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Baseball team hosts struggling Dolphins

Kansas can reach .500 with a win in its home opener

By Shawn Shroyer

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

This isn’t your typical home opener.

More times than not, Division I teams schedule directional schools for their home openers to help assure that opening day crowds will witness a victory. However, Kansas (4-5) opens its home slate today against Le Moyne College (2-6), which reached the NCAA tournament last season.

While the Dolphins, of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, aren’t a household name when it comes to college baseball, they aren’t to be underestimated. Located in Syracuse, N.Y., Le Moyne went 34-19 last season and is coached by the eighth winningest active baseball coach in Division 1: Steve Owens.

With a career .683 winning percentage, Owens and his Dolphins have gotten off to an uncharacteristically slow start this season. In the midst of a 15-game road trip to start its season, Le Moyne was swept over the weekend by Oral Roberts.

Yesterday, Le Moyne took No. 25 Wichita State the distance before losing, 9-8, at Eck Stadium. Le Moyne led Wichita State most of the game until the Shockers piled on four runs in the last two innings to steal the victory.

In defeat, the Dolphins continued to receive production from their two best hitters. Infielder Matt Nandin and first baseman Corey O’Neill went a combined 3-for-9 with two runs.

breakbox

Enrollment: 2,300

Location: Syracuse, N.Y.

Colors: Green and Gold

Conference: Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference

Coach: Steve Owens (504-233-1)

Notes: The Dolphins open 2008 with a 15-game road trip and their home opener is scheduled for March 22 — a full month after their first game of the season…Le Moyne has never played Kansas in baseball before.

Today Le Moyne will throw left-hander Corey Nelson (0-0), whose only appearances thus far have been out of the bullpen. In five innings, he’s struck out four and has yet to allow an earned run.

The Jayhawks, on the other hand, shook off their rusty play during the weekend.

Kansas is coming off a 2-1 showing in the Music City Classic in Nashville, Tenn. The Jayhawk offense blew up for 21 runs Saturday and Sunday after scoring fewer than five runs in six of their previous seven games.

“It’s good to start waking the bats up a little bit more,” freshman third baseman Tony Thompson said. “I think we’re going to come through now.”

Leading the charge for Kansas was junior first baseman Preston Land and senior outfielder Casey Larson. Land was 4-for-5 with two home runs in a five-RBI performance on Saturday while Larson went 4-for-7 with two runs and two RBI in Kansas’ two wins. Both were named to the all-tournament team.

Junior center fielder and leadoff man Nick Faunce capped the weekend by going 4-for-5 Sunday, scoring three runs.

“I just think we had to see some pitching for us to get going a little bit,” Thompson said. “Our pitching has been doing really well and we just needed to support them with some runs. We finally did that the last couple games.”

Kansas coach Ritch Price will again look to sophomore left-hander Wally Marciel (1-1) to bridge the gap to the weekend.

Wednesday, Marciel allowed only two runs in 5 2/3 innings of work at Arkansas. In two starts, Marciel has a 2.31 ERA and six strikeouts to nine hits and four walks allowed.

Price is counting on another solid performance from Marciel today to give the home fans what they want to see — a home-opening victory.

“Wally Marciel pitched like a Big 12, Friday night starter,” Price said after the Arkansas game. “He’s improved his fastball command, improved his breaking ball and his changeup. Now he’s got three pitches.”

— Edited by Daniel Reyes

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