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

The Kansas baseball team celebrates its series sweep over UCF on Saturday, April 11, 2026, at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence.

For the first time since 1949, the Kansas Jayhawks are regular-season conference champions in baseball.

The Jayhawks sealed an outright league title on Friday night by staving off a late BYU comeback to beat the Cougars 7-6 at Miller Park in Provo, Utah.

That brought KU’s conference record to 22-7, which together with West Virginia’s 4-0 loss to TCU locked up the Big 12 crown. It also ensured that the Jayhawks will have the No. 1 seed at the Big 12 tournament in Surprise, Arizona, which begins on Thursday.

“It feels pretty good. I’m so proud of these guys,” head coach Dan Fitzgerald said, per a KU press release. “This is four years in the making. It’s our families, it’s all of our wives. It’s the entire Jayhawk nation, it’s our administration and it’s hundreds of people who have led to this moment. It’s pretty special.”

The accomplishment, the latest in Fitzgerald’s distinguished four-year tenure and one achieved with a nearly completely rebuilt roster of junior-college players, was not without drama. In each of its first two games against BYU, one on Thursday and one on Friday, KU blew a 6-0 lead and allowed the Cougars to tie the game at 6-6.

In Thursday’s victory, which set a school record for conference wins, the Jayhawks got a solo home run from Josh Dykhoff in the seventh inning and a couple of insurance runs in the eighth as closer Boede Rahe pitched three scoreless innings in relief.

Friday’s margin was even narrower. BYU did not have a hit on the night against KU starter Mason Cook until Crew McChesney hit a two-RBI triple in the seventh and Easton Jones clubbed a three-run homer in the eighth. (Tu’alau Wolfgramm added a sacrifice fly after the first hit.) KU had a response once again in the form of Tyson Owens’ solo homer to right field in the top of the ninth inning, but the Jayhawks left the bases loaded after that and so did not extend their lead further than 7-6.

That gave the Cougars a chance. Wolfgramm legged out an infield single and stole second. Rahe struck out Matt Hansen and got Ridge Erickson to line out to second base, but then botched a defensive play attempting to grab a soft-hit ball from Bryker Hurdsman himself and take it to first for the final out. Hurdsman was safe at first and Wolfgramm reached third.

BYU’s senior second baseman Luke Anderson got ahold of Rahe’s 2-1 pitch and took it deep to right field, but Jordan Bach made the catch at the warning track to win the league.

Of note, while this is KU’s first regular-season league title since 1949, it is not the Jayhawks’ first Big 12 title of any kind in that time frame. KU won the Big 12 tournament in 2006.

This story will be updated.