The Jayhawk fans clapped loudly in unison on Friday night, like they have in many two-out, two-strikeout occurrences in the past.

In the top of the seventh inning, centerfielder Byron Wiley was the Wildcat dealing with the added racket. It wasn’t only the roar from the crowd. He had to deal with an 0-2 count with the go-ahead runner on third base.

Wiley struck out. Kansas went on to defeat Kansas State, 8-5, on Friday night in Lawrence.

“Our crowds have been so great,” freshman pitcher Paul Smyth said. “It definitely pumps you up on the mound. I was trying to shut them down and give our offense a chance.”

At this point, the game was tied at five runs apiece. Kansas pulled out front to start the game, but Kansas State rallied to tie the game.

Game one of the Sunflower Series was ugly. Between the two, the Wildcats and Jayhawks posted five errors on the evening and three unearned Jayhawk runs.

“I thought we made a couple of bad defensive plays,” Kansas coach Ritch Price said. “That really hurt us. I think we kind of hit in the mouth tonight, building a four-run lead and the next thing you know we’re behind. As soon as they tied took the lead, though, we answered and tied it.”

Orthodox or not, Kansas made a statement Friday night, taking the only game of the series played in Lawrence. Games two and three will be played in Manhattan.

“They play really good at home,” Price said. “So obviously we wanted to win home field.”

The Jayhawks struck first in their half of the second inning. John Allman ripped a groundball toward Wildcat third baseman Jared Goedert. The sophomore outfielder put a little spin on it, and the ball took a bad hop over Goedert’s head into left field. Senior infielder Jared Schweitzer advanced to second base on the play.

Kansas State starter Brad Hutt watched senior outfielder Gus Milner, who also celebrated his birthday on Friday, double down the left field line. Although he was thrown out trying to stretch the double into a triple, Milner scored Allman and Schweitzer and put Kansas up first, 2-0.

Cruising, Kansas scored in the next two innings and built a four-run lead while keeping the Wildcats off the board.

Junior lefty Sean Land (4-6) moved smoothly through the four innings of the game, using what Price said was a good use of his fastball and change up in his five innings of work.

“I thought Sean was really good tonight,” Price said, commenting on Land’s pitching plan. “I think that’s two good outings for Sean.”

But in the fifth, Land gave up his scoreless outing, highlighted by a Tyler Link RBI double.

The standout freshman stood in as the designated hitter, and led the Wildcat offense going 3-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored.

Land received the no-decision after exiting after the fifth to make way for the number one set-up man lately in Smyth. In his two innings bridging the gap from starter to closer, Smyth surrendered the last two runs Kansas State would score but still picked up the victory.

“Sean definitely pitched good enough to win,” Smyth said. “But you can only play one inning at a time. You can’t be thinking ‘oh I’ve got to get the ball to Don.’”

Smyth also had a little help, but it came from the other dugout.

With the game tied at five in the bottom of the seventh, the Jayhawks were looking at going down in order. With two outs, Schweitzer tagged a ground ball to second baseman Brett Scott.

The ball, and the third out of the inning, went right between Scott’s legs to extend the inning.

Sophomore third baseman then took a free pass to put two runners on with two outs in an inning that should have ended with a groundball to second. Seeing the opportunity, Allman sent an outside fastball to the right field corner.

With the double, Allman scored Schweitzer and Morrison completely unearned.

“It was a good pitch,” Allman said. “I got lucky I guess.”

Five of eight runs the Jayhawks scored on Friday night came on two-out situations.

“This sets us up to do something special this weekend,” Allman said.

Game two will start Saturday at 2 p.m.