The Jayhawks visit San Diego State for a two game series tonight and Wednesday. Both games will have an 8PM CST start time. Tuesday night’s game can be heard via a free web cast (just visit www.kuathletics.com, go to baseball, and then click on schedule). Wednesday’s game will be broadcast on KLWM AM 1320. For those fans outside the Lawrence area just visit www.klwn.com for the live feed.
Probable Pitchers
Tuesday: San Diego State 1 - Kansas 0 FINAL (Ridenhour, 7 inns, 3 hits, 1 run, 9 Ks)
Wednesday: San Diego State 9 - Kasas 8 FINAL
The Aztecs are best know this year as the team that Stephen Strasburg pitches for. Strasburg is the hottest college baseball prospect in years. He has struck out 59 batters already this year in only 27.1 innings of work. [Read that again.] The good news, if you are a KU fan, is that the Jayhawks are going to miss Strasburg. Instead the Hawks will face a struggling freshman and a Juco transfer with less than four innings of NCAA work under his belt. San Diego State is not a bad team at all, but the series is set up in such a way that it presents Kansas with a good opportunity to pick up a nice RPI win.
Last year SDS finished second in the Mountain West conference with an overall record of 31-28. They returned only four position starters from that team so, like KU, they are in rebuilding mode.
The Aztecs average 5.8 runs per game on offense. Their team line of .266/.366/.355 shows they rely on small ball, not power - 115 of their 149 hits are singles. They run aggressively, converting 23 of 31 stolen base attempts so far this season. Bottom line here is that San Diego State has been a bit below average on offensive so far this season.
Pitching looks to be their team strength, which bodes well for KU as the Jayhawks will not have to face their top three starters. Their bullpen has performed well so far, in particular their closer Addison Reed (1.08 ERA in 8.1 innings of work) has pitched well. KU will not want to waste early scoring opportunities as it will be very hard to comeback in the late innings. Find full San Diego State statitics here.
I’ll follow the games and post updates. Listen in these next two nights and let the mighty Jayhawks help you unwind from your long day of work or obsessing over basketball minutia.