Kansas Baseball Stays Hot With Big 12 Tournament Underway

The Kansas Jayhawks ended the regular season with a sweep of Big 12 regular season champions West Virginia. The Mountaineers had plenty to play for—national seeding and a potential regional host bid on the line—but it was Kansas that rose to the occasion while West Virginia wilted.

The three-game sweep gave Kansas 42 wins, the most regular-season victories in program history. It also marked their 20th win in Big 12 play—tops in the conference. But due to two rainouts that West Virginia and Oklahoma State couldn’t reschedule from March 15, the Mountaineers technically finished atop the league at 19-9, while the Jayhawks settled for second at 20-10.

Now in the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament, things have gone mostly to script. No. 1 West Virginia will face No. 4 Arizona at 4:00 p.m. CT, followed by No. 2 Kansas taking on No. 3 TCU around 7:30 p.m. CT. Both games will stream live on ESPN+.

Kansas didn’t exactly cruise into the semis. The Jayhawks pulled off a gritty 7-6 walk-off win over Oklahoma State in the quarterfinals, rallying late after the Cowboys capitalized on a pair of two-out walks early to take the lead. But Kansas’ power bats came through when it mattered.

Jackson Haugh launched his 19th homer of the season in the third inning, extending KU’s home run streak to 15 straight games. That blast kept Kansas in it, but it was Brady Ballinger’s three-run bomb in the seventh that tied it up and flipped the momentum. Ballinger’s shot was the 100th homer of the season for the Jayhawks, further padding a school record.

From there, relievers Manning West and Alex Breckheimer slammed the door, combining for five shutout innings out of the bullpen to give the offense a chance.

The drama didn’t end there. In the bottom of the ninth, Kansas loaded the bases—and it was Mike Koszewski, a defensive sub just an inning earlier, who became the hero. Koszewski worked a full count before lining the game-winning RBI single to left. It marked Kansas’ 26th comeback win of the season and sixth walk-off victory—their most in a season since 2013.

The win pushed KU to 43 wins on the year, tying the 2006 team for the second-most in school history. The program record sits at 45 wins, set by the 1993 squad. This 2025 group is now just three wins away from making history.

But first, they’ll have to get through a tough TCU team. The winner of that semifinal will face the West Virginia–Arizona winner in the Big 12 Championship Game, set for Saturday at 6:00 p.m. CT on ESPNU.