Paul Smyth entered the season as the anchor of the Kansas bullpen. It didn’t take long for his number to get called — he appeared in the ninth inning of the second game of the season with the Jayhawks clinging to a 4-2 lead over the Memphis Tigers.

It didn’t take much longer, two-thirds of an inning, for Smyth, Atascadero, Calif., senior, to blow his first save opportunity, giving up three runs in the bottom of the ninth and picking up a loss in the 5-4 Jayhawks defeat at the hands of the Tigers.

“One of the things we all know with baseball is that the hardest inning to pitch is the ninth inning,” coach Ritch Price said. “Guys get paid six, seven, eight million dollars to pitch the ninth inning alone. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to close the game out.”

The 4-2 lead Smyth was handed was a product of seven strong innings from sophomore starter T.J. Walz. Walz went seven innings and allowed both runs, one earned, on six hits with seven strikeouts.

“That’s just baseball,” Walz said. “It happens sometimes. Nine times out of ten Paul is going to get the job done.”

Walz’s attitude was the prevailing one in the Kansas locker room. Though Smyth had a bad game his first time out in 2009, there’s no lack of faith in the senior closer.

“I think the next time as soon as we have the lead I’m handing the ball to him, and I’ll feel good doing it,” Price said. “I still have a lot of confidence in him.”

Smyth said the key to rebounding from a performance like his is being able to shake it off quickly.

“I’ve learned that in those kinds of situations you have to have a really short memory,” he said.

“I woke up this morning and wanted the ball again as soon as possible.”

Smyth hoped to get that opportunity in Kansas’ Sunday afternoon game, a rematch with Memphis.

The Jayhawks fell 2-1 to Memphis, and never led, despite a solid starting effort from junior juco transfer Cameron Selik, and Smyth didn’t had the opportunity for a save.

“It’s not a different mindset,” Smyth said about his next chance to close. “I was actually happy to hear that we had Memphis again. On a personal level I was really excited about that. But I had the same mindset yesterday that I’ve had every time before that. I’ll approach it the same way next time.”

Smyth’s approach includes expectations for himself that, at least on Saturday, he didn’t meet.

“I just expect to get the job done,” he said. “Obviously, yesterday I didn’t do that.”

— — Edited by Sam Speer