It wasn’t anywhere near perfect, but freshman pitcher Lee Ridenhour survived the first start of his young career.

His solid pitching, along with timely hitting, led Kansas to a 9-3 victory against the No. 21 Arkansas Razorbacks yesterday afternoon.

“I was really excited and my adrenaline was pumping,” Ridenhour said. “I just tried to get that first pitch across for a strike.”

Ridenhour pitched five innings, giving up two earned runs. He was shaky at times as he allowed three walks and six hits, including a solo home run to the Razorbacks senior second baseman Ben Tschepikow. But he battled through his five innings and handed the game off to the bullpen to secure the victory.

“Lee was spectacular,” senior centerfielder Nick Faunce said. “I was really impressed with him, even with the umpire having a really tight strike zone.”

In addition to the contributions from Ridenhour, the Kansas offense was able to put nine runs on the board, a season high. Faunce said the team had to play within its identity.

“We can’t just be going for the fences when we come up to the plate,” Faunce said. “We know we have to push runners over and drive them in.”

A four-run third inning took the pressure off Ridenhour early. Sophomore third baseman Tony Thompson picked up the inning’s biggest hit, driving in two runs with a single. Faunce also had an RBI single in the inning.

“I wouldn’t even say that we’ve been struggling in those other couple of games,” Faunce said. “I feel like we’ve been hitting a lot of balls hard at people. Today it was good to see those balls drop, especially in clutch situations.”

Ridenhour didn’t need any more run support after that third inning. He used his slider effectively against the left-handed power hitters in the Razorback lineup.

“My slider was working really well for me,” Ridenhour said. “I had good command of it, especially against the left-handed hitters, the power hitters that they have in the middle of the lineup.”

A victory against a ranked team can do wonders for a team’s confidence, and Faunce hopes Kansas can springboard from this victory and sweep the series tomorrow afternoon.

“We got to keep tough and never be satisfied,” he said. “I think it was just good for our mindsets to give us the peace of mind that we can do it.”

HALL COLLECTS NATIONAL AWARDS

After receiving awards from the Big 12, Shaeffer Hall’s no-hitter has been recognized nationally.

Both the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and The College Baseball Blog named Hall National Pitcher of the Week for the week of Feb. 24. He was also named the Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week.

Hall pitched a no-hitter last weekend against Air Force in his first start of the season. It was only the fifth individual no-hitter thrown in Kansas history and the first since 1980.

Hall is the first Kansas player to be honored as a national player of the week since Gus Milner in 2006.

— — Edited by Brandy Entsminger