Kansas softball 7th seed

By J-W Staff Reports     May 10, 2007

? A year ago, Kansas University shocked Big 12 Conference softball by rising from the sixth seed to capture the league tournament.

Now, in order to repeat as champions, the Jayhawks will have to do it from the No. 7 slot.

“Now that it’s a single-elimination tournament,” KU coach Tracy Bunge said, “it’s really no different than last year. You have to play four games to win it.”

Kansas will meet No. 10 seed Iowa State in the first round at 5 p.m. today at Hall of Fame Stadium.

That’s the same Iowa State team that humbled the Jayhawks last weekend in Ames, Iowa, with its first two-game sweep of Kansas since 1995. ISU boosted its league record to 3-15 with the 8-0 and 3-2 victories.

“We need to play with confidence,” Bunge said, “and obviously it shook our confidence at Iowa State. So I’m looking forward to see what we come back with.”

If Kansas wins today, it will meet No. 2 seed Oklahoma at 11 a.m. Friday in the second round. KU split with the No. 3-ranked Sooners during the regular season.

Pitcher Kassie Humphreys two-hit Oklahoma, 2-0, on April 20. Since then, however, the Jayhawks have dropped five games in a row to fall off the NCAA Tournament bubble.

“Two weeks ago we were in good position,” Bunge said, “then we took ourselves out of it, but you can’t worry about it. We just have to go out and play.”

Kansas (32-23-1, 7-11 Big 12) almost certainly will have to capture this year’s Big 12 tourney in order to earn a berth in next week’s NCAA meet.

Humphreys, a senior right-hander, played a sizable role in KU winning its first league tourney title last year. She hurled 22 innings in the 2006 meet and posted wins over Missouri and Oklahoma.

Humphreys hasn’t been as consistent this season as she was in 2006, when she posted a glossy 1.19 earned-run average, yet despite a 2.34 ERA, she has an 18-14 record and has recorded 216 strikeouts.

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