KU Jayhawks give up 7-run 6th inning in NCAA Regional collapse against Creighton
The Jayhawks are making their first trip to an NCAA baseball regional since 2014. But KU now has its back against the wall.
Kansas dropped its opener in the Arkansas Regional, 11-4 to Creighton, on Friday night in Fayetteville.
Kansas, led by head coach Dan Fitzgerald, headed into the top of the sixth inning all tied up with Creighton at 3-3. KU Starting pitcher Dominic Voegele was sent back out for the inning to keep the tie intact, despite a rising pitch count and some inconsistency in the strike zone with three walks at that point.
What resulted was a seven-run inning from the Bluejays on way to the 11-4 win, marking a collapse to threaten the continuance of a season approaching the most wins in program history.
“It wasn’t our best inning in baseball,” Jayhawks outfielder Tommy Barth said. “We wanted to get back to the dugout and put up some runs as quick as possible.”
Voegele gave up his fourth walk, leading off the sixth, and back-to-back singles from Creighton’s Dakota Duffalo and Tate Gillen plated two more runs for the Bluejays.
Righty Manning West came out of the bullpen for KU, but between shortstop Sawyer Smith struggling to come up with a routine ground ball and three doubles, Creighton tallied up five additional runs after Voegele exited.
Voegele got through 5 1/3 innings. He allowed seven earned runs on nine hits. He walked four and struck out five.
“It was frustrating,” Fitzgerald said. “Pitch count was fine, and he had plenty of rest. They did a really nice job of moving the ball, and obviously hindsight is 20-20 and I would have liked to have done some things differently in the sixth inning.
“You’re riding the horse for as long as you can,” Fitzgerald added of his decision to leave Voegele in. “Dom’s been our guy for two years, so you’ve got to give him those opportunities to work out of it.”
Creighton’s bats were a persistent issue for more than just Voegele, striking up 16 hits on the night.
“It’s hard to win a game when you give up 16 hits,” Fitzgerald said. “Obviously not the way we drew it up, but you know, when you look at the grand scheme of how we play in the ebbs and flows in the season, we’ve talked from day one about adversity. Now we get a chance to face it.”
Friday’s Regional contest wasn’t always as explosive as the sixth inning. Both sides went down in order in the first inning. But Creighton’s Will MacLean broke the silence in the second with a 455-foot home run to right, scorching off the bat at 109 mph.
Barth responded for the Jayhawks in the bottom of the frame, sending a two-run home run to left center, and it looked like Friday would have ended up being more back-and-forth than the box score ended up reading.
Kansas will look to stay alive in the NCAA Regional on Saturday: The Jayhawks will face North Dakota State in an elimination game. NDSU fell 6-2 to host host Arkansas earlier Friday.
“It’s just another game,” Barth said. “Take it as every other game that we played this year, and we’ll just flush it tonight in preparing for tomorrow and go play better.”
First pitch is set for 2:06 p.m. in Fayetteville.
This story was originally published May 30, 2025 at 10:30 PM with the headline "KU Jayhawks give up 7-run 6th inning in NCAA Regional collapse against Creighton."
