NASHVILLE, Tenn. – After a 4-for-5, two home run game on Saturday, Kansas junior first baseman Preston Land remarked that hitting was contagious.

In Kansas’ Music City Classic finale against Iowa on Sunday, the hitting virus spread to Land’s teammates while junior left-hander Sam Freeman (2-0) kept it from spreading to the Hawkeyes.

Riding a five-run second inning, Kansas (4-5) left Nashville, Tenn., with a 9-5 victory against Iowa (3-3), which entered Sunday unbeaten in the Music City Classic.

“When you’re struggling scoring runs, and you leave runners at third base, the next thing you know, it puts pressure on you the next time you have runners in scoring position,” Kansas coach Ritch Price said. “To break out early like that, I think allowed everybody to relax and we swung the bats pretty good.”

A day after pounding out 13 hits, the Jayhawk bats were still hot early Sunday afternoon.

With two on and one out in the second inning, freshman third baseman Tony Thompson came to the plate. Earlier in the weekend, Thompson said he wanted to put a dent in the 30-foot wall looming in left field at Hawkins Field. Facing Iowa right-hander Steve Turnbull (0-1), Thompson did just that, smacking a single off the wall and driving in Kansas’ first run.

“There were plenty of dents in it already, so I was just hoping to add one to it,” Thompson said. “I got it.”

With the bases loaded later in the inning, Kansas capitalized on two Hawkeye errors to extend the rally.

Junior center fielder Nick Faunce, who led Kansas with four hits Sunday, hit a high pop fly over second baseman Justin Toole’s head that right fielder Kyle Riffel should have taken. Instead, Toole lunged for it and missed. Riffel then picked up the ball and overthrew his cutoff man at second base, allowing two runs to score.

By the time Iowa nailed down the third out of the inning, Freeman had a 5-0 lead to work with.

Freeman was strong on the mound for Kansas, allowing only one run through the first four innings, but Iowa got to him in the fifth.

Iowa first baseman Wes Freie started the inning with a walk. The next batter, left-fielder Kurtis Muller, sent a ball to the gap between left and center field, plating Freie.

Muller took himself out of scoring position, getting caught stealing by Kansas senior catcher Ryne Price, but Iowa shortstop Kevin Hoef used his speed to create the Hawkeyes’ next scoring opportunity.

After beating out an infield single, Hoef stole second base. Two batters later, Hoef scored on a single by center fielder Caleb Curry.

Iowa put another runner on base, but Freeman got out of the inning with his third strikeout of the game and called it a day. In five innings, he held Iowa to three runs, despite allowing eight hits and a walk.

More importantly, he left with Kansas still on top, 8-3, and himself in line for victory. But even with back-to-back victories to start the season, Freeman isn’t letting the success get to his head.

“I’m not the ace; I was just lucky enough to come out with a victory today,” Freeman said. “I’ve got a lot of stuff I need to work on. My slider’s kind of flat right now, and I was up in the zone a lot today.”

Iowa made it interesting, loading the bases on junior closer Paul Smyth in the ninth. But Smyth managed to retire the next three batters and seal the victory for Kansas.

The lasting impression Kansas left at the end of the weekend was how much its bats had improved since Friday. In the last two games of the weekend – after being held to one run on three hits Friday – the Kansas offense combined for 21 runs and 25 hits. Against Iowa, seven of Kansas’ starting nine recorded hits.

“I feel really good about the progress we made this week,” Price said. “I just complimented our team on the maturity we’ve shown. We made progress with the bat, our starting pitching was good every game, and our bullpen was solid. It was a positive step forward for us this week.”

— Edited by Jessica Sain-Baird