Baseball team struggles to find playing time

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

KANSAN FILE PHOTO

#31, Casey Larson, junior outfielder/thirdbase

Kansas can’t catch a break.

The rain stopped, the lights work, but for the 15th time this season, the Jayhawks will not be playing when they were scheduled to be playing. Tonight’s game against Rockhurst was cancelled because of a scheduling conflict.

Rockhurst was scheduled to make up an April 3 rain-out game against Quincy, in Quincy, Ill., tonight. Because the Cougars didn’t qualify for their conference tournament, Rockhurst thought it would be able to come to Kansas to play instead of traveling to Illinois during finals week to make up the game against Quincy.

On Monday, Rockhurst coach Gary Burns told Kansas coach Ritch Price that he had been informed that his team would need to go to Quincy to make-up the post-poned game.

Price said Burns also told him that in the years he’s been with the program, a make-up game such as this had never happened.

“It’s depressing,” Price said. “There’s no doubt about it.”

The cancellation couldn’t have come at a worse time. On Sunday, the Jayhawks were forced to take their first conference sweep because the series finale was rained out. On Monday, Rockhurst coach Gary Burns told Kansas coach Ritch Price that he had been informed that his team would need to go to Quincy to make-up the post-poned game.

“I understand that rule,” Price said, referencing how difficult it was for conference teams like Texas to travel. “But that’s the one disappointment about the rule. It effects the standings without you being able to decide it on the field.”

Big 12 conference standings are decided by winning percentage, so the Jayhawks won’t suffer by playing fewer games, but the pain of their first Big 12 sweep was much more painful.

nutgraf

Big 12 conference standings are decided by winning percentage, so the Jayhawks won’t suffer by playing fewer games, but the pain of their first Big 12 sweep was much more painful.

“That hurt bad,” Price said when the news broke that Sunday’s game was cancelled and would not be made up. “You could feel it in our dugout. It was like somebody fired a shot through the locker room.”

But Price won’t let the string of cancelled games affect his players’ mentality. All he would mention was the difficulty his team has at the plate when trying to follow this consistent inconsistency.

“One of the things you preach to your players is that you can’t make excuses,” Price said.

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

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