Baseball Jayhawks ‘need win’ against Shockers

By Andrew Hartsock     Apr 4, 2001

Kansas University baseball coach Bobby Randall’s approach to tonight’s meeting with Wichita State is simple.

“We need a win,” Randall said.

While a victory over WSU wouldn’t help KU in its quest to qualify for its first-ever appearance in the Big 12 tournament, it would do wonders for the Jayhawks’ confidence.

Game time is 7 p.m. at Hoglund Ballpark, and Kansas enters riding a seven-game losing streak and facing the prospect of playing its next eight games away from home.

“A win would give us some momentum, some confidence,” Randall said. “We’re struggling with our confidence right now. It’s no secret, we need some wins. Somewhere we need to win, and we need to win against a quality team. It’s a big rival, a quality team. And we need to get it turned around. We’ve been through a tough streak. Maybe we need to look forward to a good winning streak, and we need to start it now.”

Throughout its seven-game skid, which cemented the Jayhawks in the Big 12 basement, Kansas had a number of breakdowns. Starting pitching, relief pitching and base-running mistakes all played parts in Kansas’ tailspin.

“The one common denominator is, we can’t overcome that,” Randall said. “With Texas, their pitching overcomes the other things. But we’re not doing any one thing well enough, offensively or pitching lights-out. And when you’re not doing any one thing especially well, those other things become magnified.”

Randall reported that Ryan Klocksien, one of KU’s top hitters, was well and should play tonight. Klocksien didn’t play in the series finale against Texas on Sunday.

However, outfielder Doug Dreher, who suffered a sprained wrist in a collision with teammate John Nelson, likely won’t play again today.

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1251Baseball Jayhawks ‘need win’ against Shockers