If there is such thing as a bad omen, it is losing to the University of Texas Grand Rio Valley in your first game of the season.
That is exactly how the Kansas Jayhawks Baseball team started their 2026 campaign.
Fast forward not even three months later, and the No. 14 Jayhawks would go on to claim at least a Big 12 regular season title after a 7-6 win over BYU, claiming its first regular season title since 1949, and only the school's fourth regular season title in history.
"It feels pretty good. I'm so proud of these guys," head coach Dan Fitzgerald said. "This is four years in the making. It's our families, it's all of our wives. It's the entire Jayhawk Nation, it's our administration and it's hundreds of people who have led to this moment. It's pretty special."
How the Jayhawks broke the 77-year drought
Heading into the season, the Jayhakws were tipped to finish fifth in the Big 12 a far cry from where they were a few seasons ago, finishing with a 25-32 record in Fitzgerald’s first season at the helm in 2023.
After starting the season with a loss to UTGRV, the Jayhawks won six of their next seven games before losing a non-conference series to Minnesota, meaning heading into March, the Jayhawks were 6-4.
KU then struggled early in the month, going 4-4, before a monstrous 27-3 run ensued which saw the Jayhawks take series wins over ranked opposition like No. 25 Cincinnati, No. 12 UCF, and two separate games against No. 19 and No. 20 Nebraska.
The Jayhawks then lost a one-game series to Creighton in extra innings before getting swept by the No. 13 West Virginia Mountaineers.
Yet, they knew a near-century-long feat could be theirs if they could claim the series over the Cougars. In what opened with a 9-6 win in Provo, Utah, set up for Friday night’s thrilling encounter that saw the Jayhawks climb to a 6-0 lead, before the Cougars pulled it even at 6-6 heading into the 9th inning, before sophomore Tyson Owens notched the game’s deciding home run, clinching the title.
The stats that led the way to Kansas’ dominant season
Under Fitzgerald, the Jayhawks have become a dominant force on the road, and this season marks the second straight season in which KU has totaled 20+ wins on the road. Fitzgerald and Co. have gone on to break their conference record with 22 Big 12 wins; the previous best was in 2025 with 20. All while also breaking the club's strikeout record of 510.
In Big 12 play, the Jayhawks currently rank at No. 3 in batting with a .313 average, and fifth in ERA with a 6.01.
Tyson LeBlanc, Cade Baldridge and Josh Dykoff rank among the Big 12’s top hitters, with batting averages of .358, .344 and .342, respectively. The trio all ranked inside the conference’s top-30 bats.
Kansas will finish the regular season with one final matchup against the Cougars Saturday, 2 p.m. CT, with streaming available on ESPN+.
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