After several weeks of being unranked, the Kansas Jayhawks find themselves back in the top 25 in college baseball. KU enters the Baseball America, D1Baseball, and USA Today Baseball Coaches polls at No. 25 in the country after dropping out of the rankings a few weeks ago.
The top 25 ranking comes on the heels of a three-game sweep against the Utah Utes in Salt Lake City, Utah, this weekend to give the Jayhawks a 35-10 (15-6 in conference) record with just a few weeks of conference play remaining.
It was the eighth consecutive win for Kansas, making it the third winning streak of at least eight games for the Jayhawks this season.
It was also the fourth conference series sweep of the season for KU – the most in program history. The 35 wins are the most in a season for Kansas since 2014, and the 15 conference wins are tied for the most in a season in program history.
The Jayhawks now sit at No. 2 in the Big 12 standings behind scorching hot West Virginia. The Mountaineers are a consensus top 20 team in college baseball who have won 14 straight conference games and hold a Big 12 record of 16-3.
Oddly enough, Kansas ends the regular season with a three-game road trip against West Virginia in Morgantown May 15-17. The winner of that series could very likely end up being the Big 12 regular season champion.
The Jayhawks have a great opportunity to position themselves for the Big 12 title with a favorable portion of the schedule coming up these next two weeks.
First, KU will play host to Border War rival Missouri in the fourth annual Buck O’Neil Classic taking place Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence. The Tigers have struggled this year with zero SEC wins and a 13-30 record overall.
Following that single-game matchup, Kansas will host Cincinnati this weekend. The Bearcats are currently ranked seventh in the Big 12 with a 10-11 conference record (24-20 overall).
Next week, the Jayhawks will travel to Columbia for a rematch against the Tigers before coming back to Lawrence to host BYU in a three-game series. The Cougars are currently ranked No. 13 in the Big 12 standings with a 6-15 conference record (20-21 overall).
If the Jayhawks take care of business as they should, they’ll head to Morgantown in late May with a chance to win their first Big 12 championship in school history.