Kansas evens up series in Columbia - Jayhawks 7 – Tigers 4. Deciding game 1PM Sunday.

Kansas evened its series with Missouri yesterday with a 7-4 win in Columbia.  The two teams will face off in the rubber match today at 1PM.  Kansas now has a 13-10 Big-12 record, which matches the highest win total for the Jayhawks since the formation of the conference in 1997.  One win in their last four games will guarantee KU of a winning conference record.  Kansas has not won a road series at Missouri since 1983 so a win today would be big in several ways.

Yesterday’s game had several heroes.  David Narodowski needs to be highlighted first.  The KU shortstop went 4-5 with two doubles and his third homerun.  The Tigers could not get Casey Lytle out all day..  Lytle went 4-4 with a homerun and drew a walk.  Brian Heere and Preston Land each had one hit apiece but they made the most of them.  Preston Land delivered a two-out bases loaded single in the fifth inning to plate two runs and put KU up 5-3.  MU centerfielder Greg Folgia hit his third homerun of the series in the bottom of the fifth to reduce the Jayhawk lead to 5-4.  Solid bullpen work by both teams kept the game close until the 8th inning when Brian Heere hit his 5th homerun of the season to give KU a 7-4 cushion.

T.J. Walz again showed his maturity as a pitcher by giving the team six innings when he did not have all his tools working.  Walz gave up seven hits and three walks while striking out five.  This was good enough to earn him his seventh victory on the year, the most wins by a KU starting pitcher since Kodiak Quick’s eleven in 2006.  Paul Smyth came on in the ninth to earn his 9th save of the season.  The bridge work between Walz and Smyth was shaky yesterday, with Travis Blankenship and Colton Murray both handing out too many free passes.  Blankenship hit two of the four batters he faced and Murray walked three of the five men to whom he pitched.  Like Walz the bullpen arms managed to work around these problems.  Despite putting five men on base between the seventh and eighth innings Missouri could not dent the plate.

After the jump a link to the KU recap and the box score.

Link to KU recap

May 09, 2009 at Columbia, MO (Taylor Stadium)

Score by Innings                    R  H  E
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Kansas.............. 110 030 020 -  7 13  0
Missouri............ 210 010 000 -  4  8  1
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