Baseball’s comeback not enough for win

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

KANSAN FILE PHOTO

Jumping from one rivalry to the other, Kansas got just one day’s rest between wrapping up its Big 12 Conference series at Missouri on Sunday and taking on Kansas State tonight.

Though the Jayhawks (16-17, 3-6) fell an out shy of taking last weekend’s series against Missouri, coach Ritch Price was pleased with his team’s effort.

“If we keep playing like this, if we keep battling and competing we’ll be fine,” Price said on Saturday.

Price and his Jayhawks will have to be fine enough to take tonight’s game from a K-State (20-8, 4-2) squad whose luck with the comeback last weekend was a little more plentiful. The Wildcats are fresh off swiping two of three games from Texas Tech, both on come-from-behind victories.

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New rule creates common ground for rivals

Known as conference rivals, Kansas and Kansas State will work together tomorrow to add strength to each of their schedules. K-State will be back May 4-6 for the three-game series against Kansas. Those games will be entered into Kansas’ Big 12 Conference record, but tonight’s will not.

Next season, a new NCAA rule will push back the start date of the baseball season. Official practices will not start until Feb.1 and games will not be played until Feb. 23.

Delaying the start of the season will cut teams — like Kansas’ — preseason drastically short. The Jayhawks will not have more than two to three weeks to play highly ranked RPI games, as they did against teams such as Stanford and No. 6 Arkansas this season.

“With the changes in seeding plan that’s taking place next year, it only makes sense for our conference to protect our own RPIs of all of our teams,” coach Ritch Price said. “There will be several teams doing what we’re doing now.”

Meaning that the Big 12 is strong enough to raise the overall schedule strength of its fellow teams. Because they won’t have time to get in the challenging, but beneficial, preseason, Kansas’ midweek games will need to carry a lot more weight. Big 12 opponents will do just that, even when they are not counted towards the Big 12.

“The great thing about our league is we’ve got six teams in the top 25 probably ever team in our league’s RPI is in the top 60,” Price said. “So every time you play and you win, your RPI goes up.”

— Alissa Bauer

Not only did K-State pull the comebacks, the team’s sixth and seventh victories this season, but it did so in the late innings. Both came from rallies in the bottom of the eighth.

In the meantime, the Jayhawks rallied in the ninth inning of all three games against the Tigers, but won only one game.

“It is a positive thing, it just doesn’t really feel like it,” sophomore catcher Buck Afenir said. “We’re out here to win, obviously, but after we’re done it’s a new game.”

Afenir was a big help for the Jayhawks last weekend. He tallied three RBI, hit a home run in back-to-back at bats in game two and was the final run to score in that game.

Just as senior center fielder Kyle Murphy knocked in what momentarily looked to be the winning run on Sunday, Missouri secured the win with a two run homer in the bottom of the ninth.

“A lot of guys get down about these games, but this shows what we’re made of,” Murphy said of Sunday’s comeback. “I’m definitely pleased with this loss, but it’s a loss so you can’t be too pleased.”

A loss to K-State, the only team selected this preseason to finish the year lower than Kansas in the Big 12, would likely leave even less to be pleased about.

Kansas is hitting .288 collectively while Kansas State is at .285, and each has players on hot streaks.

Wildcat center fielder Byron Wiley leads his team with a .371 average and his two home runs are tied for the team best.

K-State has yet to hit double digits in home run numbers, hitting just nine as a team. With 29 on the season, Kansas hit seven home runs last weekend alone.

Three of those were off the bat of junior second baseman Ryne Price. Price went 5-for-12 against Missouri and scored twice in each game. He also drove in four runs, including the tying home run during Sunday’s comeback.

“Regardless of the score, regardless of the inning or the out, we were able to come through and still put up hits and runs,” Murphy said.

Kansas will play K-State at 7 p.m. in Tointon Stadium. The game will be televised live on Fox College Sports Central.

Kansan senior sportswriter Alissa Bauer can be contacted at abauer@kansan.com.

— Edited by Stacey Couch

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