Jayhawks continue to enjoy winning streak

Monday, March 10, 2008

North Dakota State made it interesting, but Kansas stretched its winning streak to six games on Sunday, and swept the doubleheader and the series.

Both offenses ran rampant the first two innings and were tied 5-5 heading into the third, but steadier pitching prevailed for the next three innings until the Jayhawks (8-5) broke the game open with a six-run sixth that led to a 11-9 victory against the Bison (0-6).

Photo Gallery

Kansas Baseball vs. North Dakota St.

A photo gallery of the Kansas baseball game against North Dakota St. Sunday afternoon.

“I felt good about some of those guys breaking out,” Kansas coach Ritch Price said of his offense. “Now we’ve just got to get a little bit more consistency from some of our people.”

The game remained knotted 5-5 through five innings, but the Bison and right-handed reliever Ben Mathiason (0-2) could only keep the Jayhawk bats at bay for so long.

Junior center fielder Nick Faunce got the Kansas offense jump started with a one-out double off the left-center field wall in the sixth. Two batters later he was coming home to break the tie.

Senior left fielder John Allman hit a grounder at North Dakota State shortstop Ryan Langlais that he let get by him. Langlais’ error allowed Faunce to score, Allman to advance to second and sophomore second baseman Robby Price to move up to third.

Two more batters later, with the bases loaded, senior right fielder Ryne Price drove in a run the hard way, getting beaned by a Mathiason pitch. Kansas tacked on four more runs in the inning, extending its lead, 11-5.

Those six runs came on only three Jayhawk hits in the inning. One of the three hits came from senior shortstop Erik Morrison, who led Kansas with a season high three hits and three RBI in the game. Morrison’s production at the plate helped make up for three errors in the field.

“I’m struggling with the glove, so it’s definitely good to be successful in the other aspect of the game,” Morrison said. “I think I’m just sitting back on the ball too much and not really going after the ball, being the aggressor. That was by far my worst day of fielding in the four years I’ve been here.”

Despite Kansas’ six-run lead midway through the game, North Dakota State threatened early and late to steal the final game of the series.

Junior left-hander Sam Freeman, who had won his first two starts as a Jayhawk, couldn’t escape the second inning as he struggled to find the strike zone. With scouts in the stands to watch him pitch, Freeman surrendered five runs, four earned on four hits and three walks with no strikeouts in an inning-plus of work.

Swinging hot bats early on, the Bison led 2-0 after their first at-bat and 5-4 after their second.

But when Kansas handed the ball to senior right-hander Andres Esquibel (1-0), North Dakota State’s bats quickly cooled. In six innings of relief, Esquibel shut the Bison out, and allowed only two hits and a walk while striking out three.

“I just wanted to go in there and pick up Sam. He kind of had a rough day,” Esquibel said. “Us pitchers, we all have days like that, so I just wanted to go in there and give the team a chance.”

When Esquibel left the game after the seventh, though, North Dakota State nearly climbed back into contention with a run in the eighth. In the ninth, the Bison scored another run and loaded the bases on senior right-hander Matt Lane before Kansas turned to junior closer Paul Smyth for the second straight day.

North Dakota State brought home two more runners Lane allowed to reach, but Smyth eventually nailed down his second save of the season.

“I think it was good for him to have to come into that situation and have to try to find a way to get a couple left-handed hitters out because that’s what he really struggled with a year ago,” Price said.

—Edited by Sasha Roe

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