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

Kansas junior Augusto Mungarrieta checks his swing during the Jayhawks' game against West Virginia on Sunday, May 10, 2026, at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence.

The Kansas baseball team took one on the chin Sunday afternoon at Hoglund Ballpark, losing 13-2 in eight innings to No. 15 West Virginia in a Big 12 Conference game.

Despite being swept by the Mountaineers (35-12, 19-8), seventh-ranked Kansas (37-15, 20-7) still leads the Big 12 standings by one game over West Virginia going into the final weekend of the regular season next week. The Jayhawks will be on the road at BYU (25-25, 13-14), while West Virginia hosts TCU (32-18, 16-11).

“It was a tough weekend,” said Kansas head coach Dan Fitzgerald, whose team has now lost four straight games. “West Virginia is an incredibly good team and outplayed us in every aspect this weekend. The good news for us is that we’ve done that to a lot of people this season, too. I told (the team) after the game that sometimes when you’re winning, it can hide things that need to be addressed, and we’ve been trying to do that this year, but this weekend was a lesson for us.”

Sunday’s setback was the Jayhawks’ third run-rule loss of the season and first since an 13-2 loss at Oklahoma State on April 17. Meanwhile, Kansas has won five games via the run rule so far in the 2026 campaign.

West Virginia got on the board first in the top of the second inning. With two outs, Armani Guzman tripled to right field before coming home on an opposite-field single by Brodie Kresser to give the Mountaineers a 1-0 lead. Ben Lumsden then singled to put runners on first and third, but Kansas starter Mathis Nayral got a strikeout to end the inning and keep it 1-0 WVU.

Kansas grabbed the lead in the bottom half, as Dariel Osoria led off with a walk before Tyson Owens took a pitch by Dawson Montesa and launched it 457 feet over the scoreboard in right field for his 11th homer of the season, giving the Jayhawks a 2-1 lead. Kansas had a chance to widen its lead, as the next two batters drew walks from Montesa, but he got a strikeout and two flyouts to get out of the jam with the Jayhawks only ahead by one run.

The Jayhawk bats went quiet after that, as Kansas managed just two hits over the final five innings. The four hits Kansas had in the game is their fewest since had one hit in a 13-2, eight-inning loss to St. Thomas all the way back on March 8.

West Virginia retook the lead, 3-2, in the top of the third with a pair of unearned runs. With one out, Gavin Kelly reached on an error, and following a strikeout, Sean Smith homered to left-center field — his eighth of the season – to put the Mountaineers back in front.

The Mountaineers broke the game open in the top of the sixth with six runs on just three hits, taking advantage of three walks, a hit batsman, and a three-run bloop double by Paul Schoenfeld to open up a 9-2 lead over the Jayhawks. Two more runs on two hits – and three walks – in the seventh made it 11-2 West Virginia, and the Mountaineers cruised from there.

“The only way to go through things is to go through it,” said Fitzgerald of his team’s recent struggles. “(Being swept) is part of the game. You hope to learn your lessons without losing games, and we’ve been able to do that a lot this season and have put ourselves in an amazing spot. But there’s still a long ways to go in this season.”

Nayral (4-3) took the loss for Kansas, allowing three runs (one earned) on seven hits with five strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings of work. No Jayhawk had more than one hit in the game.

Reese Bassinger (2-2) got the win for West Virginia, throwing five innings of shutout relief, giving up two hits with four strikeouts and a walk. Schoenfeld was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and three RBIs, Smith ended up 3-for-5 with four RBIs and two runs scored, Kresser went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and Tyrus Hall finished up 2-for-3 with three RBIs for the Mountaineers.

The Kansas-BYU series starts with a single game on Thursday night. First pitch at Miller Park in Provo, Utah, is set for 7 p.m. Central time.

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