Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Buckets of rainfall, a long bus ride and a 7-2 defeat met the Jayhawks in Springfield, Mo., on Tuesday night.
The nearly half an inch in half an hour that coach Ritch Price described forced both Missouri State (14-9, 2-1) and Kansas (15-15, 2-4) to take pregame batting practice inside the Bears’ hitting facility instead of on the field.
“It seems like every time we take pregame inside, we have trouble with the bats,” Price said. “It shouldn’t be that way, but it seems to be.”
Trouble is right.
Still in the hunt with two outs and only down by two in the top of the third, Kyle Murphy cut the Missouri State lead in half when he belted a solo shot to left field.
The Jayhawk senior center fielder was red hot Tuesday night. His 2-for-4 performance at the plate with one RBI and pair of runs scored led the offense against the Bears.
Or, he would have, if the offense would have followed him.
Kansas dropped its fourth game of its last five Tuesday night. Murphy’s two hits accounted for half of the Jayhawks’ base knocks as they put up just four in the defeat.
“It was tough to watch,” Price said of his team’s lack of offense. “We were trying to build momentum going in to a huge series this weekend against Missouri, and we laid an egg with the bats.”
The Bears climbed on the scoreboard first when center fielder Ben Woodbury singled to lead off the bottom of the first. Fellow outfielder Nolan Keane followed that up with a double to left center, and just two batters into the game Missouri State took a 1-0 lead. A groundout RBI scored another first-inning run for Missouri State.
Kansas didn’t stay off the board long, Murphy’s homer saw to that in the top of the third. But once on the scoreboard, the Jayhawks did little to repeat the occurrence.
Going down in order on three different occasions while allowing a leadoff hit to the Bears in the following inning three times did nothing but damage the Jayhawks’ search for weekend momentum.
Missouri State continued to rack it up. After pitching a solid 5 2/3 innings and keeping his team in the, then 2-1, ballgame, right-handed starter Andres Esquibel (4-2) made a bad move. Woodbury took full advantage as he tagged a three-run homer in the bottom of the sixth.
“Andres pitched great,” Price said. “He has the first and third on with two outs. He just made a really bad pitch, and he knew it when he threw it.”
Woodbury owned the Jayhawks on Tuesday with a 2-for-4, three-RBI performance, and his home run practically sealed the deal for the Bears. With a 5-1 lead, Missouri State stayed ahead of Kansas en route to being the second Missouri Valley Conference team to beat Kansas this season.
“When you’re playing Wichita State, you’re playing a traditional top-25 team,” Price said about the power of the Missouri Valley. “But Missouri State is one of the best programs in the Midwest.”
Missouri State put up two more in the bottom of the seventh off reliever Wally Marciel. The freshman recorded just one out, but surrendered two runs on two hits. Murphy scored in the Jayhawks’ next at bat, but the late rally came up more than a little short — the story of the night for Kansas.
“We’re definitely shooting ourselves in the foot — no doubt about that,” Price said.
Kansan sportswriter Alissa Bauer can be contacted at abauer@kansan.com.
— Edited by James Pinick
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