Behind two Brady Ballinger home runs and five RBIs, Kansas opened a two-game series with St. Thomas by taking the win, 7-6, on Tuesday night at Hoglund Ballpark.
Gavin Brasosky, making his first start of the season after six appearances out of the bullpen, picked up two quick outs to open the afternoon before allowing Max Moris to slap a single to centerfield, notching the Tommies’ first hit of the day. Brasosky would hit the following batter, but would escape the frame scoreless with an ensuing groundout.
Kansas notched a baserunner when Ballinger picked up a one-out walk, but Jackson Hauge’s following double-play kept the game scoreless through one.
After hitting two batters to start the second, Brasosky worked his way out of the jam by retiring three straight Tommies, keeping things scoreless but forcing Kansas manager Dan Fitzgerald to begin warming up a new pitcher.
“I don’t think any of our, the guys we put in today, were gonna go real long,” Fitzgerald said. “I didn’t think Brasosky was going to give us seven, but you know, I was hoping he’d give us three.”
Kansas was held scoreless again in the second, leaving Dariel Osoria aboard after the second baseman drew a leadoff walk.
Naun Haro entered to pitch for Kansas in the third after two innings from Brasosky, surrendering a leadoff single to Ben Vujovich to open the frame before a standup double from Moris broke the tie and gave the Tommies a 1-0 lead. He scored later in the inning on an RBI groundout from Joe Roder.
The Jayhawks picked up their first hit of the day in the third, as Ian Francis looped a flyball single to center to start the inning. Tommies pitcher Bryce Leedle retired the following two Jayhawks, before Ballinger launched a towering home run over the centerfield batter’s eye to even the game at two.
“You’re gonna get bad calls once in a while, you’re gonna get calls you don’t agree with, you just gotta bounce back,” Ballinger said. “You just gotta reset every pitch and win that pitch.”
After putting two men aboard to begin the fourth, Haro exited the game and made way for Thaniel Trumper. Tasked with navigating traffic, Trumper fell victim to a bunt single in the first at-bat of his outing, loading the bases with no outs. Following a Sawyer Smith grab that saved runs from scoring, Kansas looked to be home free with an inning-ending double play. Unfortunately for the Jayhawks, an error allowed two runs to score, giving St. Thomas the lead at 4-2.
A leadoff triple from Osoria resulted in Kansas getting a run back thanks to a sacrifice fly from Tommy Barth, but Leedle retired three straight Jayhawks following the triple to limit the damage to one.
“I think we were well past the weekend coming into today,” Fitzgerald said of the slow start. “We’ve got more than half our season left, so we’re just going to have to keep learning and get better.”
In his second full inning of work, Trumper retired the Tommies in order. Picking up one of each, forcing a groundout and flyout before notching his first strikeout to end the frame.
After getting two aboard in the bottom of the fifth with only one away, Carl Cano entered the ballgame for the Tommies, immediately surrendering the second homer of the day to Ballinger, a three-run shot that gave the Jayhawks a 6-4 lead.
“I just got up there, boxed him up like Fitz told me and I just, I got the pitch I saw I wanted and just took advantage of it,” Ballinger said.
For the second inning in a row, Trumper successfully retired the side in order, firing a second strikeout before forcing an inning-ending groundout to keep the score at 6-4. Trumper’s eventual three innings pitched were enough to secure his longest outing of the season, surpassing the two innings he threw against Baylor on March 14.
“I thought the breaking ball was awesome and he rode his fastball at the top of the zone,” Fitzgerald said of Trumper. “Trumper falls into that category as a guy that, just super proud of what he’s done for us.”
After Derek Cerda added a run for Kansas in the bottom of the sixth, Vujovich grabbed it right back. His homer to right field brought the Jayhawk lead back to two, but the Tommies couldn’t muster anything more in the seventh.
Kansas loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh, but with two outs the Jayhawks failed to add on to their two-run lead.
St. Thomas continued to claw into the Kansas lead in the eighth, working back to a one-run deficit with two outs in the frame and runners on the corners. Eric Lin entered to close the door, doing just that by retiring Vujovich on four pitches to help the Jayhawks out of the jam.
After a 1-2-3 bottom of the inning, powered by two excellent defensive plays from Easton Fritcher and Tanner Recchio, Lin re-entered for his second inning of relief. The righty allowed a leadoff single and one-out walk to put the go-ahead run on first, but struck out the ensuing two batters, slamming the door and securing a 7-6 Jayhawk victory.
Kansas and St. Thomas will battle again Wednesday in the second game of the two-game clash. First pitch is set for 3 p.m., and the game can be seen on ESPN+ and heard on the Jayhawk Radio Network by Learfield.
