Ritch Price tried to paint a picture of a glass half-full, but the empty look on the faces of Kansas University’s baseball players said it all.
Saturday’s 11-9 loss to Nebraska at Hoglund Ballpark means KU, last season’s Big 12 tournament champion, cannot qualify to participate in next week’s tournament.
Thus today’s 5 p.m. series finale against Nebraska also will be the Jayhawks’ season finale.
“The big thing is to finish on a positive note,” KU coach Price said with a stiff upper lip. “We have a chance to finish .500 and set the tone for next year.”
If the Jayhawks are going to set the tone for next year, they’re going to have to improve in several categories. In fact, Saturday’s loss was essentially KU’s season in microcosm.
¢ Kansas batters collected 11 hits, drew eight walks and had two other runners reach when they were hit by pitches. But the Jayhawks stranded eight runners and, worse, hit into four double plays.
¢ Kansas pitching was spotty. Starter Nick Czyz was solid for three innings, weakened in the fourth, then faltered in the fifth. So Price went to the bullpen, and middle relievers Hiarali Garcia and Zach Ashwood turned the brush fire into a conflagration.
¢ Kansas committed three errors that led to two unearned runs. Not surprisingly, KU leads the Big 12 in surrendering unearned runs.
¢ Nebraska stole four bases. The Huskers came to town ranked last in the Big 12 in that category. Meanwhile, no league team has allowed more stolen bases than Kansas.
And so forth.
Nebraska bunched 10 of its 11 runs in the middle three innings. After 51â2 frames, the Huskers (28-23 overall, 13-13 Big 12) held a commanding 10-3 lead.
“There was a lot of ball left to play,” said Erik Morrison, who paced KU’s 11-hit attack with a double and a pair of singles, “and we’ve been lighting the sticks up pretty good the last couple of weeks.”
Indeed, KU sliced the deficit to 10-8 after seven innings and 11-9 after eight, then appeared primed to make some noise in the ninth after Ryne Price coaxed a leadoff walk.
Minutes later, Brock Simpson smoked a grounder that appeared headed for the outfield. Somehow, however, NU second baseman Jake Opitz speared Simpson’s laser and turned it into a double play, chilling the rally. Pinch-hitter Eric Snowden fanned to bring an end to the 3-hour, 39-minute marathon.
“I tip my cap to that second baseman,” Morrison said. “That’s as good a play as I’ve seen in college baseball.”
And yet it wasn’t the most spectacular defensive play of the night.
In the fifth inning, KU left fielder John Allman raced to the foul line and snared a fly ball off the bat of NU’s Andrew Brown. As Allman made the catch, he toppled over the five-foot high wooden fence that separates the Kansas bullpen from the field, igniting a collective gasp from the announced crowd of 1,512.
“That’s as great a catch as I’ve ever seen,” Price said. “It was absolutely fabulous. We need to get a clip of that to ESPN.”
Allman had the presence of mind to bounce up and throw the ball back to the infield, but then he fell backward and lay on his back for a couple of minutes before rising and returning to duty.
“He had the wind knocked out of him,” Price said. “He was really hurting, but he’s a tough young man.”
Kansas is 28-29 overall and 9-16 in the Big 12. Even if the Jayhawks win today, they can’t finish any higher than ninth in the conference standings, and only the top eight teams qualify for the league tournament.
– Sports writer Chuck Woodling can be reached at 832-6348.
