Kansas upsets #1 ranked Texas 5-4.
by James Quinn on Mar 20, 2009 6:36 PM CDT
in Kansas Jayhawk Baseball
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PrintKansas took advantage of sloppy Texas fielding and an off night by Longhorn ace Chance Ruffin to upset the #1 ranked team in the nation at Hoglund Field 5-4.
Kansas scored four runs in the third inning off Ruffin on three singles, an error and a bases loaded walk. KU starter Shaeffer Hall (2-1) made the lead stand up. Texas hit a two run homerun, a sac fly and a two out RBI double to nibble the lead down to 5-4 in the top of the seventh. Hall gave Kansas a solid outing, going seven innings of six hit, four run ball. He handed the lead off to the bullpen for the final two innings. Travis Blankenship and Brett Bochy combined for a scoreless 8th inning and Paul Smyth recorded his fourth save by protecting the one run lead in the 9th inning. This was a nice recovery for Smyth who had blown a save Wednesday night in Kansas' 9-8 loss at San Diego State.
For the Jayhawks Brian Heere, Jason Brunansky and Buck Afenir each had two hits. Preston Land went 1-4 with an RBI and some good field work at first base. Kansas collected nine hits in the game, all singles. Chance Ruffin was not sharp. Kansas hit half a dozen line drives down the foul line and Preston Land hit a fly ball that drifted just foul in the 8th inning. Ruffin went 7.2 innings for the loss.
Kansas improves to 11-7 on the year and 1-0 in conference play. Texas falls to 14-4 and 2-2. The two teams meet again Saturday and Sunday, 1PM first pitch for both games. A nice crowd of about 1,000 showed up for the game on an overcast and breezy afternoon.
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Afenir, Heere and Robby Price were ripping the ball today.
Ruffin was lucky to have not given up several more runs. Ruffin threw 119 pitches! This makes me think that Augie must be afraid of his bullpen this year.
www.rockchalktalk.com for pretty good KU baseball coverage
119?
That’s a hell of a workload.
I am Jack's unbridled optimism.
by A.J. Haefele on Mar 20, 2009 7:17 PM CDT up reply actions
Great win. Great day for all the Jayhawks.
by hunter s. royal on Mar 20, 2009 7:22 PM CDT reply actions
And great day for Dayton fans also!
Yeah, sports wise, today was damn well perfect.
www.rockchalktalk.com for pretty good KU baseball coverage
Do you know about that Batman character, Two Face.
I think that will be me on Sunday.
Nah, I live in Lawrence. I’ll cheer on the Hawks. I hope the Flyers give them a good game. But I’m all Crimson and Blue now.
What time is the game? The Texas-Kansas game is at 1PM.
www.rockchalktalk.com for pretty good KU baseball coverage
It's 1:30 local time, I think.
I hope I’m wrong, though, because that would suck for you and the potential attendance at the baseball game.
Yes, Brett is his son.
Texas starter Chance Ruffin is Bruce Ruffin’s son.
KU center fielder Jason Brunansky is Tom Brunansky’s son.
A lot of bloodlines out there today.
www.rockchalktalk.com for pretty good KU baseball coverage
Schaeffer
His draft stock is going up I would have to say…
Too bad Elgie wasn’t in the lineup today.
Shaeffer was drafted in 2007 in the 23rd round by Cleveland.
That was after his year at Jefferson Community. Was he drafted out of high school as well?
Anyway, I hope he stays and finishes his degree. He will be draft eligable at the end of the year or he could come back for his senior year.
I did notice a scout at the game today. Maybe there were more than the one. I didn’t look for them but I would have expected to see a few there. Between the two team there were plenty of prospects out there today.
I think Elgie was on the bench due to his defense. I wonder if he will start or DH in the next two games. Waters got the DH gig today and went 0-3 with a HBP. He did get one good swing.
www.rockchalktalk.com for pretty good KU baseball coverage
An interesting note from KUSports.com message board.
Went to the KU vs Texas game today and apparently there is this guy that goes to every KU baseball home game and lets the opposing team have it. From comments such as “you aren’t fooling us when you scratch your nuts, we know you’re bunting,” to straight up “you suck!” He’s one of those fans you hate to have on your side but find some of his comments entertaining. Anyway, he went to far today. There was this older lady who asked him if he would stop yelling in her ear. The guy then decided to get in the older ladies face and yell back at her. The ladies husband did not like this very much and asked the heckler “are you tryin to get into a fight today?” Heckler responds by pushing the elderly man commenting “give me your best shot.” The crowd security was watching the whole time and saw what happened. The heckler tried to say the old man and his wife started the confrontation but to no avail. The heckler was then told he needed to leave but instead he went and sat back in his seat. Long story short the police were called and on arrival escorted the heckler out of the ball park.
Just wondering if anyone else saw this or has been to a KU baseball game and seen this man before. Its nice that he is a dedicated KU fan but today he went to far. In my opinion he gives our fan base a bad reputation.
I am sure I know who this man was. I have seen/heard him at about 50 home games. I have never known him to act in this manner, but I guess I can’t say I am shocked. He doesn’t seem to understand social boundries.
www.rockchalktalk.com for pretty good KU baseball coverage
so
it wasn’t you?
If you were thinking, you wouldn't have thought that.
by Warden11 on Mar 20, 2009 10:43 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
chuckle
www.rockchalktalk.com for pretty good KU baseball coverage
by James Quinn on Mar 20, 2009 10:47 PM CDT up reply actions
I was worried about it being KC actually:
But thank goodness it wasn’t James. I’d really miss his hard work on the site. :D
by hunter s. royal on Mar 20, 2009 11:48 PM CDT up reply actions
Now, we don't KNOW that it wasn't KC.
I’ve never actually met KC in person. For all I know KC has always been that “baseball heckler guy” and I just never knew it.
www.rockchalktalk.com for pretty good KU baseball coverage
It's flattering
that you guys talk about me when I’m not around.
"I log on to RCT after school, and I see the 228 comments on this thread. I actually immediately panicked, because knowing KC, I figured some other fan from another school (most likely Mizzou) came over and said something stupid. Then, KC freaked out at him, and said something stupid (no offense, KC, but this really wouldn’t be that extraordinary for you to pull off) and then there was mass hysteria. I would have to ban people, and warn people, and it’d be mass chaos." - SlowDance
Odds-on favorite to win the "1st Annual Rock Chalk Talk Tournament Pick 'Em Contest" :D
by Andy Edwards on Mar 21, 2009 11:32 AM CDT up reply actions
Trust me,
if you heard what we said off the board you would not feel so flattered. ;-)
www.rockchalktalk.com for pretty good KU baseball coverage
by James Quinn on Mar 21, 2009 11:42 AM CDT up reply actions
DH
I think the best thing for the team is to have waters dh when a righty is throwing and rotate elgie and lylte in against he leftys.
waters has had a slower start than what we expected. i think the kid needs to be kept in the lineup for a solid 10 games and see if he can get in a groove. if not then it will be time to go to other options, but you just cant keep putting a kid in and out and expect to perform every time in the lineup especially when we are talking about a kid who played limited time last season (maybe 60 at bats) then had a serious surgery and missed all of summer ball and didn’t even go to school at KU this fall so he missed all of fall practices. The reality is he is behind everyone else right now and needs to keep getting at bats and he’ll be able to perform at the level we expect. I still expect the kid to hit 300 and have 5-10 home runs this season.
I’d also like to say that i think this ku team has a chance to be real good. they have a lot of 1 run loss games and they have played with every one so far this year. If we can get Nardowski, Price, Waters, and Land/Elgie to start hitting better other teams will have to seriously watch out.
Big game tomorrow. Come out and cheer on the hawks! Hopefully we can win the series tomorrow! Who would have thought that the Jayhawks would win the opening series against texas this year?
Playing time
Waters is one of my favorite players. I would love to see him get more playing time. I know there are a few players Price is trying to work into the lineup. He needs to get Elgie plate apperances, but so far Zac has not looked good at first base. It would be hard to play him at first instead of Land during big games. Casey Lytle has been crazy good at the plate. I am sure Price also wants to get Joe Lincoln more work to keep him sharp. You can add Marasco to this group as well.
It is kinda a nice problem. Having so many promising young hitters on the team.
www.rockchalktalk.com for pretty good KU baseball coverage
WOW!!!! Great win for the Hawks!!!
Some people are like Slinkies...not really good for anything but they make you smile when pushed down the stairs.
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