Kansas takes first two of three from Sooners

By Josh Bowe

Monday, May 4, 2009

It wasn’t the ending Kansas wanted to settle for, but as the saying goes, “two out of three ain’t bad.”

The Jayhawks showed mental toughness over the weekend on the road, taking two out of three from the No. 9 Sooners. Everyone on the team, including coach Ritch Price, wanted the sweep badly, but Price took a step back to realize what his young Jayhawks had accomplished after the 10-9 Sunday loss in extra innings.

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Elizabeth Nalewajk/The Oklahoma Daily

“I think it showed that we’ve made really good progress,” Price said. “We played good defense and we swung the bats pretty good.”

The first two games saw the Jayhawks excel in their usual areas. Solid starting pitching, timely hitting and shutdown pitching from the bullpen provided the formula for success over the weekend. Price was especially adamant about the bullpen.

“Our bullpen was special all weekend and they’ve been doing it for us all year,” Price said. “And they were very good again this weekend.”

On Sunday, the bullpen probably pitched a little earlier than expected. Freshman starter Lee Ridenhour wasn’t sharp again against the Sooners potent lineup. Ridenhour didn’t even make it passed the first inning as he was shelled for six runs. Luckily, junior right-hander Brett Bollman and freshman right-hander Colton Murray came in to right the ship and pitched a combined eight plus effective innings.

“I thought Bollman was special and Murray was special,” Price said. “They gave us an opportunity to win.”

Sophomore third baseman Tony Thompson certainly gave the Jayhawks a great opportunity to win as well. Thompson clubbed two more home runs on Sunday to give him 14 on the season, four shy of the single season record. Thompson finished with a career high six RBI as well and his third multi home run game this season.

Thompson’s second home run came on a 3-0 count as well. It is common for coaches to have their hitters to take the next pitch, hoping to draw a walk. But Price decided to give Thompson the green light, knowing Thompson would see fastball strike.

Thompson did, and he powered the ball over the right field fence, to give the Jayhawks a 9-7 lead in the fifth inning.

“It helped me a lot that even with a 3-0 count and we were down that he gave me a shot to swing if I had a good pitch,” Thompson said. “I took advantage of it and was seeing the ball real well today.”

It didn’t last too long as Oklahoma scored two in the seventh to tie it and then won it in the tenth to prevent the sweep.

“We were pretty happy with the first two games, but was kind of a bummer that we didn’t pull out the third one,” Thompson said. “We battled pretty hard and I was happy with the way we played.”

A familiar problem crept back into Sunday’s game. The bottom of the order struggled again, with the six through nine hitters going a combined 1-for-16.

“We’ve been getting better contribution from the tail end of our lineup and I think that’s the reason we’ve been putting more runs up,” Price said. “Today we weren’t as good six through nine.”

But the bullpen kept Kansas in the game. After Kansas scored twice in the first inning and Oklahoma responded with a six run first inning it looked as if Oklahoma wouldn’t stopped scoring. Price admitted he told his players to be ready to score some runs.

“I told the club when they got the six spot it’s going to take 12 to win today,” Price said. “When we got to nine, I was hoping 9-8 would win it.”

Price was able to laugh however before finishing his thought.

“Just wasn’t quite good enough.”

Not good enough for the sweep, but two out of three works for Price.

— — Edited by Realle Roth

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