David Kyriacou’s smash to the warning track died in the Texas right fielder Austin Todd’s glove at about midnight. The Kansas baseball season didn’t die with it, but listening on the radio, it was difficult not to draw that conclusion.
Kansas can still salvage its season with its second victory in three nights against TCU, the nation’s No. 6 team. That alone might be enough to impress the NCAA tournament selection committee. Or the Jayhawks could take it out of the committee’s hands by defeating TCU and then knocking off Texas twice on Saturday to emerge from the lower half of the bracket to take on the winner of the upper half of the bracket on Sunday, and then conquering that squad, but that’s too many ifs. The Jayhawks’ best chance fell just short in the 5-4 loss to Texas.
Now scoring another upset vs. TCU is KU’s only chance.
Kyriacou’s deep flyball not only summed up the game but very likely will stand up as a microcosm of the Jayhawks’ season in that it came up just a little short.
If that’s how it plays out, the team still surpassed expectations and there is cause for optimism looking ahead to 2018.
Jackson Goddard’s development ranks at the top of the feel-good vibes for next season. Goddard came so far in one year and at the same time showed a great deal of untapped potential remains in his valuable right arm.
Goddard’s error on a sacrifice bunt accounted for two unearned runs in the Longhorns’ four-run second inning. He pitched one out into the sixth inning, allowed eight hits, walked three and struck out six. A hard thrower, Goddard once in a while will snap off a slider that suggests the pitch one day could become a dominant one, but it’s still in the development stages, as is his changeup. That’s to be expected from a pitcher who faced small-school competition in high school and didn’t need to do anything but blow away hitters with velocity.
“The progress he made from his freshman year to his sophomore year has been remarkable,” Kansas coach Ritch Price said. “He has one final step to make and that’s the ability to command his ball down in the zone and I think when he gets to the point where he starts mixing and is not so much first-pitch fastball he’ll be even more dominant.”
Price was impressed with how well the Texas hitters followed the scouting report in beating Goddard.
“I tip my hat to Texas’ plan,” Price said. “They know he’s going to throw it up there at 92 to 94. They know he’s going to pitch with his fastball like a professional does. If you’re going to beat Jackson Goddard you’ve got to take his fastball away and they did a good job of that.”
If hard-throwing right-hander Ryan Zeferjahn can make the sort of freshman-to-sophomore leap that Goddard did and left-hander Taylor Turski’s recent eblow problems don’t amount to anything serious, Kansas should have an impressive weekend rotation.
No seniors are in the everyday lineup, although shortstop Matt McLaughlin could be lost to the draft. Expectations for next season will be much higher.