photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

The Jayhawks celebrate a home run hit by junior Tyson LeBlanc during their game against Houston on Saturday, March 21, 2026, at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence.

The Kansas baseball team broke open a 4-4 tie with nine runs in the ninth inning on Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati and ultimately claimed a 13-6 victory in the rubber match of a three-game series with the 25th-ranked Bearcats.

Shortstop Tyson LeBlanc hit an opposite-field grand slam and catcher Augusto Mungarrieta clubbed another two-run homer as part of the big inning, which lifted KU to a win on a day when Dominic Voegele allowed four earned runs on seven hits in seven innings.

“I thought Dom was awesome and he was so efficient,” KU coach Dan Fitzgerald said in a press release. “He was in the strike zone all day with one walk and six punches. Really all weekend we did such a nice job of not giving them stuff. With the exception of some baserunning mistakes on Friday night and then a couple random outfield mistakes today, so outside of that we didn’t give them anything. Part of that is Dom and Mathis (Nayral) were just so good in the strike zone against a really, really elite offense.”

This is the first series the Jayhawks have won against Jordan Bischel’s club since the Bearcats joined the Big 12, after Cincinnati took two of three at UC Baseball Stadium in 2024 and swept KU at Hoglund Ballpark last May.

“The significance of the series win is that this is against an elite team and about as well coached of a team as you can play against,” Fitzgerald said. “Loved how the guys fought through some of the adversity and stayed in it. Then, loved how we got to the ninth and just poured it on and gave ourselves a big cushion to comfortably closing out.”

For LeBlanc, it was the sixth home run in the last eight games.

“I’m seeing the ball well right now,” he said in the release. “Our pitching staff is doing great. They’re keeping us in games and the offense has caught fire lately. We’re playing complete baseball right now. I know Friday it didn’t go our way. We kind of slipped up a little bit, but the past two and a half weekends of Big 12 play we have played phenomenal baseball. That’s what it’s going to take for us to do what we want to do.”

Friday’s opener was indeed a bit of a struggle for the Jayhawks, who were shut out for the first time in a calendar year. Boede Rahe, moved into the starting rotation from his previous closer spot, pitched well with one run allowed — on an RBI single by Enzo Infelise — in 4 2/3 innings, but KU grounded into a couple of double plays and couldn’t muster much against Cincinnati ace Nathan Taylor.

The Jayhawks had two runners on with no one out in the sixth, but LeBlanc’s flyout to right field turned into another double play when Cade Baldridge got tagged out going to second, and that inning ended scoreless for KU. The Bearcats went on to add two runs against Riane Ritter and two more against Toby Scheidt, and the Jayhawks did not get a hit for the remainder of the 5-0 loss.

KU’s offense performed better on Saturday, but the real star was Nayral. The French righty went seven innings and allowed just three hits while striking out 11 batters, with the one real blemish a bunt single by Jackson Smith that knocked in a run in the third inning.

That tied the game at 1-1 after an early home run by Mungarrieta, but KU went back ahead in the fourth when Mungarrieta doubled in LeBlanc.

Cincinnati’s pitchers were able to keep the margin tight until the seventh inning, when Chad Brown allowed a two-out rally that included an RBI single by Jordan Bach and three-run homer by LeBlanc.

Brady Ballinger knocked in two more in the ninth. KU allowed one late on a passed ball with two outs in the ninth, but the result was an 8-2 win for the Jayhawks.

Sunday’s game was a back-and-forth affair before KU’s ninth-inning explosion. The teams traded leads four times early, with Jack Natili putting Cincinnati ahead twice on RBI singles and LeBlanc making it 4-3 in KU’s favor on a sacrifice fly. Voegele nearly left the game with the lead, but Charlie Niehaus’ two-out single in the seventh was followed by a triple from Smith that made it 4-4.

Ritter held UC in the eighth. He got charged for two runs in the ninth, but by then KU had built an insurmountable lead.

The Jayhawks improved to 18-10 on the year and 6-3 in Big 12 play. They will face Missouri at Taylor Stadium on Tuesday, having previously beaten the Tigers 10-0 at Hoglund Ballpark on March 18.