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Baseball ranked for the first time since 2006

By Josh Bowe

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

There’s a renaissance happening in Lawrence, but not at any art school. This isn’t a rebirth in the artistic sense — unless the turning of a double play means the same to you as does a work by DaVinci — but a revival of Kansas baseball.

No. 24 Kansas to be exact. The new and freshly ranked Jayhawks are set to play their first game as a ranked team since May 2006 tonight against Creighton. It’s only fitting that the game will be televised and played in Omaha, Neb., at the famous Rosenblatt Stadium, home to the College World Series.

It’s the first team-wide recognition that Kansas has received after grabbing plenty of individual weekly awards, cementing a surprising season to say the least. With only four seniors on the rosters, Kansas was picked dead last in the preseason Big 12 Conference rankings.

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Photo by Weston White

Sophomore left fielder Casey Lytle slides into home plate uncontested for his only run against Oklahoma State . Kansan won 13-6 Saturday afternoon.

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TODAY

No. 24 Kansas vs. Creighton

6:30 p.m.

Rosenblatt Stadium

Omaha, Neb.

But the Jayhawks have played under the radar and now sit with a 23-12 record and a 7-5 conference record, which puts them fourth in the Big 12.

Senior catcher Buck Afenir wants to make sure everyone is paying attention now, even if that means getting tougher competition.

“We’ve been surprising some people and I think that people are going to start going to gun for us a little harder,” Afenir said.

This entire season’s success and surprise is not to discredit Jayhawk teams of the past. Since coach Ritch Price arrived at Kansas in 2003, the Jayhawks have had at least 30 wins in five of the last six seasons.

Unfortunately the Big 12 is also one of the premier conferences when it comes to baseball. Kansas has never finished with a winning record in the Big 12, but won the 2006 conference championship tournament. It’s also the last time the Jayhawks went to the NCAA tournament.

Price said that when Athletics Director Lew Perkins hired him, it was for a reason: to put Kansas baseball back on the map.

“One of the things that Lew said when he came here six years ago was he was trying to put the swagger back in the athletic program and be good in every sport, not just basketball,” Price said. “We’ve taken another step.”

At the core of the success has obviously been the pitching. When junior pitcher Shaffer Hall was announced as the number one starter, doubts arose about the team’s ability to pitch, especially considering behind Hall were even younger pitchers T.J. Walz, a sophomore, and Lee Ridenhour, a freshman. Price has credited the improvement in scouting and recruiting to these young pitchers’ success.

“We knew Ridenhour was the best pitcher in the Midwest,” Price said. “We’ve done a really good job recruiting pitchers the last two, three years.”

The payoff had been unnoticed so far this season. While sophomore infielder Tony Thompson knows the rankings don’t mean everything, he admitted that after Sunday’s game it was something that the players talked about, especially considering the early success.

“It would be nice to be in the Top 25, because then you’re nationally recognized and thought of as a real good team,” Thompson said. “But I think we’re more focused on everything in the conference.”

Even then Thompson would like some of the students and fans at Kansas to realize the baseball renaissance happening in their own backyard.

“No one really thinks about us. They think basketball, football, stuff like that,” Thompson said. “But I think they should recognize that we have a pretty good baseball club too.”

— — Edited by Susan Melgren

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