OK, then who is the Megan Urquhart currently playing third base for the Jayhawks?

Couldn’t be the same Megan Urquhart. This one is hitting a team-leading .358 with a mere five errors. In a half-dozen Big 12 games, she is hitting a lusty .467.

Are there two Megan Urquharts? Is someone else using her name? No to both questions. This is simply a more mature Megan Urquhart.

“I’m approaching everything with a different attitude this year,” said Urquhart, a junior out of Shawnee Mission Northwest. “I’ve gone back to basics.”

At the plate, for example, she has abandoned pull-hitting for an inside-out swing.

“I’m trying to hit line drives to the right side now,” Urquhart said. “I’m keeping my hands inside.”

Thus she has evolved from an easy out at the lower end of the batting order into the team leader in on-base percentage. Urquhart leads the Jayhawks in hits (39) and shares the lead in walks (13).

KU coach Tracy Bunge is, of course, delighted Urquhart has made a 180-degree turn as a hitter, but Bunge positively raves about Urquhart’s hot-corner Houdini act.

“As good as she’s been hitting, she’s been phenomenal in the field,” Bunge said. “No one I’ve seen all season has played as good as she has. She’s making spectacular plays and she’s making routine plays. We call her ‘Hoover’ over there.”

That’s Hoover as in vacuum cleaner, not Hoover as in the dead president.

Off-season surgery on her left (non-throwing) shoulder, Urquhart concedes, has made a Hoover Dam’s worth of difference.

“The shoulder never really bothered my hitting,” Urquhart said, “but I’m not as tentative as I was before. I was afraid it would go out when I’d dive for the ball.”

Urquhart wasted no time climbing back on the horse once the shoulder had healed.

“I had a mind-set,” she said. “They thought I’d be afraid to dive again after the surgery, but I didn’t let it faze me.”

Coincidentally, it was about a year ago when Urquhart’s fielding woes really fazed her. In an 8-0 loss to Texas Tech, she kicked the ball, threw the ball errantly and suffered a post-game meltdown.

“I made tons of errors,” she said in reflection. “It was the worst defensive game I’d ever played. It was the only time I’ve ever cried after a game because of the way I played.”

A rejuventated Urquhart has helped the Jayhawks jump to a 4-2 start in Big 12 Conference standings going into games today and Sunday against Texas Tech in Lubbock.

Tech has a 3-3 league record and the Red Raiders have Amanda Renfro, a senior pitcher who tossed a no-hitter against the Jayhawks last season.

“She might be the league pitcher of the year this year,” Bunge said. “She’s a workhorse. She’s all rise ball and has a very good change. They’re not powerful offensively, but they’re good when Renfro shuts ’em down.”

Kansas didn’t score a run off Renfro in two meetings last season.

“We’re not going to take them lightly this year,” Urquhart said. “We were picked to finish ninth in the league, but I know how good we are. I think we’ve opened a lot of eyes.”