Kansas baseball splits two games

? Kansas University sophomore pitcher Frank Duncan carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning, and KU’s baseball team defeated Mississippi Valley State, 9-2, on Friday as the Jayhawks split a pair of games.

KU fell to Mississippi State, 1-0, in the second game.

Tucker Tharp drove in three runs for the Jayhawks against Mississippi Valley, and freshman Michael Suiter went 3-for-3 for the second straight game.

Duncan didn’t allow a hit until Joseph Germaine doubled with one out in the seventh. Duncan allowed one earned run and struck out seven in seven innings.

Tharp hit a two-run triple in a three-run fifth inning as KU increased a one-run lead to 4-0. Connor McKay put the Jayhawks ahead 1-0 in the first with a leadoff home run. McKay went 2-for-4 and scored three runs.

Freshman Wes Benjamin pitched 6 1/3 scoreless innings against Mississippi State. MSU won when Wes Rea hit a run-scoring double in the bottom of the ninth, ending the Jayhawks’ four-game winning streak.

MSU’s C.T. Bradford started the ninth with a walk on a 3-2 pitch by KU reliever Tanner Poppe. Rea then hit the first pitch he saw off the wall in left field.

The run against Poppe marked the first allowed by the Kansas bullpen this season. Prior to the ninth, KU relievers had gone 9 2/3 innings without allowing a run.

KU will meet Mississippi State again at 4 p.m. today.