Section:
B
They said it
The University Daily Kansan
They said it
Former pitcher Tug McGraw, on whether he favored grass or artificial surfaces:
"I don't know... I never smoked AstroTurf."
Sports
Inside: Some of the lesserknown Kansas football players took the opportunity to shine in Saturday's spring game.
SEE PAGE 5B
MONDAY, APRIL 17, 2000
Inside: The Kansas softball team beat Baylor 4-1 yesterday in Waco, Texas.
Jayhawks' bats heat up
Kansas goes 1-2 in series vs. Sooners
By Amanda Kaschube
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
When Kansas's Jesse Gremminger smacked his third homer of the season in the second inning yesterday, confusion broke out in the Oklahoma dugout — and among the umpires.
The smash hit a light pole just above the 375-foot sign in left field and bounced back into the outfield, leaving the umpires to decide whether Kansas should get credit for the three-run shot.
"Oklahoma said it hit the fence and shouldn't be counted," Gremminger said. "I guess it could have gone either way."
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
But the home run counted, and helped the 'Hawks to a 10-4 win yesterday at home against the Sooners.
Even with a six-run cushion in the second, coach Bobby Randall wanted Kansas to execute and concentrate on extending its lead.
"I was aware that our early lead could go away real fast." Randall said. "We've been scuffling to get runs lately. We can't seem to get all of our hits at the same time. I didn't want to play a hang-on game."
The eight-run second inning, in which Gremminger scored twice and recorded a career-high three RBI, was enough to propel the Jayhawks to the win against the Sooners. The victory was the first for Kansas (21-20 and 7-14 in Big 12) in a weekend where Oklahoma (26-15 and 11-7 in Big 12) prevailed during Friday's and Saturday's game, 6-5 and 4-2 respectively.
"We lost two close games, so it felt good to score early and boost our confidence." said
Gremminger, who went two for four. "Pitchers have dominated us in the past, and we've not been able to hit the ball hard. But we found some holes today, and we strung together some hits. We need to do that every game."
The 'Hawks struggled for offense in the first two games of the series, getting only 11 hits off the Oklahoma pitcher.
The runs Kansas did produce in the first two games came at inopportune times. The 'Hawks scored three runs in the eighth in Friday's loss and two runs in the ninth on Saturday. Pete Smart threw his fourth complete game of the season Saturday, but the offense couldn't produce in key situations, leaving five batters on base and striking out nine times.
So yesterday when the Hawks had an early lead, the burden of carrying the team was off the shoulders of winning pitcher Rusty Philbrick (4-4).
"If you're behind, there's always more pressure not to let the other team score," said Philbrick, who struck out four in 71/3 innings. "But when you're ahead, you can just do your thing and throw strikes. The hitters realize that the pitchers keep them in the ballgame, and once they get some hits, you can just take care of the rest."
And that's exactly what Philbrick did.
In earning his second win of the week — the first coming against Wichita State last Tuesday — he and reliever Jeff Davis helped end the 21-game hitting streak of Oklahoma's Zach Lekse. Along with a strong defensive showing, the Hawks shut down a Sooner offense that had produced key hits earlier in the weekend.
"Give Rusty and our defense a lot of credit," Randall said. "Once we got the lead, we didn't give up. We didn't give Oklahoma many chances to come back."
Jesse Gremminger celebrates with his teammates after he hit a three-run homer in yesterday's second inning against Oklahoma. The Jayhawks beat the Sooners 10-4 yesterday after losing the first two games of the series 6-5 Friday and 4-2 on Saturday. Photo by Brad Dreier/KANSAN
Junior line-
backer
Marcus
Rogers
returns a
Reggie
Duncan fun-
mble 68 yards for a touch-
down in
Saturday's
spring game.
Following the
game, in
which the
White team
beat the Blue
team 14-7,
Kansas coach
Terry Allen
said that
Rogers had one of the best spring workouts of any Jayhawk.
Photo by Brad
Dreiee
/KANSAN
White wins spring game
By Allan Davis sports@kansan.com Kansan sportwriter
The Blue team's offense played beat the clock twice during Kansas' annual intrasquad spring game Saturday at Memorial Stadium — once at the end of each half.
It was successful the first time when fullback Mitchell Scott grabbed a Dylen Smith pass for a 4-yard touchdown with 40 seconds remaining, giving the Blue team a 7-0 lead at halftime.
The second time wasn't.
Trailing the White team 14-7, the Blue came up short with 1:14 left when running back Reggie Duncan was stopped short of a first down on fourth-and-one at the White 20-yard line, helping the White team to escape with the 14-7 victory.
Coach Terry Allen said that he was satisfied with the way the two teams played and that he knew the offenses would struggle because of the nature of the game.
"It was actually a productive scrimmage," Allen said. "We thought we got some good things out of it. We didn't get anybody hurt. We made it a game-type situation. The things we talked about in the press conference on Thursday bore themselves out, and that's how it happened. We wrote our own script, and it came out just fine."
Sophomore linebacker Andrew LeClair, right, attempts to stop junior running back David Winbush during Saturday's spring game at Memorial Stadium. Photo by Brad Dreier./KANSAN
White halfback David Winbush scored the winning touchdown with 8:43 left in the
See SPRING on page 5B
game, taking a shovel pass from quarterback Zach Dyer 48 yards for the score. Winbush dodged a pair of would-be tacklers as he broke into the secondary, he then picked up a block from
wide receiver Kevin Toles and sprinted to the end zone. After the successful extra-point attempt, the White team led 14-7.
Tracksters prep for Relays with weekend meet
By Sarah Warren
Kansan sportswriter
The team picked Shirley not because he's a meteorology major, but in hopes that the weather at the meet would emulate that of Shirley's native Jamaica.
Jumping Jayhawk freshman Benaud Shirley spent the weekend playing weatherman and student athlete.
"We pick different people to be in charge of the weather for each meet and this week Benaud was in charge," freshman Shelton Ervin said. "So we were hoping for hot weather."
With temperatures in the 70s Friday and Saturday in Columbia, Mo., the weather proved pleasant enough for Shirley and the 'Hawks who competed at the Tom Botts Invitational. The team claimed six first-place finishes in the meet, in which no team scores were kept.
"I think it was a really good lead up to the Kansas Relays this weekend," said Theo Hamilton, horizontal jumps and sprints coach. "I think we competed really well."
On the track, Kansas athletes went one, two, three in two races. Junior Sherre-Khan Blackmon, senior Amanda Reves and junior Donetta Pickens swept the 400-meter dash, clocking 56.59, 57.49 and 59.06.
"Sherre-Khan Blackmon is probably one of the best women athletes we have," Hamilton said. "In fact, I think she ran her fastest time this year, and I know Amanda Reves ran the fastest time she ran all year. I'm hoping that this will mean that we'll have some good relays next week."
Meanwhile, freshman Anson Jackson, junior Andy Morris and sophomore Dorian Jordan took the top three spots in the 110-meter hurdles with times of 14.69, 14.90 and 15.08. Also on the track, sophomore Jennie Wonder won the 100-meter hurdles and placed third in the 400-meter race.
In the field, junior pole vaulters Andrea Branson and Greg Steele won their events, while the other Kansas vaulters, junior Ashley Pyle and freshman Vadim Gvozdetskiy, finished second. Meanwhile, sophomore Andrea Bulat won the javelin with a launch of 146-feet-11, and senior Chris Dunback took third in the hammer with a heave of 187-04.
"I came out of high school jumping 50 feet, but I jumped about 46 here," Shirley said. "I'm injured right now, my left hamstring is giving me some problems from the indoor Big 12."
But Shirley said both his injury and the lack of competition at this small meet was no excuse for his performance.
"I did horrible," Shirley said. "The jumping wasn't that competitive, but the Relays, though, are going to be competitive."
The Kansas Relays begin Wednesday with the decathlon and heptathlon and run through Saturday night, with performances expected from more than 3,000 high school, collegiate and elite athletes.
Track notes:
- Five Jayhawks competed this weekend in Walnut, Calif., at the Mt. Sac Relays. Senior Andy Tate qualified for the NCAA outdoor meet when he placed third in the 3,000-meter steepelech with a time of 8:52.26, and senior Kevin McGinn ran a 3:54.04 in the 1,500-meter run, placing sixth.
The Kansas rowing team pulls ahead of Texas and the wins one of its six races against the Longhorns yesterday. Kansas lost only one race in defeating Texas after it retained the Kansas Cup after sweeping all races against Kansas
State on Saturday. The Jayhawks claimed a quasi-conference championship by beating both teams, who are the only Bia 12 rowing schools. The races were held on the Kansas River near Burcham Park. Photo by J.M. Dailey/KANSAN
Rowers sweep Big 12 by delivering losses to K-State, Texas
Jayhawks dominate all other challengers in Big 12 Conference
By Shawn Linenberger
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
The Big 12 Conference has no official rowing championship, but Kansas' performances this weekend on the Kansas
The Jayhawks defeated Kansas State 19-0 Saturday, winning their second consecutive Kansas Cup. Yesterday, Kansas won five out of six events against Texas, claiming the match. K-State and Texas are the only Big 12 schools besides Kansas that field varsity rowing teams.
River near Burcham Park indicated who would have been crowned.
Despite strong headwinds Saturday, Kansas swept K-State Saturday in five events.
In the first varsity eight race, Kansas
"I didn't notice any problems. It went smoothly."
Risa Petty
finished almost 4 seconds faster than K-State with a time of 7 minutes, 28.7 seconds. The Wildcats finished at 7:32.2
senior rower
The Jayhawks didn't have their normal first varsity lineup Saturday. Senior Keesha Cravens did not participate Saturday because she had orientation at the KU Medical Center. Sophomore Dana Parsons filled the vacancy, and senior Risa Petty said the transition went well.
"I didn't notice any problems." Petty said. "It went smoothly."
The Jayhawks' points accumulated according to races. The first varsity eight race was worth eight points, while the second varsity and first novice races were worth five each. The novice four was worth one point. The varsity four race did not count toward scoring.
"This is special." Petty said. "It doesn't matter what sport, it's always special to beat K-State."
Petty was excited about the win against the in-state rival.
Kansas coach Rob Catloth was confident the Jayhawks would win, but not by such a commanding margin.
"I was very pleased," Catloth said.
"Generally it comes down to the last race, but this year we swept all the races."
See JAYHAWKS on page 3B