Unfortunately, his Kansas University baseball players couldn’t do much when they did reach base.

Part of that was because of the offensive explosion by the Aggies in the first inning of KU’s 13-6 loss at Hoglund Ballpark.

“We had a couple of opportunities early to score, but we did hit some balls hard. There was one inning we hit three balls that were right on a line, and they were caught,” Price said. “But we just couldn’t score early when we had guys on base early in the game. And the second thing, your first two guys single and you’re down 8-0 so you can’t play sacrifice at that time. You’re trying to get a crooked number to get back in it, and (John) Allman hit a double-play ball that basically took us out of the first inning.”

A&M knocked out Kansas starter Wally Marciel in the first inning after collecting seven hits and eight runs in Marciel’s one-third of an inning.

Price got a strong performance by reliever Andres Esquibel, who went 42â3 innings and gave up just one run on three hits. But the damage already was done.

“One of the most embarrassing things today is, we’re down 8-0, and our best guy is pitching five innings in an 8-0 baseball game,” Price said of Esquibel. “If I’d known that was going to take place, obviously we would have started him tonight. But before we could get him ready with the game already out of hand in that first inning, then he was hot, and we had to use him.”

The Jayhawks got the bats around on Aggies starter Brooks Raley, who gave up a season-high nine hits in 62â3 innings – but also struck out six Kansas batters.

Most of the hits came from the top three batters, including leadoff man Nick Faunce, who opened the game with a single off the freshman’s 93-mph fastball.

Kansas will face Texas A&M freshman Barret Loux at 2 p.m. today. The Jayhawks will start junior lefty Nick Czyz.