Nobody’s saying college baseball pitchers need to have the precision of a surgeon. But they are supposed to have a little better control than this.
Kansas University jumped in a deep hole against Kansas State on Saturday before the game ever really got going. Climbing out ended up insurmountable.
The Jayhawks’ 7-4 loss at Hoglund Ballpark was influenced big-time by an agonizing first inning where KSU scored four runs – often without swinging the bat.
Two of the runs scored on bases-loaded walks. One came on a bunt where nobody covered home. The inning was prolonged with a two-out error on a routine grounder. And many, many pitches failed to catch any plate.
College baseball, for one 31-minute half-inning, was a flashback to when these guys were undisciplined pee-wee players.
“Obviously, we pitched really poorly,” KU coach Ritch Price said. “It seemed like we were in trouble every single inning.”
But never as much the opening frame. Starting pitcher Nick Czyz left after 2/3 of an inning and eight batters, throwing more balls than strikes. He was yanked in the middle of an at-bat for Zach Ashwood, who walked in a run before settling everything down somewhat.
By then, the tone was set. Kansas pitchers walked nine batters Saturday, beaned two more and had a wild pitch. No wonder the nine-inning game with a modest 11 total runs lasted almost four hours.
“We walked a lot of guys,” KU catcher Buck Afenir said. “We had trouble throwing strikes here and there.”
The first inning walk-a-thon out of the way, though, Kansas managed to keep it competitive. The Jayhawks countered with two in the bottom of the first on a two-run Afenir double. Single runs in the fourth and fifth made it a 5-4 game.
But the Jayhawks (22-28 overall, 8-15 Big 12 play) never led, as an eighth-inning throwing error (by the pitcher, no less) set up two more runs that gave Kansas State (31-17 9-11) the big conference victory.
It’d be beneficial for KU to call it a bad day at the office and move on. But with the Jayhawks planted on the Big 12 tournament bubble, it’s not that simple.
Kansas State, 2-1 winners in the series opener Friday, clinched the three-game set Saturday. With all the other bubble teams idle in terms of conference action, the Jayhawks slipped into last place in the league standings on their own accord.
A victory today in the 1 p.m. series finale would dig them back out by a nose. But it’s bigger than that now. It’s about digging team morale out of a dark state with the season’s critical stretch run coming up.
“Some of the players are really struggling,” Price said. “They’re competitors. The game’s important to them.”