Don’t stick a fork in Kansas University’s softball team. Hold the autopsy. The Jayhawks aren’t dead yet.
Kirsten Milhoan scattered five hits and Jessica Moppin led off the second inning with a home run as Kansas stunned No. 7 Nebraska, 1-0, Friday evening at Jayhawk Field.
“We needed to be picked up,” KU coach Tracy Bunge said, “and we got picked up big-time by a senior.”
Milhoan, the only senior on the Jayhawks’ freshman-laden roster, entered Friday’s game with an 0-5 record against Big 12 Conference teams and a bloated 4.63 earned run average.
Early on, it appeared the Cornhuskers would use Milhoan for batting practice. NU leadoff hitter Kim Ogee drilled Milhoan’s first pitch up the middle and Nicole Trimboli slammed Milhoan’s second pitch into the left-field corner for a double.
“Those were good pitches,” Milhoan said, “but they made me realize I had to make some adjustments. Both were outside drops so I started mixing up what I was throwing.”
Milhoan escaped the inning without Nebraska scoring, and she allowed only three harmless singles the rest of the way.
“Over her career here, her best games have been against Nebraska,” Bunge said. “The book on Nebraska is they’re free swingers and Kirsten nibbles a lot. Against a patient team, she has more difficulty.”
Moppin, one of five freshman starters, was plenty patient leading off the second inning. She sat on a change-up from NU hurler Summer Tobias and clubbed it high over the left-field fence.
“When she gets in a zone,” Bunge said of the Olathe East product who was the Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year in 2002, “she’s as good as any hitter in America, and she looked like that today.”
Kansas snapped an eight-game losing streak to conference teams and boosted its record to 3-13 in league play.
“This is how we played the first six weeks,” Bunge said. “Somewhere along the way we lost our confidence, and we’ve struggled to get it back.”
Now Kansas needs to defeat Baylor in games at 2 p.m. today and 1 p.m. Sunday at Jayhawk Field to avoid the league cellar. The Big 12 tournament will start Thursday in Oklahoma City.
Baylor is 2-14 in the league and has to sweep the Jayhawks in order to avoid the basement.
“I was so proud of our team today,” Milhoan said. “They were intense and they were confident. The odd thing is that until the conference started we had played like this all season.”
Notes: Moppin moved into a share of the league lead with her 11th homer. The school single-season record is 12 by Leah Tabb in 2001. … KU collected five hits and boosted its batting average in league games from .146 to .151. … Kara Pierce (15-12, 2.03 ERA) is scheduled to pitch today’s game against Baylor. Pierce has been out for a week because of a sore arm.
Nebraska 000 000 0 — 0 5 0
Kansas 010 000 x — 1 5 1
WP–Kirsten Milhoan, 10-8. LP–Summer Tobias, 13-3.
2B–NU: Nicole Trimboli. HR–KU: Jessica Moppin (11).
Kansas highlights: Milhoan walked four and fanned three in winning her first conference game after five losses. Moppin homered, singled and drew an intentional pass. Friday’s win snapped an eight-game Big 12 losing streak. KU turned two double plays.
Nebraska highlights: Trisha Tannahill, a freshman from Olathe East, had a pinch-hit single in the ninth. NU had two other freshmen from Kansas on its roster — Jessica Yoachim of Arkansas City and Koko Tacha of Manhattan.