Kansas Sweeps Oklahoma, moves up to 7th place in Big-12

by James Quinn on May 4, 2008 5:33 PM CDT in Kansas Jayhawk Baseball

Kansas finished their weekend sweep of Oklahoma this afternoon with a 9-4 victory. T.J. Walz went 6.2 innings to earn his fourth victory of the year. The Hawks hit often and with power, collecting 13 hits and two more homeruns. The 39 runs scored by KU set a new team record for runs in a Big-12 series. Robby Price stayed hot at the plate, going 3-5. The homeruns came from the usual sources, Buck Afenir (8) and Ryne Price (11). Paul Smyth pitched the final 1.2 innings for his 10th save. Smyth finished every game this series, earning a victory and two saves.

KU Recap and Boxscore.

Big-12 Standings

Team	Big-12 record	Overall record
Texas A&M	18-3	40-8
Nebraska	15-5-1	36-8-1
Oklahoma State	14-7	35-12
Missouri	11-10	31-16
Texas	12-12	29-19
Baylor	10-14	28-22
Kansas	8-13	29-22
Kansas State	7-14	22-25
LINE OF SORROW
Oklahoma	6-14-1	29-20-1
Texas Tech	6-15	21-25

This sweep enormously improves KU's post season hopes. On Friday the Jayhawks were tied for last place in the conference with idle Texas Tech. In three days they climbed over Kansas State and Oklahoma and now sit in seventh place. The top eight teams qualify for the Big-12 conference tournament in Oklahoma City. With four of their six remaining games at home (three vs. Missouri next weekend and then one vs. Kansas State) the Jayhawks can start thinking more about toppling Baylor and improving their seed then just making the cut. Kansas is 6-3 at home this year in Big-12 competition. Next weekend's series with Missouri at Hoglund looks bigger every day.

All year long KU baseball fans have known this team is stocked with talent and experience. It is so good to see them coming on strong here at the end. The 2008 Hawks play with enthusiasm and aggression. It is increasingly clear that they simply do not know quit.

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A lot of buzz about the Hawks this morning:

Here are links to some of the news stories about the Jayhawks sweep of Oklahoma. The last time KU swept Oklahoma was back in 1979. Twenty-nine years ago.

Jayhawks hold off Sooners in see-saw battle by Shawn Shroyer of the UDK.

After getting two quick outs to start the inning, Walz allowed back-to-back hits and found himself with two runners in scoring position. Kansas pitching coach Ryan Graves came to the mound to talk to Walz, but he stayed in the game and induced a foul pop out to get out of the jam.
"He just asked me if I had any more in me, and I said, `Yeah,'" Walz said.

Kansas pounds out 39 runs against Oklahoma by Tyler Passmore of the UDK.

B(r)oomer Sooner by Ryan Wood of the LJWorld. Here is the Sunflower-6 TV report on the sweep.

Kansas University's baseball team was finishing up its much-needed weekend of success Sunday when two fans in the Hoglund Ballpark bleachers pulled out brooms and started waving them over their heads.

Seeing those brooms made me happy as well.

Ever since the OU loss to Southern Nazarene a two weeks ago fans have been openly wondering about OU Coach Sunny Galloway's status at the program after this year. For example, here are a few comments from the Rivals.com forum. More extensive commentary here.

by James Quinn on May 5, 2008 9:34 AM CDT reply actions