If Kansas University’s softball team had played 13 innings Thursday against Bradley, the Jayhawks may have swept their twinbill at Arrocha Ballpark.
Instead, a bad inning by KU pitchers and an admitted coaching blunder by coach Tracy Bunge helped Bradley pull off an improbable 6-4 victory in game one when the Braves scored six runs in the top of the seventh.
KU (18-9) responded in the nightcap with a 2-1 win.
“There’s not a whole lot you can tell your team other than the fact that, ‘That’s my bad, and go out and get the second one for me,'” Bunge said.
In Tuesday’s KU sweep of UMKC, pitcher Kara Pierce had to come out of the game because of tightness in her shoulder. Thursday, Jayhawk freshman Kassie Humphreys was scratched before the game because of stiffness in her back.
Bunge asked Pierce, her senior standout, to handle the entire doubleheader. For almost every inning but the unlucky seventh Pierce was dominant, allowing only five hits while striking out 15 Braves in 13 innings.
But during that seventh inning in game one Bunge inserted sophomore pitcher Serena Settlemier — who still is recovering from a bizarre arm injury — so she could get her first mound action of the season.
Settlemier struggled mightily, walking three Braves and allowing Bradley to the tie the contest at 4. Not even the red-hot Pierce, who returned to the mound, could regain her rhythm as the Braves plated two more runs.
“Were at a point with her rehab that we got to find game experience, and figure out if she’s capable of doing some things for us this year,” Bunge said of Settlemier, who took a red-shirt last season when she had surgery to line up bones in her right wrist.
“That was a time, a 4-0 lead that I felt we could do it,” Bunge said. “And as a result it really hurt because Kara, when she went back in, was cold. I probably stayed too long with her (Settlemier), and it was just flat-out bad coaching. I lost that game for us.”
Kansas — which also struggled nine days ago when it split with Southwest Missouri State, another Missouri Valley team — quickly found its focus in the second game, scoring in each of the first two innings.
Pierce was again sharp, striking out seven while going the distance for her ninth victory.
“It’s really tough,” Pierce said of Kansas’ recent struggles against MVC competition. “They’re teams we should be beating all the time. They’re poor losses, but I think in the long run we’ll come out on top.”
Kansas now travels to Oregon for a six-game stretch. The Jayhawks will play Portland State on Saturday, Oregon State on Sunday and Oregon on Tuesday and Wednesday.
6Sports video: Jayhawks softball splits double-header