Columbia, Mo. ? The Kansas University baseball team evened its record at 17-17 with an 8-3 victory over Border War rival Missouri on Friday night at Taylor Stadium.
KU senior Jimmy Waters went 3-for-5 with a double and an RBI and team ace, T.J. Walz, picked up the victory on the mound by tossing seven innings and yielding one run on five hits while striking out five Tigers.
“That’s Friday night in our conference, and T.J. Walz was absolutely special,” KU coach Ritch Price said. “Anytime you pitch on Friday night in our league, you know you have to be electric in order to have an opportunity to win. I believe that’s six quality starts he’s given us to start this season and I couldn’t be more pleased.”
The victory KU’s sixth straight over Mizzou.
Waters’ three hits led a balanced and productive offensive attack. KU has averaged 10 runs per game in its last three contests — all wins — and the Jayhawks’ eight runs marked just the fourth time all season that KU scored eight or more runs in a single game.
“It’s really been awesome to watch Jimmy Waters emerge,” Price said. “The last couple weeks he’s been special. He’s starting to collect big hits for us, and so is Casey Lytle, who got two more huge RBIs tonight. Then Chris Manship has two bad at-bats, but he clutches up with the bases loaded and lasers a ball to the gap. It was good to see us be productive. It was really good to see us be physical because the wind was blowing out, and if you hit a ball in the air you had a chance to hit a home run.”
