Manhattan ? Round One of this year’s Sunflower State baseball series goes to Kansas State.
The Wildcats used a complete-game pitching performance from righthanded pitcher Luke Robertson to trip KU, 2-1, on Friday afternoon at overcast Myers field.
Robertson struck out 11 batters, walked one and scattered five hits, while improving to 7-5 on the season.
KU’s Pete Smart was equally effective, but was the hard-luck loser. Smart, a senior from Omaha, Neb., allowed just six hits in eight innings. He struck out six and walked none.
The Jayhawks busted a scoreless tie on a one-out solo home run by sophomore Casey Spanish in the sixth inning his third home run of the season.
K-State came back in the bottom of the sixth, plating two runs off a pair of triples. Lawrence High graduate J.D. Loudabarger led off the inning with a triple and scored on a three-bagger by Nick Sorensen. The winning run then scored on a ground out by Ommar Castillo.
The Jayhawks had one prime scoring opportunity in the eighth. Jason Appuhn ripped a one-out triple. Robertson, however, wiggled out of that jam, striking out John Nelson, then retired Spanish on a ground out.
The game took just one hour, 49 minutes as the pitchers ruled. Kansas left just four runners on base to the Wildcats’ five.
Smart fell to 8-4 on the season.
“We wasted a pretty good pitching effort today,” KU coach Bobby Randall said. “Offensively we didn’t do enough at the end of the ballgame because we struck out way too many times (eight) in the last four innings.”
Game Two of the three-game set is set for 7 tonight at KU’s Hoglund Ballpark. Doug Lantz is scheduled to pitch for the Jayhawks, 21-30 overall and 5-23 in the league. Kevin Melcher will pitch for KSU, 25-24, 10-16.