photo by: Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas designated hitter Lenny Ashby yells out in celebration after hitting a home run against Houston on Saturday, May 11th, 2024, at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence.

Saturday’s penultimate home game for Kansas baseball was about much more than the Jayhawks’ 11-9 comeback win over Houston as KU hosted its first Rare Disease Game to help raise awareness of medical issues. Pitching coach Brandon Scott was heavily involved with the night as he runs a foundation to raise money for research into CSNK2B, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder that Scott said affects only 30 people in the country, one of whom is his daughter.

“One cool thing about KU is it’s in the head coach’s playbook to choose things like this,” said head coach Dan Fitzgerald. “And so the autism (awareness night) is really special to me and this is really special to Brandon, and as a coach the things that are special to you definitely have a trickle-down effect to be special to your team.”

He continued: “It would be a colossal waste of time if all we ever did was (play) baseball and (talk about) baseball. These are things that you really need to be aware of in life and understand the platform and voice that you have when you’re blessed like them to play at the highest level of college baseball.”

As the team spread awareness for Scott’s CSNK2B Foundation and rare diseases as a whole in front of a hefty crowd, they also looked to even the series against Houston after dropping a disappointing game 13-5 on Friday night.

The Cougars took a similarly large advantage Saturday against Kansas starter Dominic Voegele, going up by as many as seven runs, but the Jayhawks used an explosive fourth inning and a key pinch-hit home run by Lenny Ashby to surge into the lead. KU didn’t look back, as flamethrowing closer Hunter Cranton came on for the ninth inning with an 11-9 advantage and blew the side away with three straight strikeouts to secure the win.

“It is a must-win game, I think every game moving forward is a must-win game,” said infielder Chase Diggins. “But at the same time, we’re going to break it down bit by bit and win the small battles and then fight the big one at the end.”

Coming off a masterful start against the rival Kansas State Wildcats last Saturday in Kansas’ sole win of the series, Voegele took the mound for the Jayhawks in their second game against Houston seeking to set a new record for wins in a season by a freshman Jayhawk.

This goal became an uphill battle early, though, as he hit the leadoff man with his first pitch of the game before allowing an RBI single and three-run home run to enter a quick 4-0 hole as Kansas came up to bat for the first time.

The Jayhawks, however, started off soft, as they loaded the bases with no outs in the first but failed to score a run.

After allowing some more hard contact to start the second inning, Voegele settled down and surrendered no runs while the Jayhawks were able to tack on a run with a two-out RBI by senior John Nett to make it 4-1. But to follow up his three-run shot in the first, Cary Arbolida went deep again to give the Cougars a four-run lead. Four straight runners reached base to tack another run on, then a sacrifice fly and Houston’s fourth hit of the inning grew the lead to 8-1.

The Jayhawks didn’t lose focus, though, and tacked on four runs of their own in the bottom of the third. After back-to-back walks, Kodey Shojinaga scored on an error by Houston’s third baseman before Diggins stepped to the plate and smashed a three-run home run over the left field fence to make it 8-5.

Voegele’s day ended after three long innings, as J’Briell Easley took over on the mound. He held the Cougars scoreless thanks to an amazing play between him and Ben Hartl behind the plate to recover after a wild pitch and catch a runner at home.

“It was kind of a reactive play, I tried to block the ball and I blocked it off my face a little bit and once you’re there, instincts take over and J’Briell made a heck of a play on it,” Hartl said, and joked, “For how big he is he got (to home plate) pretty good.”

Kansas’ offense exploded in its half of the fourth, as Hartl added a long ball of his own to lead off the inning before a single and double put two runners in scoring position.

“(When we’re down,) we just keep taking it one pitch at a time. Don’t look at the scoreboard, and you try and scratch one (run) and one turns to two and turns into three,” he said. “So just stick to the approach, don’t beat yourself, don’t cause any more harm.”

After recording the first out of the inning, Houston’s starter Antoine Jean was replaced by Diego Luzardo, who quickly gave up a two-run single to Collier Cranford to give him his first RBI of the day. Diggins kept the line moving with a single, his third hit of the day, putting the go-ahead run on base.

“(I’ve just been) trying to have a simpler approach,” Diggins said of his recent hot streak. “Getting back from injury it was a long road, and now I’m back and just having fun with the boys and doing good.”

Fitzgerald then called on Ashby with the chance to grab the Jayhawks’ first lead of the game. Ashby did exactly that, as he pulled a two-run home run over the right field wall on the fifth pitch to give Kansas a 10-8 lead.

After four exciting innings, the Cougars and Jayhawks each added on a run in the fifth to keep Kansas’ lead at two before a quiet sixth became the first inning without a run scored and the first clean inning of the game.

Tegan Cain came in for the Jayhawks and worked around a pair of singles in the eighth to hold onto the 11-9 lead before a 1-2-3 bottom of the eighth set up the hard-throwing Cranton to grab a save in Kansas’ comeback push. Cranton threw 99 mph on the first pitch and recorded a clean inning, striking out the side on yet another 99 mph fastball.

It was the first time since 2021 that the Jayhawks overcame a seven-run deficit to win a game, but this team isn’t unfamiliar with being down early, either.

“Well unfortunately, we had some experience doing it because we did it last night,” Fitzgerald said about the early 8-1 hole. “I wasn’t concerned about our scoring runs, it’s more of a concern of how are we going to hold them to not continue on (offense)? So the message was, we have (lots of time).”

The Jayhawks will look to squeak out a series win at noon Sunday in their final home game of the season, which will also serve as senior night for Kansas’ 14 seniors on this year’s roster.