Really! Due to travel arrangements for Texas A&M, Saturday's game ended with an 8-8 score after the 11th inning. Apparently A&M's flight was scheduled to depart from KCI at 5:15 on Saturday evening and an agreement was in place that a new inning wouldn't start after 2:15. I have to assume this heavily influenced by the holiday weekend because baseball games just shouldn't end in ties. Kansas is now 18-10-1 on the year and 3-2-1 in Big 12 play. Coming into the game Texas A&M was ranked 22 (Rivals) and 23 (Baseball America), so a series victory would have been a great way to keep momentum going after winning two games at Baylor last weekend.
Game 1
While we were busy praising Mike Anderson and Missouri's toughness on April 1, the Jayhawks were taking care of their business with A&M in the series opener. After giving up a run in the third, they tied up the game in the fourth and took the lead after a 3 run 5th inning. Hits by DH Chris Manship and right fielder Casey Lytle started the inning. Robby Price took a walk to load the bases followed a single from Brian Heere to score two runs. Jimmy Waters then came through with an RBI double to give Kansas a 4-1 lead. Kansas scored three more in the seventh before things got interesting in the 8th as Texas A&M scored four runs of their own to close the gap to 7-5. After Colton Murray couldn't get KU out of the jam, Coach Price brought in Brett Bochy to close things out. Bochy pitched 1.1 and earned his 5th save on the season. Heere and Waters led the Jayhawks with three hits each and Lytle, Price, and Heere each scored two runs.
Game 2
In the second game of the series, the Jayhawks offense couldn't get it going against the Aggies. Robby Price continued to hit the ball well, going 3 for 4 on the day. The rest of the team only totaled five more hits and that makes things tough in college baseball. Senior pitcher Cameron Selik threw a decent game, though it wasn't great. He made it 6.2 innings and gave up 8 hits and 6 runs while also striking out 8 batters and taking the loss. In the end, the Jayhawks just couldn't come back from a four run deficit. Jimmy Waters also had a multiple hit game going 2-4 and and first baseman Zac Elgie led the Jayhawks scoring two runs.
Game 3
The Jayhawks had their chances to pull out a win on Saturday, they just couldn't get it done. Kansas took a 2-0 lead in the first following a homerun by Heere. They fell behind after giving up a run in the 3rd and two more runs in the 5th. Kansas answered in the bottom of the fifth by scoring four runs of their own to take a 6-3 lead. After holding the Aggies scoreless in the 6th and 7th, the drama that's becoming all too familiar for these guys made an appearance in the 8th. Texas A&M scored four runs to take a run lead and put the Jayhawks against the wall late in the game. Kansas tied the game in the bottom of the 9th with a Price RBI single. Both teams scored a run in the 11th before the game was called a tie. Waters, Heere, and Price led the team with three hits each and Price led the team with 2 runs scored in the finale.
Items of Note:
- Robby Price now has a 13 game hitting streak.
- College baseball's a crazy game. With the aluminum bats, you never know when a team is going to group some hits together and score 4 or 5 runs but Kansas seems to love both doing it and letting the other teams do it. In their first game against Baylor last weekend, they got down 7-3 after the third inning before scoring five in the fifth. In the 14 inning finale at Baylor, the Jayhawks jumped out to a 4-0 lead after two innings. In the third, they gave up 6 runs to Baylor and then held them scoreless for the next 11 innings. In their mid-week game against Arkansas-Little Rock, they were trailing 8-4 before scoring 5 runs in the 7th. Against Missouri State, they held the Bears to 1 run through seven innings and then gave up five in the last two.
- KU hosts Missouri Valley College (NAIA) at 6 pm in Lawrence on Tuesday.