From K-State Athletics
Kansas completed a doubleheader sweep of K-State Sunday at Hoglund Ballpark, winning the first game 9-6 before a 6-4 victory in the nightcap in the Dillons Sunflower Showdown.
In the regular-season finale for both teams, KU (31-24, 12-12 Big 12) locked up the No. 5 seed in the upcoming 2019 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship after its three-game sweep. K-State (25-31, 8-16 Big 12) will enter the postseason as the eighth seed and take on top-seeded Texas Tech on Wednesday.
Freshman Dylan Phillips hit three home runs over the two games, upping his season total to nine. Phillips’ season total is a program record by Wildcat freshman.
Chris Ceballos, Mason Crews and Jordan Maxson also homered Sunday. In the day’s first game, the Cats lifted four home runs – three in the seventh inning – for a single-game high in 2019.
GAME 1: KU 9, K-STATE 6
K-State’s comeback bid fell short after the Wildcats trailed Kansas by four runs after the opening inning. Trailing 7-2 after six innings, the Cats put up four in the seventh behind home runs from Ceballos, Crews and Phillips to claw within a run at 7-6.
Phillips hit a pair of two-run homers in the game, including going back-to-back with Crews in the four-run seventh. Ceballos homered to lead off the seventh before KU got across two runs in the bottom of the eighth for a three-run lead.
K-State’s four homers marked a single-game high this season, as Phillips turned in his second multi-homer game of the season.
Phillips finished 3-for-4 with four RBI while Caleb Littlejim went 3-for-4 with two doubles.
The Jayhawks loaded the bases before an out was recorded in the bottom of the first inning, as starter Jordan Wicks issued two walks around a James Consentino double. Nolan Metcalf tallied a two-run single and was followed by an RBI single from Benjamin Sems and the inning was capped by an RBI double by Skyler Messinger.
Wicks (6-2) suffered the loss after a scheduled short start, exiting after surrendering a leadoff double to Jack Wagner in the second inning. In total, Wicks allowed four earned runs on five hits (three doubles) with a strikeout.
Littlejim’s leadoff double in the third marked the Cats’ first hit of the game. Phillips’ first homer followed to cut the Jayhawk lead in half at 4-2.
KU manufactured a run off of reliever Andrew Stratman in the fourth after Casey Burnham doubled, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and later scored via a sacrifice fly off the bat of Jack Wagner to push its lead to three runs, 5-2.
A two-run blast by Brett Vosik extended the KU lead to 7-2 after five innings. It was Vosik’s fourth home run of the season and scored Jaxx Groshans, who led off the frame with a single off Stratman.
Stratman tossed a career-long 3 2/3 innings in relief of Wicks, allowing three runs on three hits with a pair of punchouts. The sophomore righty is tied for the team lead with 21 appearances this season.
K-State belted three home runs as part of a four-run seventh to cut KU’s lead to just a run at 7-6. Ceballos lifted his team-leading 10th home run and later Phillips lifted his second bomb of the game, a two-run shot, and was followed by Crews in going back-to-back. It was Crews’ first career homer.
Wagner’s two-out, two-run single made it a three-run game through eight innings. Wagner singled off Eric Torres with the bases loaded. Torres gave up two earned on one hit with three walks issued.
Junior Brett Lockwood tossed two hitless innings of relief with a career-best three strikeouts.
Eight different Jayhawks registered a base hit in the opener, led by Wagner’s 2-for-3 effort with three RBI.
K-State went 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position while KU ended the game 4-for-10.
GAME 2: KU 6, K-STATE 4
The Wildcats dropped a back-and-forth affair in the day’s finale, 6-4. K-State led three different times during the game, but the Jayhawks plated three unanswered runs in the fifth and sixth innings to claim their first three-game sweep of K-State in Lawrence since 1994.
Cameron Thompson and Maxson began the second game of the doubleheader with back-to-back doubles, handing K-State an early 1-0 lead after half an inning of play.
After Kansas tied the game with a run in the bottom of the first, Maxson hit a go-ahead solo home run in the third to give the Cats a 2-1 lead. It was Maxson’s first home run of the season and third of his career.
Thompson recorded his second double of the game, leading off the fifth inning. The junior infielder later scored on a wild pitch to give the Wildcats a two-run cushion.
K-State’s 3-1 lead evaporated when Jaxx Groshans lifted a two-run homer in the bottom half of the fifth. Groshans hit his team-leading 12th homer off Kasey Ford, who lifted starter Littlejim after three innings.
Leading off the top of the sixth inning, Phillips launched his third home run of the day to give the Wildcats a one-run lead at 4-3.
Ford left the game after issuing a two-out walk in the sixth. Jaxon Passino entered the game with one on and two out and surrendered a pinch-hit RBI double to Tom Lichty before issuing a walk before the go-ahead run came home on an error.
Passino allowed one unearned run and suffered the loss after not recording an out with a hit and two walks.
In the start, Littlejim went three innings with one run on three hits. He struck out two and walked two in a no decision.
A two-out RBI single from Blaine Ray added an insurance run for the Jayhawks in the bottom of the seventh.
Thompson, Maxson and Terrence Spurlin each produced two-hit games for the Wildcats, as Maxson drove in a team-high two.
Groshans led the Jayhawks with his 2-for-3 effort, including a homer and three RBI.
Phillips’ three-homer game pushed his season total to nine, which broke the program’s freshman record for home runs in a season set by Brian Culp (1990) and Todd Fereday (1994).
