KU baseball falls to Texas A&M, 10-4, in Big 12 tournament opener

Texas A&M second baseman Scott Arthur, left, forces out Kansas' Dakota Smith, right, on a fielder's choice hit by Jake Marasco in the seventh inning of a Big 12 conference tournament baseball game in Oklahoma City on Wednesday, May 23, 2012. Texas A&M won, 10-4.

Texas A&M second baseman Scott Arthur went 2-for-4 with a career-high three RBIs, while Tyler Naquin collected four hits as the sixth-ranked Aggies downed Kansas, 10-4, in the first round of the Big 12 Baseball Championship on Wednesday at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.

Kansas sophomore pitcher Frank Duncan set a pair of milestones in defeat. The righty recorded eight strikeouts, which tied for the most by a Kansas pitcher in a Big 12 tournament game, matching Kodiak Quick’s total in a 2005 game against Baylor. Duncan also reached 100 strikeouts for the season, making him the fifth KU pitcher to collect 100-plus K’s and the first since 2005.

And he dominated at times, retiring 11 straight — including six straight strikeouts — after surrendering an RBI single in the first.

But A&M scored four runs in the fifth and two in the sixth to pull away.

“With our team being so young it has been a struggle this year obviously, but for us to keep grinding and to even get here for the Big 12 Championship was a step in the right direction and a big step for the guys on our team since we are so young,” said Duncan, who was touched for a season-high seven runs off 10 hits over 52⁄3 innings.

The Jayhawks rallied for three runs in the ninth inning, when freshmen outfielders Dakota Smith and Michael Suiter collected RBI hits, while Tucker Tharp added a sacrifice fly. Tharp, Suiter and second baseman Jordan Dreiling each collected two hits, while four players collected RBIs.

Kansas (22-33) will face Texas at 12:30 p.m. today in an elimination game.

UT fell to Missouri, 5-0, on Wednesday.

In other first-round Big 12 games Wednesday, Baylor routed Kansas State, 11-1, and Oklahoma slipped past rival Oklahoma State, 1-0.

Delicious
Digg
Tumblr
Wordpress
Reddit
Copy and paste the link:

jhawkrulz 1 year ago

How sweet would it be to eliminate the Longhorns.

texashawk10 1 year ago

Not as sweet as it would've been to eliminate Missouri. Given Price's history in the Big 12 tournament however, I have serious doubts that KU can beat UT.

mvjayhawk 1 year ago

against the very good teams, we're not competitive. We'll see what Benjamin has today.....but you really can't count on UT not hitting two days in a row.

texashawk10 1 year ago

KU has done something they've only done one other time under Ritch Price and that's win a Big 12 tournament game. They eliminated Texas today with a 4-2 win and will face the loser of the Texas A&M-Missouri game. Here's hoping KU gets a chance to end the Border War with a win and knock Missouri out of the Big 12 tournament.

Baseball