Saturday, April 12, 2008
After the end of the fourth inning of Saturday’s game, “Walking on Sunshine” played over the loudspeakers at Hoglund Ballpark.
Well, half of that was true for the Jayhawks. While sunshine was sparse, bats were optional for the Kansas offense as Texas Tech starting pitcher A.J. Ramos moved the Jayhawks around the bases with walk after walk. The scoring wasn’t exciting, but it was effective as Kansas (21-16, 3-8) drubbed Texas Tech (17-18, 4-10) 9-1 Saturday afternoon, clinching its first Big 12 series of the season.
On the mound, senior right-hander Andres Esquibel was part of the first ever combined one-hitter for Kansas against a conference foe.
Photo Gallery
Kansas Baseball vs. Texas Tech
A photo gallery of the baseball game against Texas Tech Friday afternoon.
“One of the things I’ve tried to tell our team is that we started with three top 20 teams in our conference, is who we opened up with, and that we’ve done some really good things,” Kansas coach Ritch Price said. “And I’ve been tough on them. I was tough on them at Baylor and I was tough on them this week and there was no way I was going to let us back down and quit playing. We have too good a team to shut it down after three series.”
Saturday’s game was scheduled to begin at noon, but a midday blizzard postponed the game until 12:53 with a first pitch temperature of 38 degrees. Still, for the second straight day, winter-like weather conditions didn’t hinder the Jayhawks.
“I think we definitely pitch better,” senior right fielder Ryne Price said of the snow’s effect on the team with a laugh.
Senior center fielder Casey Larson led off the bottom of the first with a double, but three straight walks by Ramos (1-4) forced in Kansas’ first run.
In the third, the Jayhawks actually got to hit a little as sophomore second baseman Robby Price, Ryne Price and senior shortstop Erik Morrison all doubled in the inning to tack on three more runs and give Kansas a 5-0 lead.
But in the fourth, Ramos lost all command of his pitches. He walked the first four batters of the inning and threw a wild pitch, resulting in two more runs for Kansas. The boys in blue put up four runs in the inning, but their only hit in the fourth was a two-out, two-RBI single from Ryne Price, which put Kansas up 9-0.
That single marked the end of Ramos’ outing. In 3.2 innings, all nine runs he allowed were earned and came off five hits and seven walks. He also hit a batter. Ramos’ rough outing was a far cry from his performance against Kansas in 2007. Last season, Ramos won a 1-0 pitchers’ duel, pitching a complete game in which he allowed just four hits and one walk while striking out five.
Esquibel (3-2) got the start for Kansas and, while his control wasn’t much better, he ate up innings. His eight innings pitched were the most in a game by a Kansas pitcher since he lasted as many innings against Dartmouth on March 20.
In eight innings of one-hit ball, Esquibel held the Red Raiders to one run, but he walked as many batters as he struck out – seven. He threw 118 pitches and, after junior left-hander Nick Czyz lasted 6.1 innings on Friday, helped save the Kansas bullpen for the second straight day.
“It was really big considering the last couple weeks haven’t been too good at all,” Esquibel said. “Talking to coach (Ryan) Graves, we just wanted to go out there and set the tone for the rest of the season. Hopefully we did that.”
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