Kansas extended its winning streak to seven games and improved to 11-1 in its last 12 contests as the Jayhawks defeated Wichita State 8-1 on Wednesday night at Hoglund Ballpark.

Kansas starter Evan Shaw tossed five strong scoreless innings and struck out four, while only allowing one hit. Sam Ireland and Cooper Moore each had scoreless relief appearances. Shaw earned his second consecutive win.

Offensively, John Nett and Collier Cranford each hit home runs. Nett’s solo homer over the batter’s eye in center field was his sixth of the season, while Cranford’s three-run homer was his fifth blast of the year.

The Jayhawks improved to 26-15 on the season and have won eight straight home games.

HOW IT HAPPENED
• Both teams were scoreless through the first three innings of action.
• Kansas got on the board first in the fourth inning. The Jayhawks scored three runs in the frame. After Ty Wisdom hit a double with one out, Cranford hit an RBI single to bring him home for the first run of the inning. Mike Koszewski came up a few batters later and hit a 2-run double into the right field corner to make it 3-0.
• Nett added to the lead and extended his hitting streak to 19 games with a solo home run in the sixth inning. That made it a 4-0 game.
• The Jayhawks opened up the game with four runs in the bottom of the seventh. Cranford hit a three-run blast for his fifth home run of the season. Then, later in the inning Koszewski had a safety squeeze to bring in another run and make it 8-0.
• Wichita State (22-25) got a run in the ninth inning on a sacrifice fly by Dayvin Johnson. That closed out the scoring at 8-1.

PITCHERS OF RECORD
Win: Evan Shaw (3-0)
Final line: 5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 SO
Loss: Caleb Anderson (1-4)
Final line: 1.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 1 SO

PLAYER OF THE GAME
Evan Shaw: The southpaw, who transferred from Cochise College, threw five scoreless innings and earned his second win in as many starts. Shaw struck out four and allowed only one hit on the night.

UP NEXT
Kansas will head down the road to Manhattan, Kansas, to play Kansas State in a three-game series this weekend, beginning on Friday at 6 p.m. CT.