Texas Tech outslugs Kansas 15-10. Shaeffer Hall takes a rare beating.

Texas Tech reached season highs in runs (15) and hits (21) last night while beating Kansas 15-10.  KU ace Shaeffer Hall (3-3) lasted only 19 batters before exiting with no outs in the third trailing 8-6.  To those 19 batters Hall gave up 8 singles, 3 doubles, 2 homeruns  and recorded 6 outs – easily the worst outing in his KU career.  Probably as much credit needs to be extended to the Red Raiders as blame towards Hall as Texas Tech continued to score freely on the Jayhawk's bullpen.  Kevin Burk gave up three runs in as many innings and Travis Blankenship gave up three more in only two innings of work.  It looks like KU just caught the Raiders on the wrong night.

Despite Tech’s torrid work at the plate Kansas managed to stay in this game until the bottom of the 6th inning.   Preston Land’s two run homerun in the top of the sixth, his first long-ball of the year, cut the Tech lead to 9-8.  The Raiders responded to the KU challenge by sending 10 men to the plate and scoring six runs in the bottom of the frame to put the game out of reach.

The loss wasted a nice offensive day for the Jayhawks.  Production came from expected and unexpected sources.  Tony Thompson hit his 10th homerun of the year and a double while driving in three.  Thompson now has 47 RBIs on the year.  Buck Afenir went 2-4 with two RBIs.  Two players who have been quiet lately spoke up at the plate yesterday.  Jimmy Waters went 3-5 with a double and an RBI.  Preston Land hit a homerun and drove in a pair.  Hopefully last night signaled an end to their slumps.

KU fell to 24-13 and 7-6 in the conference.  Texas Tech improved to 17-23 and 8-8.  The two teams play Saturday at 5PM.  The game can be listened to on KLWN.  If you do not mind hearing the TTU call you can watch the game here.

As much as last night's loss hurts Jayhawk nation, the pain in Manhattan must be exponentially worse tonight.  Wildcat ace A.J. Morris took at 2-0 lead into the ninth against visiting Missouri.  The Tigers rallied to score 4 runs in the final frame on back to back homeruns and won 4-3.  K-State is putting together perhaps their best baseball season ever this year.  Last nights loss must burn.  Kyle Gibson (6-3) picked up a complete game victory.  KU will be facing both these teams soon.

After the jump: Links to media chatter about the team & last night's KU recap and box score.

Martin Manley at the Kansas City.com sports blog "Upon Further Review," (which is certainly a cut above most sports blogs) sent some love toward team this week.  Here is a link to the full story and a quote below:

KU’s record is 24-12. But, as I mentioned last week, that’s misleading low. Yes, it easily could be much better than that. Kansas has played over half their 36 games against teams that were ranked. KU is 9-10 in those 19 games, but only 9 of them were at home and 10 on the road. Against other competition, the Jayhawks are 15-2 including winning their last 14 against unranked squads.

I think the LJ World too often overlooks KU baseball.  I hope this is more an issue of space than perceived community interest.  Anyway, the hotter the Hawks play the more space they get.  Last week Dugan Arnett went with the title "Kansas Baseball Silencing Doubters."  Give the story a click.  It is not bad, and it will let the LJ folks know the coverage is appreciated.

The Daily Kansan publishes four or five stories a week about the team and Tim Dwyer and Josh Bowe are maintaining a blog for spill-over and live game coverage.  While I think the UDK coverage is a step below where it was last year when Shawn Shroyer was on the beat Dwyer and Bowe do a good job bringing out the personality of the team.  I liked this quote from Jason Brunansky regarding his homerun at Creighton, "I wouldn't classify myself as a power-hitter.  Home runs are accidents.  That was an accident."   (Incidently, if anyone knows how to reach Shroyer I would be happy if they passed that information on to me.)

Link to KU recap

Apr 17, 2009 at Lubbock, TX (Dan Law Field)