Kansas squeaks by Iowa 5-4. Heere and Elgie provide the runs, Selik and Murray pitch well.

by James Quinn on Apr 8, 2009 7:15 AM CDT in Baseball Comment 8 comments

Kansas escaped a trap game yesterday at Iowa. The Jayhawks collected 17 singles, two walks and a hit batter but had trouble scoring all day. The score was tied 3-3 going into the ninth. Zac Elgie, who went 3-5 on the day, hit a two RBI single to put the Hawks up 5-3. Colton Murray made the lead stand up in the bottom of the ninth although he made it interesting. With Kansas lead down to one run and runners at first and third Murray struck out Iowa first baseman Phil Keppler after a long battle to end the game. Brian Heere had the first five hit game for Kansas this season.

Kansas improved to 19-12 while Iowa fell to 11-16. Yesterday was only Kansas' second road win of the year. The Jayhawks are now 2-7 as the visitors. The teams play again Wednesday at 4PM. KU will provide a free audio webcast again.

Additional Game notes and the box score after the jump. Brian Heere is raking!

Brian Heere is a freakin’ inferno at the plate lately. He went 5-5 in the game, scored two runs and drove in one. Heere is now hitting .360/.477/.500 on the year. Price had him hitting third yesterday. Tony Thompson had a three hit game yesterday as well. Thompson is leading the team with 37 RBIs. He only had 18 all of last year. James Stanfield continued to hit while subbing for David Narodowski at short but struggles in the field. Stanfield went 2-5 and committed an error in four fielding attempts. Stanfield in now 7-23 at the plate (.304) and 21 for 23 in the field (.913). Cameron Selik pitched well enough to win on the road. Selik went 6 innings, 6 hits, 2 runs (one earned), 3/2 BB/K. He was pulled after 79 pitches. Colton Murray pitched the final 2.1 innings of the game. Six of his seven outs were by strikeout. He did give up two hits, two walks and a run.

In less good news Kevin Burk seems to have really struggled yesterday. Burk only got through 0.2 innings before he was pulled. He retired two of the four batters he faced. Most troubling, he threw 15 pitches but only five for strikes. Jimmy Waters continued to slump. In his last eight games Jimmy has gone 2-21. I’ve been to most of those games and Waters is swinging and missing too often (8 Ks during that span), but he also has been hitting into more than his share of bad luck. He’s had several nice drives hit at defenders. On the positive side Waters is still finding ways to get on base, drawing five walks in those games and scoring four runs.

It is time to give a little love to Zac Elgie. The road trip to Arizona and San Diego must have warmed up Elgie’s bat. He has gone 9-22 since March 14th with 6 RBIs. In his last few games at first Elgie has also looked much improved in the field. Elgie is one of the most highly sought after prospects to play baseball at Kansas so his development is a huge under-the-radar storyline to this season. Elgie’s batting line now is .300/.375/.325 in 40 at bats. Look for Price to play him more often in the second half of the season and for that slugging percentage to start climbing. Elgie had monster power numbers in high school.

Paul Smyth apparently will be out for a while. He was wearing a sling during the game. I have no more information on his injury but hopefully it is nothing long-term.

Just to make sure it is not overlooked, T.J. Walz was named Big-12 Pitcher of the week on Monday.

Link to KU Recap

Apr 07, 2009 at Iowa City, IA (Duane Banks Field)

Kansas 5 (19-12)
Player	ab	r	h	rbi	bb	so	po	a	lob
Lytle, Casey rf	5	0	0	0	0	1	1	2	3
Price, Robby 2b	5	1	2	0	0	0	3	4	1
Heere, Brian cf	5	2	5	1	0	0	3	0	0
Afenir, Buck dh/c	5	1	1	0	0	1	5	0	0
Thompson, Tony 3b	5	1	3	1	0	0	0	1	2
Waters, Jimmy lf	2	0	0	0	1	0	2	0	1
Faunce, Nick pr/lf	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Elgie, Zac 1b	5	0	3	3	0	0	9	0	2
Lincoln, Joe c	3	0	1	0	0	0	4	0	0
Stanfield, James ss	5	0	2	0	0	0	0	3	2
Selik, Cameron p	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Burk, Kevin p	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Murray, Colton p	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Totals	41	5	17	5	1	2	27	11	13

Iowa 4 (11-16)
Player	ab	r	h	rbi	bb	so	po	a	lob
Toole, Justin ss	4	0	0	0	1	1	2	4	1
Hoef, Kevin 3b	4	2	2	0	0	1	2	2	0
Willis, Trevor pr/rf	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Ewing, Andrew ph	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Muller, Kurtis cf	4	0	2	0	1	0	3	0	0
Brown, Nick dh	5	0	3	3	0	0	0	0	0
Cataldo, T.J. 1b	2	0	1	1	0	0	4	1	1
Keppler, Phil 1b	3	0	0	0	0	2	9	0	4
Zeise, Chett 2b/3b	3	0	0	0	1	2	1	2	2
Durant, Ryan rf/lf	3	0	1	0	1	1	2	0	0
McQuillan, Mike lf	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
McCool, Zach ph/lf	3	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	1
McManis, Kody c	3	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	1
Burke, Dallas ph	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Schreiber, Phil p	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0
Schatz, Patrick p	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Turnbull, Steve p	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Heim, Kyle p	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Schurz, Mike p	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Totals	35	4	9	4	6	8	27	13	10

Score by Innings                    R  H  E
-------------------------------------------
Kansas.............. 002 000 102 -  5 17  1
Iowa................ 101 000 101 -  4  9  4
-------------------------------------------

E - Stanfield(2); Zeise(3); McQuillan(5); Schreiber(2); Schatz(1). DP - KU 1; Iowa 2. LOB - KU 13; Iowa 10. HBP - Waters, J.; Murray, C.. SH - Lincoln, J.(1). SB - Zeise(2). CS - Heere, B.(2).

Kansas	ip	h	r	er	bb	so	wp	bk	hbp	ibb	ab	bf	fo	go	np
Selik, Cameron	6.0	6	2	1	3	2	1	0	0	0	23	26	7	6	79
Burk, Kevin	0.2	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	3	4	0	2	15
Murray, Colton W,1-1	2.1	2	1	1	2	6	0	0	0	0	9	11	0	1	47

Iowa	ip	h	r	er	bb	so	wp	bk	hbp	ibb	ab	bf	fo	go	np
Schreiber, Phil	5.2	10	2	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	25	27	6	8	50
Schatz, Patrick	1.0	3	1	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	5	6	1	1	32
Turnbull, Steve	1.1	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	5	5	2	1	18
Heim, Kyle L,0-1	0.0	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	6
Schurz, Mike	1.0	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	5	6	1	1	22

Win - Murray, C. (1-1). Loss - Heim (0-1). Save - None. WP - Selik, C.(4); Schatz(5); Turnbull(3). HBP - by Schreiber (Waters, J.); by Schurz (Murray, C.). PB - McManis(5). Pitches/strikes: Selik, C. 79/45; Burk, K. 15/5; Murray, C. 47/29; Schreiber 50/35; Schatz 32/19; Turnbull 18/12; Heim 6/3; Schurz 22/12.

Umpires - HP: Bret Bruington 1B: Todd Olinger 3B: Don Umland
Start: 4 pm Time: 3:31 Attendance: 135
Weather: 48, sunny, windy
Heim faced 1 batter in the 9th.

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Kansas 4 - Iowa 3 (bot 5)

The audio web cast didn’t seem to be working at the begining of the game but it has kicked in now.

The Jayhawks scored three runs in the top of the first. The big hit was a two RBI single by Elgie. KU added another run in the third on a Faunce ground ball which scored Elgie.

The Hawkeyes have been active as well, scoring single runs in each of the first three innings.

Bollman is still in the game. He has given up seven hits in four inning. Kansas is playing their bench today. Elgie played in LF and is now at 1B. Lisher started at 1B and went 0-3. Herbst is the DH, 1-2 with a double. Herbst seems to be able to hit. Narodowski played the first four innings at shortstop. Stanfield is in now.