Thursday, April 2, 2009
David Narodowski drew a full count over ten pitches, leading off the first inning for Kansas. Then, on the 11th pitch of the at-bat, he roped a double to right-center field. Things only got worse after that for Northern Colorado starter Cameron Tallman in Wednesday night’s 15-6 Kansas victory at Hoglund Ballpark.
“That helps us out a ton,” sophomore third baseman Tony Thompson said. “It lets us know everything they have. You’re probably going to see everything when you have that good of an at-bat.”
Narodowski’s leadoff double extended his hit streak to 11 games and the Jayhawks abused Tallman — who left the game after eight hitters, five runs and one out — on their way to their biggest first inning of the season. It stole the lead away from the Bears, who had jumped out 2-0 on the strength of Jarrod Berggren’s two-run home run to start the game off.
Junior second baseman Robby Price tried to sacrifice bunt Narodowski over to third and ended up beating the throw for an infield single. Brian Heere followed that with a walk and then back-to-back doubles from Buck Afenir and Thompson opened the game up for Kansas. The first five Jayhawk hitters to come to the plate ended up crossing it in the first.
“That was huge,” Thompson said. “We need to come out, especially after they score two runs in the first, and put some numbers on the board, too. Get some runs for the pitching staff to work with.”
Afenir and Thompson didn’t stop after inning one, though, and ended up combined for nine RBIs in the win, more than half of the Jayhawks’ 15.
“We come up in some spots, and I think that happens just with how the top of the order plays,” Afenir said. “You can count on David and Robby and Heere and whoever else is in the mix up there to do some things and get on base. As long as those guys are hitting good it’s our job to knock them around the bags.”
The Jayhawks, even after their five-run first inning, never let off the throttle, being held scoreless in only two of the team’s trips to the plate.
“One of the things we talked about after the first inning was ‘Don’t stop scoring, it could take 15 runs to win today,’” Coach Ritch Price said. “We have not done a very good job of that, of keeping the foot on the opponent’s throat when we’ve got them down. Today, I thought we kept swinging the bats, kept having good at-bats.”
The 15-run explosion on offense was complemented by a solid starting performance by junior right-hander Brett Bollman, 3-0 with a 1.80 ERA. After giving up the two-run bomb in the first, Bollman buckled down and didn’t surrender another run in five more innings of work. He worked his way out of a jam in the third after giving up singles to the first two hitters of the inning.
After a pop fly and a strike out, Northern Colorado catcher Seth Budde rapped a ball up the middle off of Bollman’s glove. Instead of allowing the Bears to load the bases, though, Narodowski made a great play in the field to go with his offensive success, bare handing and firing to first just in time to nab Budde.
Ritch, who just moved Bollman to a starting role a few weeks ago, said the former reliever was absolutely huge for Kansas against Northern Colorado’s potent offense.
“That was crucial,” Ritch said. “They can really swing the bats, if you look at their numbers, it’s impressive.”
— — Edited by Heather Melanson
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