Dan Fitzgerald Guides Ku Baseball Into Big 12 Title Chase
ku baseball is back at work after winning its first regular-season league title since 1949, and the next stop is the Big 12 tournament as a No. 1 seed with a double bye. Kansas finished 39-16 and now has three straight wins to take another trophy.
Dan Fitzgerald Plans Step No. 1
Dan Fitzgerald did not dress up the moment. “I think to win the regular-season title was step No. 1,” he said Tuesday, then added that the team has “multiple opportunities for championships throughout the year, one being the regular season, two being the conference tournament, and then they grow from there.”
Kansas earned that first step by coming back from BYU with two of three wins, then returning to prepare for the tournament run. Mason Cook kept the mood measured. “It just feels like another day, you know? Winning the championship is awesome. You just got to get back to work,” he said after the trip.
Surprise Stadium On Thursday
The next game comes Thursday at 2:30 p.m. Central time at Surprise Stadium in Surprise, Arizona, against No. 8 seed Baylor, which advanced after a 13-9 win over BYU. Kansas will be on ESPNU, and the bracket gives it a double bye before the first pitch.
The path is simple and unforgiving: three straight wins are required to bring home the Big 12 tournament title. Baylor is the first hurdle, and the Jayhawks already know the schedule now that the matchup is set.
Hoglund Ballpark Waiting
Hosting is the bigger prize hanging over the week. Kansas was projected by Baseball America and D1Baseball as a top-16 seed this week, and a victory on Thursday could be enough to lock in NCAA regional hosting privileges at Hoglund Ballpark.
That is the pressure point around the title run. Kansas recently removed a large chunk of the outfield wall at Hoglund Ballpark, and except for a small portion near the foul pole, basically the entirety of left field is missing and has been replaced by a chain-link fence separating the players from Naismith Drive. Fitzgerald called the ballpark setting “an incredible home-field advantage” and said, “So yeah, it’s going to be awesome, and we need to take care of business to make sure it happens.”
Tyson LeBlanc, one of Kansas’s two first-team all-league selections, put the focus on the postseason itself. “The toughest team always wins,” he said. “The guys who don’t give up when stuff’s not falling their way, those teams are going to win, and we have all the makeup to do that this year.”
