No, by the time you’re reading this, the sting of Kansas’ desolate loss to the Oklahoma Sooners would not have fully worn off. After an undefeated postseason that spanned six games, the Jayhawks had won a conference title and hosted both regional and Super Regional sections; it felt like nothing could take down the soaring Big 12 squad.
That was until Hoglund Ballpark opened its gates to the Sooners.
While we don’t need to get into the nitty-gritty of how KU fell by an aggregate score of 21-3, just know that for a team which had gone 21-5 at Hoglund had exhausted all of its pixie dust in a best-of-three series that left Kansas starving for bits of momentum which were few and far between.
Kansas’ newest legend still gets right ending to the season
The Jayhawks are not a team defined by solo artists. If there is one thing that has been made clear by head coach Dan Fitzgerald and echoed by his players, it is that all the success that earns a staggering 45 wins comes from program-wide efforts.
That being said, several players throughout this season have established themselves as some of the nation’s most exciting prospects. Among those standouts is Tyson LeBlanc.
LeBlanc hails from LSU Eunice, where he notched a .367 batting average, 132 RBI, 15 home runs, 74 walks and 73 stolen bases.
While LeBlanc was tipped for a solid season with the Jayhawks, no one could have imagined the impact he would eventually have, which included 25 home runs, 69 RBI, and 87 hits at a .341 batting average, ending the season with eight homers over the final 11 games. His final shot came from a 393-foot bomb in Kansas’ 13-2 loss to the Sooners.
“As long as we have an out left on the scoreboard, I felt like we had a chance, so, rounding the bases, I thought that would be the spark that we needed [to] maybe get something going,” quoted LeBlanc postgame.
“Didn't work out that way, but it was a good feeling to go out with a bang.”
As of publishing, LeBlanc is touted as the No. 130 overall prospect according to MLB.com, measuring him as the No. 22 shortstop in the draft. LeBlanc was also added to the All-Big 12 First Team, along with a spot in the All-Big 12 Tournament Team after 7 RBI and eight hits.
One of the most impressive markers when measuring LeBlanc is his improved plate presence as the season wore on. Up until Kansas’ series against the Utah Utes, which was launched on April 8, LeBlanc was batting just .282. However, LeBlanc flipped the switch and found his form towards the end of the season, as every coach hopes.
LeBlanc finished the season owning Kansas season-record in homers, which surpassed Tony Thompson’s 21, which stretched all the way back to the 2009 season. LeBlanc’s stellar offensive campaign also led the way for the Jayhawks to set a single-season school record of 112 home runs.
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