SPRINGFIELD, MO. ? Kansas University junior Jared Schweitzer connected on his seventh home run of the season and extended his school-record hitting streak to 24 games, but it was not enough as the Jayhawks fell to Southwest Missouri State, 15-6, in a nonconference baseball meeting Wednesday at Hammons Field.
KU fell to 33-23 overall. SMS improved to 18-29 — and 4-0 against Big 12 Conference teams this season.
The Bears led from the start, bolting to leads of 2-0 after one inning, 7-1 after two and 10-1 after three innings.
KU will travel this weekend to Missouri.
Austin, Texas ? Sean Richardson’s grand slam in the ninth inning wasn’t enough as Kansas University dropped a 6-5 thriller to No. 2-ranked Texas on Saturday at Disch-Falk Field.
After having no luck against Texas starter Sam LeCure (seven strikeouts, three hits in 71/3 innings), the Jayhawks came alive in the ninth. A.J. Van Slyke, Matt Baty and Ritchie Price smashed three straight singles off J. Brent Cox.
Cox struck out Ryan Baty and Travis Metcalf, leaving the bases loaded with two outs and UT up, 6-0. Matt Tribble slapped an RBI single for KU’s first run.
Richardson then slammed a 1-2 pitch over the left-field wall for his second grand slam of the season, his 12th homer overall.
The Longhorns went to reliever Huston Street, who retired Andy Scholl on a line smash to center for the final out of the game.
Waco, Texas ? Seth Fortenberry scored on a passed ball in Baylor’s three-run eighth inning, lifting the Bears to an 8-7 Big 12 Conference baseball win over Kansas University on Friday night.
Baylor (17-22, 7-8 Big 12) trailed 7-5 entering the bottom of the eighth and scored all three runs with two outs.
Kansas (24-21-1 overall, 2-11 Big 12) led 5-1 in the sixth, but the Bears tied it in the bottom of the inning. KU went ahead 7-5 in the eighth, but Baylor won it with a three-run eighth.
College Station, Texas ? Texas A&M turned four double plays and limited Kansas University to five hits in a 5-2 victory over the Jayhawks on Saturday at Olsen Field.
KU, which has lost 10 straight, fell to 14-20 overall, 2-15 Big 12, while A&M improved to 24-12 and 9-5.
Kansas managed four singles and a Brent Del Chiaro double off four A&M pitchers.
The Aggies took a 2-0 lead off Kansas starter Justin Wilcher (1-6) in the first inning and never trailed, though the Jayhawks managed to cut it to 3-2 with a two-run sixth.
Justin Moore (5-0) picked up the win. He allowed two earned runs off four hits over 51/3 innings. Chris Russ earned his fifth save.
Matt Alexander and Carlos Sepulveda each homered for the Aggies
The teams will conclude the series this afternoon.
Texas A&M 5, Kansas 2
EAlexander (3), Ponder (6). DPKansas 1, Texas A&M 4. LOBKansas 5, Texas A&M 5. 2BDel Chiaro. HRAlexander (2), Sepulveda (2). SBAlexander (5), Lang (4). CSGarner. SHGremminger.
WPPonder 2 (7). HBPby Ponder (K. Wheeler). T2:19. A5,832. |
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After suffering lopsided losses to Baylor on Friday and Saturday, Kansas University’s baseball team looked like it would get blown out again Sunday at Hoglund Ballpark.
The Bears scored six runs over the first two innings, but KU starter Doug Lantz settled down, striking out a career-high 10 batters, and held Baylor to one run the rest of the way.
Regardless, the Bears completed the three-game weekend sweep with a 7-4 victory.
“That’s a tremendous job of battling and competitiveness and I told our pitchers it’s a lesson to be learned,” KU coach Bobby Randall said. “Who thought he would go nine (innings)? Doug. The only person in the ballpark who thought he would go nine is Doug Lantz. He put it together and I was proud of him.
“He was real flat early but I think it took him a little bit to get the pitches to where he wanted to. He was up in that first inning. But other than that I don’t think you can fault anything else he did.”
Randall was pleased the Jayhawks finally played a close game with the 16th-ranked Bears. Baylor won the first two games by a combined score of 23-2.
“I thought our bats battled a little bit better than they did the first two days,” Randall said. “I liked what we did better today and I’m proud of what our team did. I never, never compromise on the fact that we’re trying to win the game so we’re not going to accept losing, but the effort and the way we played was a lot better.”
Baylor (21-8 overall, 9-3 Big 12 Conference) scored its first-inning runs on a double by Kelly Shoppach, a single by Paul Richmond and a three-run homer by Matt Williams.
Trevor Mote drove in Mark Saccomanno with a sacrifice fly in the top of the second for a 6-0 lead, but KU scored two runs in the bottom half of the inning on a home run by Ryan Klocksien.
“I was just thinking, ‘First-pitch fastball,’ and he threw it down and I just drove it over the 375 sign,” Klocksien said.
The Jayhawks (14-14, 2-10) closed within two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning on Klocksien’s double that drove home Casey Spanish and John Nelson.
Klocksien finished 4-for-4 with four RBIs, raising his average to .313.
“I’ve just been staying back and swinging at the pitches I can drive,” he said. “I’m not swinging at balls out of the strike zone as much as I used to and I’m driving the ball.”
KU put two runners on base in the bottom of the ninth, but Nelson struck out looking to end it.
“We made a run, but it wasn’t the ninth inning that hurt us,” Randall said. “We wasted a couple of opportunities early in the game and we needed some more runs.”
Kansas University’s baseball team has had enough experience in one-run losses to know where to find a silver lining.
“We kept fighting,” said KU catcher Brent Del Chiaro, whose two-run, ninth-inning single helped Kansas pull within a run in a 4-3 loss to Oklahoma State on Monday at Hoglund Ballpark. “That’s one thing coach talked about, playing hard for nine innings.”
The loss dropped KU to 7-6 overall and 1-5 in the Big 12. Three of Kansas’ five league losses have been by one run each.
“We’re in every game,” Del Chiaro said. “We’ve lost a lot of one-run ball games. Hopefully it won’t be like last year. We’re battling. Those one-run ball games are going to turn around. Our luck’s going to change.”
Oklahoma State, which is ranked as high as 12th nationally, won the series with KU, 2-1, and improved to 12-3 and 5-1.
OSU went ahead 2-0 in the third inning Monday and 3-0 in the fifth. Kansas plated a single run in the sixth, surrendered a run in the seventh, then rallied in the ninth.
With one out in the final inning, Doug Dreher was hit by a pitch from Shane Hawk. Jesse Gremminger followed with a double to the left-center gap. Del Chiaro singled to left to make it 4-3, but Matt Van Alsburg struck out. The game ended when Hawk speared a Ryan Klocksien liner at shoe-top level.
“I told my team, I like what we’re doing, but we have to do it a little bit better,” KU coach Bobby Randall said. “It’s frustrating to lose by one run, but not as frustrating to lose by 12 runs.”
The Jayhawks managed just five hits off two OSU pitchers. Scott Baker (3-0) picked up the win by surrendering a run off three hits over six innings. Hawk picked up his second save by surrendering two runs off two hits over the final three innings.
“They got their runs early and we got ours late,” KU shortstop John Nelson said. “We were fighting from the first out to the last. We’ve got a lot of season left. In one-run games, you can always say, ‘One more run and things would be different.’ But that’s baseball. You have to play through it.”
Randall thinks the Jayhawks could have played through it better had they not had to scratch lefty Justin Wilcher from Saturday’s start. Wilcher, KU’s No. 2 starter, didn’t start because of arm soreness and Kansas lost, 16-5, behind a makeshift pitching staff.
“That team doesn’t hit left-handers as well as right-handers,” Randall said.
“It did affect us a little,” Del Chiaro added. “It affected us a lot. We were searching to find a guy on a day’s notice. And it’s tough on the bullpen guys, because you have to keep them hot. It was a scramble, but everybody has to be ready to play.”
The Jayhawks will travel to Southwest Missouri State today, then play host to Missouri on Friday.
