Next Big 12 trophy now within reach

The next time KU shortstop Tyson LeBlanc puts the barrel of his bat on the ball and launches it over the outfield fence, he will stand alone as the Jayhawks’ all-time single-season home run leader. 

LeBlanc tied former KU great Tony Thompson for the top spot on that list with his 21st home run on Friday night, a grand slam in the 8th inning that locked up both the 13th-ranked Jayhawks’ 9-2 semifinal victory over No. 19 Oklahoma State and KU’s hopes of hosting an NCAA regional in Lawrence for the first time in the history of the program. 

That second part will be made official on Sunday night, when the NCAA announces the 16 host sites and Monday morning when the full NCAA Tournament bracket is released. 

Before then, the Jayhawks have another trophy to play for — versus No. 2 seed West Virginia, which recently swept Kansas at Hoglund Ballpark during the second to last regular season series of the year.

A Dan Fitzgerald player if ever there were one, LeBlanc — pronounced LeBlanh, with no hard C sound and a soft ending — is wired just like the Kansas head coach. He thinks team first, he doesn’t care much about individual achievements or praise and would just assume look ahead to what’s next than focus too much on what has already happened, good or bad. 

Asked on Friday night about tying Thompson’s record from 2009, he talked little about himself and deflected most of his attention to the team. 

"It's a cool accomplishment,” he admitted. “I wasn't even thinking about it in the moment. I kind of blacked out rounding the bases. It's huge. My teammates around me are very proud too, so that's the best part is them supporting me."

Friday’s victory moved KU to 41-16 on the season and into the Big 12 tournament title game for the third time in school history — 2006, when they won it, 2013 as the most recent trip and now today. 

There, they’ll have a chance to validate their regular season title, which came by one game in the standings over West Virginia, by hoisting another trophy and sweeping this season’s Big 12 baseball hardware. 

Starting pitcher Mason Cook (5-1) tossed a gem on Friday to help Kansas reach the title game, going 5.2 innings and allowing just one run on three hits. He added seven strikeouts and has allowed 3 earned runs or less in seven of his last eight appearances. 

After jumping out to a 3-0 lead, KU saw OSU cut that lead to a single run in the top of the 8th inning. But the Jayhawks responded with a 6-run bottom of the eighth to put the game away. 

"Great win, really proud of the guys,” Fitzgerald said after the win. “It's just another great Big 12 game in an incredibly tough conference against an outstanding lineup from Oklahoma State. They're so dangerous. You look down their card and it's six, seven, eight guys with double-digit home runs, and obviously they have really good pitching… Couldn’t be more proud of these guys.” 

Saturday’s Big 12 title game from Surprise, Arizona is scheduled for a first-pitch time of 6:30 p.m. central. It will be shown on ESPN2.

— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kuathletics.com