Kansas junior pitcher Dominic Voegele recorded a career-high 15 strikeouts on April 18 to help the Jayhawks defeat Oklahoma State 13-3 in the second game of a doubleheader. The Cowboys won the first contest by a score of 13-2 before Kansas responded in the nightcap, evening the series.
The achievement marks the most strikeouts by a Kansas pitcher since at least 2002 and moves Voegele into seventh place for career strikeouts in program history, now totaling 233. The Jayhawks improved their record to 28-11 overall and hold a conference mark of 13-4.
In game one, play was interrupted by inclement weather on Friday and resumed Saturday afternoon. Oklahoma State used four home runs early to build momentum and eventually secured a run-rule victory with five runs in the eighth inning. Stormy Rhodes earned the win for Oklahoma State, while Mathis Nayral took the loss for Kansas.
The second game saw Voegele dominate from start to finish, striking out seven batters through three perfect innings and finishing with fifteen punch-outs over seven frames. “Dom has stacked back-to-back elite starts and that’s obviously what we needed after losing game one. To tie up the series against a really good Oklahoma State team was really important. I thought Dom was great and we played great defense behind him. We had a lot of timely hitting in the second game and were able to stretch the lead. Proud of the effort to bounce back,” Head Coach Dan Fitzgerald said.
Voegele credited his success to both preparation and team support: “It felt good. Everything felt like it was working pretty well. I knew the defense was going to work behind me and the bats were going to come alive after the first game. The game plan was to just fill it up and I felt like we did.” Other notable performances included Cade Baldridge’s sixth home run of the season, Jordan Bach’s fifth homer, Brady Ballinger’s fifth homer, Tyson LeBlanc matching his season high with four hits including his fifteenth home run, and Augusto Mungarrieta driving in five runs with his eleventh homer.
Kansas has now won eighteen of its last twenty-one games as they prepare for Sunday’s rubber match against Oklahoma State at O’Brate Stadium.
