For the fourth time in nine games, Kansas University’s baseball team stranded 12 base-runners, and the Jayhawks dropped game two of a three-game set to BYU, 8-2, Friday evening at Hoglund Ballpark.
Kansas (3-6) left at least one runner on base in all but one inning, the ninth. The Jayhawks’ prime opportunities to drive in those runners came in the fourth and sixth innings, where BYU (9-1) used pitching and defense to work itself out of each jam.
Senior third baseman Ryan Pidhaichuk singled with two outs in the fourth to get it going for KU. Freshman right fielder Rudy Karre followed and drew a walk, and the duo advanced to second and third after a failed pickoff attempt to bring up junior centerfielder Joven Afenir. Afenir drove one down the line in left, where BYU’s Eric Urry made a diving catch to save the runs and keep it a tie game, 2-2.
“The biggest play of the game was in the fourth inning when Afenir hit the ball to left field and [Urry] made the diving play,” head coach Ritch Price said. “You go from taking the lead and having (junior catcher) Michael Tinsley come up with two guys on who is red hot – that is what team’s do when they are 9-1. They are getting clutch two-out hits and making diving plays in the outfield.”
BYU 002 020 400 — 8 11 3
Kansas 011 000 000 — 2 8 1
W — Buffo. L — Krauth.
2B — Anderson, Urry, Hill, BYU; Awright, Taylor, Kansas. 3B — Afenir, Kansas.
KU highlights — Tinsley, 2-for-5, RBI; Wright, 2-for-5.
