Kansas University baseball coach Bobby Randall didn’t plan to hold a four-team invitational tournament this weekend.
But one team led to another, and the Jayhawk Spring Showcase was born.
The round-robin, no-playoff tournament, originally slated to start Friday, instead will begin at 11 this morning at Hoglund Ballpark, when Eastern Michigan faces Illinois-Chicago. UIC will face Michigan about 30 minutes after the first game, and KU will open against Michigan about 30 minutes after that. First pitch for the KU game is expected to be around 4 p.m.
KU also will face Michigan at 11:30 a.m. Sunday at Eastern Michigan at 4 p.m. Sunday.
“It’s really kinda weird how this happened,” Randall said. “This weekend, we had Eastern Michigan in. We originally scheduled Illinois-Chicago for Tuesday-Wednesday, but they needed weekend games, so they decided they wanted to stay through the weekend. Then Michigan called and said they got canceled out of a tournament, so we went from no teams to three teams in a matter of about two weeks. It wasn’t planned.”
The Jayhawks (11-9) won three straight over UIC (3-15) on Tuesday and Wednesday. Eastern Michigan enters 1-12, while Michigan is 5-6.
“We beat (UIC) 24-2, then the next games were 3-2, 3-nothing,” Randall said. “I knew they were better than 24-2. Michigan’s always good. Michigan’s good in everything. Eastern Michigan’s off to a slow start, but I know they’re going to be better. They beat Southwest Missouri State, 7-1, for their only win, and that’s a team that beat us. So it’s a good field.”
Randall was encouraged by the Jayhawks’ three-game sweep of the Flames, since it included a rout, a rally and a shutout.
“I’ve been encouraged by this team all year,” Randall said. “The only thing discouraging is that so many people say they don’t think we’re off to a good start because we’re 2-7 in conference, but we’re not getting beat up. We’re 2-7 and we just need to do a couple of things a little better to win those games.
“I am encouraged by this team. We’re fielding 97.1, 97.2 (percent). Not a lot of big-league teams are fielding 97. And we’ve still only had three practices on this field. We’ll still get better.”
