batting:
2B: Natili, Jack 1 ; Klingenbeck, Kory 1 ; Hokuf, Dawson 1
HR: Vidourek, Landyn 1 ; Pitts, Derrick 1
RBI: Vidourek, Landyn 3 ; Cross, Kerrington 1 ; Klingenbeck, Kory 2 ; Brooks, Lauden 2 ; Hokuf, Dawson 1 ; O'Connor, Tommy 1 ; Pitts, Derrick 3
SH: Brooks, Lauden 3
SF: Brooks, Lauden 1 ; O'Connor, Tommy 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Vidourek, Landyn 3 ; Cross, Kerrington 1 ; Natili, Jack 1 ; Klingenbeck, Kory 1 ; Sefcik, Cal 1 ; Coats, Quinton 2 ; O'Connor, Tommy 1 ; Niehaus, Charlie 2 ; Pitts, Derrick 1
SB: Vidourek, Landyn 1 ; Niehaus, Charlie 1

Batting:
HR: Ballinger, Brady 1
RBI: Ballinger, Brady 1 ; Wisdom, Ty 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Ballinger, Brady 1 ; Hauge, Jackson 1 ; Osoria, Dariel 1 ; Soliz Jr., Max 1
CS: Smith, Sawyer 1