Jayhawks drop both against Longhorns

By Ben Ward

Monday, April 20, 2009

The Kansas softball team would have gladly settled for a series split against No. 24 Texas over the weekend.

Instead the Jayhawks, who had split four of their past five series, dropped both contests to the Longhorns in Austin, 5-0 and 3-2, respectively.

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Game 1:

WP – Barnhill (21-9), LP – Vertelka (6-8), SV – none, HR – Craig, C. (5), Bennett (5)

Game 2:

WP – Barnhill (22-9), LP – George (9-12), SV – none, HR - none

“The bottom line is, we didn’t do the little things necessary to win ball games,” coach Tracy Bunge said. “We gave them extra outs, walked too many batters — the little things really hurt us.”

With the two losses, Kansas dropped to 16-25 overall and 4-8 in Big 12 play, leaving them 10th in the conference.

Those little things proved troublesome for Kansas right away. Coming off of two strong outings against UMKC, Sarah Vertelka didn’t make it out of the first inning on Saturday. The junior hurler struggled with her command, allowing four walks and two runs. Freshman Sarah Blair turned in 5 1/3 innings of solid relief, allowing two earned runs. But Kansas couldn’t provide any run support for its staff, notching only two hits in the contest.

On Sunday, the Jayhawks found themselves down early, again, as the Longhorns got to senior pitcher Valerie George for two runs in the first inning. George settled down, keeping Kansas in the game as she held the Longhorns to a single run over the final five frames, while striking out four.

Kansas attempted to conjure up another seventh inning rally when sophomore shortstop Kolby Fesmire scored on a single from senior third baseman Val Chapple, cutting the deficit to 3-2. But Texas sophomore pitcher Brittany Barnhill closed the door, retiring senior catcher Elle Pottorf on a fly ball to end a winless weekend for the Jayhawks. “We hit the ball much better on Sunday,” Bunge said. “Lots of loud outs that don’t translate to the box score, but we had some chances we didn’t take advantage of.”

Barnhill was sharp from the circle, pitching all 14 innings for the Longhorns while striking out 12 and allowing only two runs. But as Bunge alluded to, Kansas had its share of opportunities to score.

The Jayhawks left 13 runners on base in the two games, unable to capitalize off of seven walks and three Longhorn errors. Chapple and senior outfielder Dougie McCaulley led Kansas with two hits apiece over the weekend, but the rest of the lineup only had three hits combined against Barnhill.

“She did what she needed to do to win,” Bunge said. “Give her credit. She threw the ball pretty well out there, but we’ve got to make adjustments at the plate. We just didn’t get it done.”

Bunge said there wasn’t time to dwell on the losses since Kansas faces a doubleheader Tuesday against Tulsa.

“We need to shake this series off and get ready for Tulsa,” she said.

— — Edited by Jesse Trimble

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