Kansas ends season with losses at Iowa State

By Ben Ward

Monday, May 4, 2009

Unable to ride the momentum from the victory over Texas A&M on Thursday, Kansas softball stumbled against Iowa State (25-28, 7-11) over the weekend in Ames. The Jayhawks closed out their regular season by a Cyclone sweep 7-2 and 3-1.

The two losses placed more uncertainty on the post-season for Kansas (21-30, 6-11), who will now have to participate in the play-in game on Friday to begin the Big 12 Tournament.

“It’s really frustrating,” sophomore outfielder Liz Kocon said. “We had a good shot to get either the fifth or sixth seed in the Big 12 and we blew it.”

Game 1: 2-7, L

WP – Zabriskie (17-23), LP – George (10-15), SV – none, HR – Johnson (ISU, 7), Jones (ISU, 6); Kocon (8), McCaulley (1)

Game 2: 1-3, L

WP – Kennewell (1-0), LP – Vertelka (9-10), SV – none, HR – Bradberry (ISU, 2); Kocon (9)

The Jayhawks saw neither the solid pitching nor the clutch hitting against the Cylcones that they had seen during their three game winning streak.

The Cyclones smacked Kansas’ pitchers around in game one, aided by strong winds in the ballpark. ISU started the scoring with back-to-back home runs in the third inning to take a 4-0 lead.

Kocon got the Jayhawks started when she blasted a solo home run in the fifth, but the Cyclones came right back on the offensive. ISU rallied to score three more runs in the fifth to extend their lead to 7-1. On the game, Iowa State racked up 11 total hits for their seven runs.

Senior outfielder Dougie McCaulley later added a solo shot for Kansas, her first of the season, but the rest of the team was shut down by Cyclone pitchers — managing only three hits.

The Jayhawks fared better from the circle in game two, but still couldn’t produce at the plate.

Junior pitcher Sarah Vertelka started the game for Kansas, tossing two scoreless innings before giving up a two run home run in the third. Kocon once again got the Jayhawks started, as her solo blast in the fourth cut the deficit to 2-1. But once again, Iowa State responded right away, tacking on a quick run to regain their two run lead at 3-1.

From there the Jayhawk bats were silenced once again, but this time in a different fashion.

Freshman Lauren Kennewell earned the complete game victory for ISU despite giving the Jayhawks plenty of chances to even the score. Senior third baseman Val Chapple and junior second baseman Sara Ramirez each had two hits to lead Kansas, but the team stranded 10 runners on base in the game, six of them in scoring position.

“They pitched pretty well,” Chapple said. “But we took ourselves out of the game. We weren’t as aggressive or confident as we had been.”

Despite the disappointment over being swept, the Jayhawks know that anything can happen in the Big 12 Tournament.

“All we can do is focus on the tournament this weekend,” Kocon said. “We’re probably going to have to play against Iowa State, so we just need to focus and have a better mentality going in.”

— — Edited by Realle Roth

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