Thursday, April 2, 2009
Coach Ritch Price wasn’t happy and he didn’t hold his feelings back from Buck Afenir, his senior captain.
He wasn’t pleased with Afenir’s at-bats the last few games. The senior catcher had failed to produce in key at-bats during the Texas A&M series last weekend.
Afenir wasn’t scheduled to catch Tuesday’s 8-6 comeback victory, relegated to a mentor role with the younger players in the dugout. But before the game Priced decided that Afenir would be the designated hitter.
Then Afenir went 0-for-5 and Price made sure the veteran and Escondido, Calif., native was well aware of how he felt.
“I gave him a chance to DH yesterday and the quality of his at-bats weren’t very good,” Price said. “Basically, I got on his butt about not being a surfer and being a baseball player.”
That clubhouse-only discussion seemed to click with Afenir. Kansas routed Northern Colorado 15-6 Wednesday with Afenir accounting for two hits in two at-bats with five RBI, the most by any Jayhawk this season.
“We’ve had a couple midweek performances where we’ve come out flat,” Afenir said. “Today was good for us because we came out with a lot of energy and it showed. Scoring a lot of runs, doing a lot of good things.”
With Kansas struggling to produce with runners in scoring position, the brunt of those troubles fell on Afenir. As the cleanup hitter, Afenir is expected to drive runs homes when players get on base in front of him. Afenir said it was a relief to finally produce in those situations after struggling the last few games.
“It was nice not only for myself but for the team,” he said. “Usually, I come up in those RBI spots. I produced today.”
Price said he was very pleased with Afenir’s quick turnaround. Kansas is a young team and if its number-four and number-five hitters, sophomore third baseman Tony Thompson, aren’t producing, Price’s team isn’t scoring many runs.
“If Thompson and him don’t produce, we don’t score,” Price said. “That’s their job in the middle of that lineup to be productive.”
This is only Thompson’s second full season starting, and, although he is off to a fast start, he relies on Afenir to help bring home as many runs as possible. Without the pressure of batting fourth, Thompson leads the Jayhawks in batting average, home runs and RBI.
But Thompson knows this team is only half of what it can be without Afenir’s bat one spot ahead of him.
“I thought the middle of our order did a great job today, especially Buck,” Thompson said. “Coming up there with runners in scoring position and driving them in any way he could. You can’t ask for much more than that.”
— — Edited by Andrew Wiebe
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