Jayhawks stay alive by routing Dartmouth 16-0. Rematch with Coastal Carolina Sunday at Noon.

Bumped for today's open game thread.

Kansas finally played a good game in the post season.  After dropping four games in a row the Jayhawks overwhelmed Dartmouth 16-0.  KU combined a powerful offensive attack of 17 hits, three of which were home runs, with a lights out pitching performance by Shaeffer Hall.  This was about as good a game of baseball as Kansas was capable of playing.

The win keeps Kansas alive in the Chapel Hill regional.  The Hawks will get a second go at Coastal Carolina.  The Chanticleers were manhandled by North Carolina in the afternoon game 14-5.  If Kansas wins round two with the Chants they will get about an hour of rest before they have to hit the field again and take on North Carolina.  Kansas can only advance by winning both games tomorrow, and then beating North Carolina for a second time on Monday.  Before you get too depressed keep in mind 1993.  In that year Kansas lost their opening regional game before rallying to win four straight and earn a trip to Omaha for the College World Series.

Kansas scored early against Dartmouth.  Buck Afenir got it started by hitting a two run home run in the first inning.  It was Buck’s 10th homerun of the year and 31st of his career, tying him with Erik Morrison for second on KU’s career list.  David Narodowski continued his insanely hot streak at the plate by hitting a solo shot in the third to stretch the lead to 3-0.  After hitting only three homeruns in his first 53 games Narodowski has hit five in his last five games.  The next Jayhawk long ball effectively ended any chance Dartmouth had of rallying.  With no outs in the fourth inning Zac Elgie hit a grand slam to put KU up 8-0.  The Hawks added eight more runs in the game but the outcome was clear by the time Elgie finished rounding the bases.

Given all the offensive highlights it would be easy to overlook a masterpiece pitched by Shaeffer Hall (5-6).  Hall carried a perfect game into the fifth inning and only gave up five singles in the complete game victory.  This was Hall’s second shutout of the season, the first coming in his opening day no-hitter.  Price noted the symmetry, “My compliments to Shaeffer Hall.  I think when you start the first day of the season and you throw a no-hitter and then you pitch the final day of the season, in what may be your final start before the professional draft, and throw another shutout, it’s really special.”  Dartmouth head coach Bob Whalen focused on Hall’s performance as well in his post-game comments.  “I don’t know that I have the right comment to make, but there’s not much you can say when you get three <sic> hits and you don’t score a run.  Most of that was we just had a tremendous game pitched against us…[Hall] was exceptional.”

First pitch Sunday will be a noon.  The game will be carried live on KLWN AM 1320.

After the break, additional notes on the game and the tournament and the box score.

Price shakes up the line-up:  Coach Price shook up the tail end of the line-up today.  In a preview of what KU fans will see next year Zac Elgie started at first.  Nick Faunce moved from the DH slot back into centerfield and James Stanfield was the designated hitter, effectively substituting Stanfield’s bat for Brunansky’s.  Elgie had a monster day, going 2-5 with his third homerun of the season and six RBI’s.  Stanfield did less well, going 0-4 with three strikeouts and an RBI.

Afenir, Thompson and Narodowski rewritng the record books:  In addition to moving into second place on KU’s career homerun list Afenir’s two RBI’s gave him 159 in his career, good for a tie with John Allman at #7 all-time at KU.  Buck’s 63 RBI’s this year tie him with Jeff Niemeir (1993) for the fourth highest single season total in school history.  Tony Thompson also had a big day at the plate, going 3-5 with two RBI’s.  Thompson hit a line drive to right field that Brian Hanni on KLWN was sure was to be his 20th homerun of the season before it hit the wall.  In the end the ball ended up going for “the longest single in KU history” according to the radio announcer.  Thompson now has 80 RBI’s on the year, five off the all-time KU record.  Thompson’s two hits gave him 90 on the year, which moved past another of my all-time favorite Jayhawks, Jared Schweitzer, and into sixth place on that single season record list.  Schweitzer's 89 hits in 2006 now ranks as the seventh highest season total in KU history.   David Narodowski scored two runs today, giving him a team leading 64 on the year.  This total ties him with Joe DeMarco (1997) for sixth most in a single season in KU history.  DeMarco also owns the top spot on that list, scoring 76 times in 1996.

Dartmouth Head Coach Bob Whalen, a well spoken man:  I really loved reading Whalen’s post game comments.  I am sure this is a guy I would love to play under, or just sit and talk with in the stands:  “We’ve been a very good offensive team, we’ve been a very good consistent team, and we haven’t lost back-to-back games since we came back from the spring trip in California.  Obviously we did that yesterday and today, and, I’m not going to lie, that’s disappointing.  Again, Kansas is an exceptional team.  I think Ritch Price is one of the best coaches in America, and I knew that they would come and play extremely well today, and they did.  They can flat out hit.”  Reflecting on the loss and the end of the season.  “I feel this way after every season.  I’m sure that I’ll feel differently a month from now.  I usually come up with great answers while I’m driving in the middle of the night somewhere on the West Coast while recruiting in the middle of July.  Right now, this hurts.  When you have to face your team as a coach, you feel the same as when you’re a parent.  You want to find the right thing to say, but it’s hard to do.”

Other Big-12 Scores:  All three Big-12 teams facing elimination won today, ensuring that no conference teams would go winless in the tournament.

Oklahoma State 3 – Clemson 2:  After being singled out as the least deserving at-large selection for the tournament the Cowboys are now 2-0 and looking good to advance.  Wow.

Texas A&M 6 – Wright State 4: A&M 1-1.

Missouri 9 – Monmouth 0:  Kyle Gibson pitches a shut-out.  MU 1-1.

LSU 3 - Baylor 2:  Baylor 1-1.

Kansas State 7 - Rice 6: Wildcats take down the #1 seed and look good to advance.

Arkansas 17 - Oklahoma 6:  OU, a national seed, falls into the loser bracket at 1-1.

Texas 3- Boston College 2: This was an amazing game in so many ways.  It was 25 innings long, making it the longest game ever played in NCAA D-I history.  Texas "closer" Austin Wood pitched 12.1 no hit innings before giving up his first hit.  Wood did not factor into the final decision but pitched 13 shut out innings, thre 169 pitches, and did not enter teh game until the seventh inning.

None of the eight Big-12 teams have been eliminated.  Overall the conference has gone 11-5.

Link to KU recap.

May 30, 2009 at Chapel Hill, NC (Boshamer Stadium)

Score by Innings                    R  H  E
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Kansas.............. 201 525 100 - 16 17  0
Dartmouth........... 000 000 000 -  0  5  2
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