Kansas University’s baseball team took in a wondrous sight on Thursday the Jayhawks’ own field, Hoglund Ballpark.
“We got in a good practice on our field,” KU coach Bobby Randall said. “That’s new, big news.”
It was Kansas’ second practice at Hoglund Ballpark this season. Between KU’s outdoor practice before the season-opener and Thursday, the Jayhawks had toiled indoors.
“We looked good,” Randall said. “The amazing thing about this team is, we went into our first game and I was worried, but we went on that field and played like we’d been out there before. Maybe that’s experience.”
Another test of the Jayhawks’ maturity will come this weekend, when they open the Big 12 Conference season at Oklahoma. Game times for KU-OU are 3 p.m. today, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday in Norman, Okla.
KU (6-1) enters with the best record in the Big 12, while OU (2-8) has the league’s worst record.
But Randall isn’t overlooking the Sooners, who have lost seven straight.
“We’re only seven, eight games into it, and the records don’t mean much,” he said. “They have a talented team. They got just about everybody back. They lost some tough ball games, made some mistakes they don’t normally make. Am I worried they’ve lost seven in a row? Yes, but I’d be worried if they’d won seven in a row. I guess I’m more worried about the Jayhawks. I can’t control what the Sooners have done or will do.”
Randall will start Justin Wilcher (1-1, 5.06 earned run average) on the mound today, ace Pete Smart (2-0, 1.42 ERA) Saturday and Jake Wright (2-0, 3.77 ERA) on Sunday.
Randall is encouraged by the Jayhawks’ quick start.
“We answered some questions in a hurry,” he said. “We know that Casey (Spanish) is our second baseman. It looks like Matt Tribble is going to play a lot of first base. Jesse Gremminger is going to be in the outfield quite a bit. Those were all questions, and we’re pretty settled on our lineup.
“The other questions we had were, who would our starters be and how was our bullpen going to work. We’re pretty pleased with our starters and Doug Lantz and Sam Gish established themselves in the bullpen.”
KU will play host to Creighton on Tuesday in the Jayhawks’ home opener. Kansas also picked up a game on Wednesday with Baker. Both games, weather permitting, will begin at 3 p.m. at Hoglund Ballpark.
