KU baseball team lets lead slip away in ninth

By Gary Bedore     May 23, 2010

Jon Goering
Kansas catcher Alex DeLeon watches as the Sooners celebrate taking an 8-7 lead in the top of the ninth inning. Oklahoma won, 8-7, Saturday at Hoglund Ballpark.

Several Kansas University baseball players remained in the dugout — and stared silently at the ground — a good 20 minutes after the final out was made in an 8-7 loss to No. 14-ranked Oklahoma on Saturday night at Hoglund Ballpark.

“I think definitely without question that’s the toughest loss of the year. That’s a devastating loss,” KU coach Ritch Price said after watching his Jayhawks (31-23-1, 11-14-1) squander a three-run lead in the ninth inning against OU (41-14, 14-10).

“That’s the fourth time we’ve had a three-run lead in the ninth and couldn’t close the door in the conference,” Price added. “It’s an awful feeling. We had a chance to win tomorrow and be back to .500 and in solid shape to make the NCAA Tournament. To let that one get away, I feel I let down all those seniors is where it’s at as we continue to fight and grind through the thing. Hopefully that toughness will come through tomorrow and we’ll find a way to win one tomorrow.”

The Jayhawks enter today’s 1 p.m. Senior Day series finale with the challenge of forgetting a brutal ninth inning that resulted in a second-straight setback to the Sooners.

KU, which received a stellar seven-inning performance from starter Cameron Selik (four runs, six hits, five strikeouts), held a 7-4 lead with a man on second and two out.

Lefty Wally Marciel, who had an easy eighth inning, walked lefthanded hitting Caleb Bushyhead to bring the tying run to the plate.

Enter reliever Colton Murray who gave up an RBI single to Garrett Buechele, making it 7-5. Cameron Seitzer singled to load the bases. Tyler Ogle followed with a three-run double to rightcenter, giving OU the shocking lead. KU had two runners reach base in the ninth, but did not score.

“I thought the crucial at-bat of the whole inning is when the lefthanded hitter walked and he was not the tying run,” Price said. “That brought the tying run to the dish and it also got you to Buechele in the three hole. You are (then) going to have to face three, four and five. We’ve got to make that guy swing the bat,” he added of lefty Bushyhead. “You can’t walk that guy to get the tying run to the dish. You can’t put guys on base to get to the three, four, five guys. Those are the guys capable of one swing of changing a baseball game and that’s exactly what took place.”

KU scored four runs in the first inning, highlighted by a two-run single by Brett Lisher. The Jayhawks added three in the fourth, highlighted by a two-run triple by Brian Heere, who went 2-for-5 and extended his hitting streak to 19 games. The school record is 24.

“It’ll be an emotional game tomorrow,” Price said of the final home appearance of seniors Travis Blankenship, Brett Bochy, Brett Bollman, Lisher, Thomas Marcin, Robby Price and Selik. A short ceremony will be held prior to the start of the game.

“There are some kids in that dugout that have really invested in Kansas baseball and have personally helped me turn the program around.”

Of Senior Day, junior center fielder Heere said: “It’s going to be a special day. We’re going to have to come back and play even harder tomorrow, do something special tomorrow, do something special for the seniors.”

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