Thursday, May 8, 2008
Final exams won’t be the only weekend focus for the KU club baseball team. The Jayhawks, who clinched their first regular-season conference title in the program’s three-year history, advance to the regional tournament this Saturday in Topeka.
The club baseball team dropped only two games all season, ending with a 15-2 record. The dominance the team showed throughout the semester will be tested this weekend against elite teams like Colorado State, Northern Iowa and Colorado. Kevin Sterk, Oak Lawn, Ill., first-year law student and team captain, said the double-elimination tournament promised to be a battle of attrition.
“It’s pretty rare to go undefeated in regionals,” Sterk said. “Most teams really only have one pitcher. There will probably be some pretty outrageous scores this weekend.”
Should the team win its way through the weekend, it will earn a spot in the Club Baseball World Series. The event is the end-all-be-all for the club sport and will be held later this month in Fort Myers, Fla.
The team is not overlooking this weekend or the upcoming week of finals. Instead of being one more thing to crowd into already busy schedules, team members are looking to the tournament as a way to relax.
“Baseball to us, it gives all us boys some relief,” catcher Mike Irvine, Chicago senior, said. “I don’t think it’ll be much of a distraction for us. For those two hours a game, we get to really be ourselves.”
Irvine said the team would be in the driver’s seat on the way to the world series if it was able to win its first two games of the regional tournament.
The possibility of a world series berth is something the team could only dream about in its 2006 inaugural season. The last two years the team has come up short in the regular season, just missing the regional tournament. Irvine said the first season was all about getting marks in the win column with no real postseason aspirations. This year things are different, as the team’s work in past years has paved the way to the regional tournament. Irvine, who has played with the team all three years, said he looked forward to bringing the team full circle.
“This team is finally putting the University of Kansas up in a league with teams like Illinois and Colorado State,” Irvine said. “Now when people schedule us, they know they aren’t just playing a scrub team. They are playing a team that’s established itself as a force in the club baseball association.”
Sterk said the team looked to win the regional tournament, with each opponent being beatable. He said the team had a competitive edge on the other teams.
“It’s our first regional tournament together as a team, and there’s really no pressure on us,” Sterk said. “It’s just another weekend of baseball for us, and I think that will help.”
— Edited by Katherine Loeck
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