photo by: Kansas Athletics

The Kansas baseball team huddles as part of a game against Texas Tech on Saturday, April 27, 2024, at Hoglund Ballpark.

The NCAA Division I baseball tournament lets in 64 teams. After winning 10 of its last 11 games, and as of the conclusion of Monday night’s action, Kansas has reached the No. 64 spot in the NCAA’s RPI ranking system.

That’s the furthest thing from a guarantee that the Jayhawks will make it into the regional field when the NCAA unveils its selections on May 27, especially given that 31 conference champions get in as automatic qualifiers. But KU is certainly now in the picture for its first regional since 2014 and will enter its final three weeks of regular-season action with a chance to continue its momentum, beginning Wednesday night at home with a midweek rematch against Wichita State.

The Jayhawks have risen to this point because they swept Texas Tech over the weekend, the first such result against the Red Raiders in a decade.

“I thought our focus for 27 innings was fantastic,” head coach Dan Fitzgerald said on his “Hawk Talk” radio show Monday night.

KU trailed early in each of the three games but won them all, the first on a walk-off by Ben Hartl — the sort of play Fitzgerald said can be among “the galvanizing moments of a team” — and the second and third in more resounding fashion, 11-2 and 7-3.

In all, the Jayhawks allowed just two combined runs after the third inning in the three games combined, a testament to the increasing effectiveness of the Jayhawks’ relief pitchers.

“If you look at how our bullpen performed, every time we went out there, we got what we needed, on top of three really good starts,” Fitzgerald said.

Cooper Moore, who did not allow a run in the month of April, and Hunter Cranton, who has given up just four earned on the year, each tossed multiple shutout innings over the weekend, and St. Cloud State transfer Ethan Lanthier was best of all among relievers, as on Sunday as he went 4 2/3 innings while giving up just two hits and one walk, keeping the Red Raiders at bay.

With previous Sunday starter Patrick Steitz out with a season-ending injury (and having had surgery, Fitzgerald said), KU has created what Fitzgerald called a “Transformer” with the complementary combination of J’Briell Easley and Lanthier for a “stack start” that creates problems for opposing lineups.

The other key injury hindering KU is that of infielder Michael Brooks, who didn’t play in the Texas Tech series after breaking a bone in his hand, as discussed on “Hawk Talk.” He is batting .331 on the year and had gotten a hit in every game for the previous month.

“Losing Brooksy, and hopefully for a very short amount of time … it’s his intangible piece as well,” Fitzgerald said. “You can move him anywhere on the field. He’s had such an incredible year offensively and really has protected some guys in the lineup and so I think with him out we needed some other guys to really step up this weekend.”

Fitzgerald envisions his infielders as “combo guards” who can slot in effectively at various spots, as they have had to in Brooks’ absence.

Ty Wisdom stepped in at second base as Kodey Shojinaga slid over to third. Shojinaga has continued to excel on offense with a .349 average in a team-high 175 at-bats; his 40 RBIs are second behind power-hitting catcher Jake English.

Shojinaga, Fitzgerald said, has “a dedication to the craft and really a level of discipline that’s really uncommon”; English, already an excellent defensive catcher, took a massive step forward on offense this year that Fitzgerald credited in part to the analytical assessments of Ryan Holland, KU’s director of player development, and a few key changes in English’s swing.

The Jayhawks’ overall leader in batting average on the year is center fielder John Nett (.370), another St. Cloud State transfer who has worn down opposing starters by taking pitches and forcing long at-bats.

It’s all made for an offense that is third in the Big 12 Conference in batting average, third in slugging and second in on-base percentage; along with a pitching staff that’s been second best in the league since the start of conference play, it has KU three games out of first place. The Jayhawks are 12-9 in the league, fifth of 13 teams, and 25-15 overall.

They still have series remaining at eighth-place Kansas State this coming weekend, then later against 13th-place Houston and at third-place Texas, before the Big 12 tournament begins May 21.