Section B
Going, going, gone
The Cardinals hit three consecutive home runs yesterday against the Cubs — without Mark McGuire.
The University Daily Kansan
Sports
Inside: The softball team has four games in three days — but at least it's at home.
SEE PAGE 6B
FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 2000
Inside: Kansas senior golfer Ryan Vermeer was named Golf World's collegiate player of the week.
SEE PAGE 2B
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
SWINGING BACK INTO THE PICTURE
Outtielder Jesse Gremminger, junior, rounds a base in a game earlier this week. The Jayhawks look to defeat the Nebraska Cornhuskers, 19-11 overall and 7-8 in the Big 12 Conference, in a three-game series this weekend. Photo by Jay Sheperd/KANSAN
'Hawks to battle Husker hurlers
By Amanda Kaschube sports@kansan.com Kansan.sportswriter
Most Big 12 baseball teams didn't panic about playing the 'Hawks last season. Instead, they all crushed Kansas on the field by sizable margins.
in fact, Kansas only won four conference games and was swept in eight of 10 Big 12 series.
But that's all changed this season. The Jayhawks are 19-15 overall, and with their 6-9 conference record, they have beaten each conference foe at least once, including then No. 4 Texas and Texas A&M, which made a College World Series appearance last season.
And no one seems more pleasantly surprised than coach Bobby Randall.
"I ne umpires and other coaches have told me that we're the most improved team in the league," he said. "They're surprised as to how far we have come. But I think the surprise has worn off now after we've beaten everyone. No one expects to have a cake walk with us — it's always a battle."
The 'Hawks may have won their biggest battle Tuesday, when they beat in-state rival Wichita State 10-5. The win boosted Kansas' confidence, and Randall said he now knows his team can compete with the best of them.
"The way we are playing, we feel like we're a good team," he said. "The guys are playing a lot more aggressive. I can tell the difference in the confidence level. The players are beaming. Just look at the duesout."
Perhaps the players still will have smiles on their faces after they take on Nebraska, 19-11 overall and 7-8 in the Big 12, this weekend in Lincoln, Neb.
rme 'Huskers whipped Kansas last season, winning all three games by 26 total runs, and they still boast one of the premier pitching staffs in the conference with a team ERA of 2.98.
But this won't be the first time Kansas' batters have faced dominant pitchers. On Tuesday night, Kansas teed off against Shocker pitcher Brandon Sloan for six runs in three innings. Sloan was drafted last year but returned for his senior year.
Getting the same offensive returns against the "Husker hurlers might be difficult. Shane Komine, who has fanned 70 batters and has a 2.26 ERA this season, may trip up a few Kansas batters.
But sophomore Ryan Klocksien isn't ready to concede yet.
"We're not intimidated by their pitchers," said the slugger, who has a career high 10-game hitting streak. "If I stick with the game plan and practice harder than the pitchers, most of the time I'll win."
And the impact of the Kansas pitchers might be just as significant as that of the Huskers.
With Rusty Philbrick (2-3) on the mound tonight, Brandon O'Neal (1-1) tomorrow and Pete Smart (6-5) on Sunday, the 'Hawks might shut down the 'Huskers' bats, which have knocked an average of 10 hits each game.
Even with Kansas' earlier defeats of topranked foes, Randall is quick to point out the obvious.
"It's going to be a tough series to win," he said. "We don't have any false expectations. We've been playing well, but we have our work cut out for us."
Kansas will play at 6:30 tonight at Buck Beltzer Stadium, at 2 p.m. tomorrow and at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Polls don't worry unranked rowers, coach says
Kansan sportswriter
By Shawn Linenberger
The Kansas rowing team will enter the Knecht Cup tomorrow near Camden, N.J., for the first time ever. And for the first time this year, they will enter a race unranked.
The Jayhawks fell from their No. 23 perch in the US Rowing/Collegiate Rowing Coaches Poll. Kansas failed to grab even one vote in the poll that decides who advances to the NCAA Championships, which will be in Camden as well.
Kansas' first varsity eight boat came in eight seconds behind then No. 16 Iowa Saturday, but also defeated Tennessee the same day — the 'Hawk $ ^ { k } $
finished the second race almost 31 seconds faster (7 minutes, 6.3 seconds). Iowa actually dropped to No.17 after defeating Kansas and Kansas State last weekend.
The new poll doesn't bother Kansas coach Rob Catloth, who said the Jayhawks simply had to defeat ranked teams later in the year.
"No one in our region is involved in the voting," Catloth said about the lack of Midwestern coaches voting in the poll. "I'm not really worried about it. Even if we would have beat Iowa, we probably wouldn't have moved up very much."
Kansas will get chances tomorrow and Sunday at knocking off ranked teams. The Jayhawks will race No. 24
Massachusetts in the Knecht Cup tomorrow and Massachusetts and Villanova in duals on Sunday. Other teams competing in tomorrow's Knecht Cup on the Copper River include Connecticut, Duquesne, Drexel, Fairfield, Manhattan, Rhode Island and St. Joseph's (Philadelphia). Catloth said Massachusetts,
Catloth said Massachusetts,
Villanova and Temple would be
Kansas' stiffest competition.
A win against Massachusetts probably wouldn't help Kansas reclaim a spot in the poll, even though UMass sits in the middle of an area full of coaches voting in the poll.
"In the poll, if you beat someone higher than you, they keep moving down, but you stay in the same spot," said assistant coach Heather Galvin.
The Jayhawks' main focus this weekend will be on technique. Problems such as not having a strong pullthrough or quick oar motion through the water hindered Kansas in Saturday's loss to Iowa.
Catloth said he was pleased with the team's improvements in practice.
"It been going very well," he said. "They're doing what I ask. I'm visually satisfied."
Track athletes head to Texas for invitational
By Sarah Warren
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Part of the Kansas track team will land in the Lone Star State today for the Texas Relays, while the rest will go to Emporia on Saturday for the Emporia State Relaws.
"They have qualifying standards for Texas," said Candace Mason, assistant sprints and hurdles coach. "And if you don't go to Texas, you go to Emporia."
Thrower Chris Dunback knows this all too well. The senior has missed qualifying for the big meet twice. He qualified the weekend before the relays last season but was unable to get a plane ticket to Austin.
"It's great to finally qualify for the big meet." Dunback said.
Dunback's qualifying event, the hammer throw, has changed so much in the past four years that mastering the technique makes it more difficult than other his other events.
"The level of the event has increased so drastically that when I was a freshman — the place I got in the Big 12 meet — that mark wouldn't even have made it into the finals last year," Dunback said. "It always seems that everyone is starting at a harder level than I started at."
This year, however, Dunback qualified for the meet along with 13 other Kansas athletes. Mason said the meet wouldn't be a breeze for any of them. There are more than 5,000 entrants in the competition, which headlines Olympic sprinters Maurice Greene, Jon Drummond, Ato Bolden and Donovan Bailey in the non-collegiate division.
Mason said the meet probably was more competitive than the Big 12 meet.
"Texas is a huge invitational," Mason said. "It's a very prestigious meet. All the schools bring their studs."
The level of competition will be helpful for the Kansas athletes who sometimes face sub-pair competition in the conference meet. Mason said.
She said the meet would benefit athletes such as pole vaulter Andrea Branson by providing competition against people who jump at her height.
"She needs competition like this to prepare for the NCAAs," Mason said.
The Emporia State meet won't be a piece of cake, either. Twelve teams are to hit the track including Adams, Fort Hays and Kansas State.
Mason said Emporia would be a good meet at which to improve times.
"It'll be good for walk-ons and freshmen to get the experience at Emporia," she said.
Soccer team to get kick out of playing at home
By Chris Wristen
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas soccer team hasn't needed home-field advantage to win this spring
The game is the only home game the Jayhawks will play this spring. Their season concludes next weekend with a tournament at St. Louis University.
-- but it's going to get just that tomorrow when the Jayhawks play Central Missouri State at 11 a.m. at SuperTarget Field.
In addition to being the lone home game on the schedule, it also marks the home debut for Kansas sophomore goalkeeper Elizabeth Hanby. After playing for the Kansas women's club team for the past two years, Hanby joined the varsity squad after both goalkeepers on the roster graduated. She said she had noticed immediate improvement in her game because of goalkeeper coach Kelly Miller.
"He's a really good coach." Hanby said. "I'd never had any real instruction before, and he's been teaching me a lot. I love it."
Hanby has given up just seven goals in six games with the Jayhawks, including two shutouts last weekend. Coach
Mark Francis said that was because of changes in the defensive formation.
"We're playing different in the back," Francis said. "We're not playing with a sweeper any more. We're playing with a flat back formation. It's more like zonal defending."
"I told them we can sit back and pat ourselves on the back, or we can keep getting better," Francis said. "On Saturday I just want to make sure we don't go back a step. We need to keep going forward."
He said the defense was designed to disrupt opponents and force errant passes, which has worked, translating into 21 Kansas goals in six games.
Francis also said the game should be a nice change of pace for his players because they have had to play all of their games on the road. In addition, they have been playing three games a weekend and will have just one to focus on this weekend.
Francis said he hoped his team would maintain the same intensity level it played with last weekend.
"We've got one game and home-field advantage," Hanby said. "I think it'll be really nice."
Hanby agreed
Rookie shuts down Blue Jays; Royals split series
The Associated Press
TORONTO — Rookie starter Chad Durbin picked near-perfect day to show off to his family.
Durbin's family drove all the way from Warsaw, Ind., to see him make his major league debut as a starter. He allowed just one hit in six innings, and Kansas City scored all nine of its runs in the sixth inning as the Royals beat the Toronto Blue Jays 9-3 yesterday.
"I got three game balls, and I gave two of them to my family," said Durbin, whose mother Debra, stepfather Max and 16-year-old sister Stephanie made the trek.
"They came up yesterday, drove all night, got in at three, slept till 11, got up and watched the game, and now they're headed back out." Durbin said.
Durbin hadn't seen his family since December. Durbin said his sister was especially pleased.
"She was glad to get the day off of school for once, and she'll do the majority of the driving back." Durbin said. "I'm glad they were here."
Durbin (1-0) retired the side in the first, second, fourth and fifth innings. The 22-year-old right-hander, making just his second major league appearance, walked one and struck out two
"It was just throwing to the glove —
playing catch, "Durin said. "If you think about the hitter, you get scared. It was a blast. Hopefully, in five days I can duplicate it."
Darrin Fletcher's first-pitch homer leading off the bottom of the third was thrown in long hit off.
Forrest Larson in the
Durbin. In his major
league debut at
Detroit last Sept. 26,
Durbin allowed one
hit in 2 1/3 scoreless
innings.
"We knew he was a special pitcher, but
for him to come out in his first major league start and pitch like he did was just special," Kansas City's Mike Sweeney said.
He made the jump from Double-A Wichita, where he was 8-10 with a 4.64 ERA last season.
"Sometimes you see a guy make his debut, and he's going to make mistakes." Fuller said. "But he was making all of his pitches to the outside of the plate. He was quality the whole time."
Toronto's Brad Fullmer, who hit a two-run homer off reliever Brad Rigby in the ninth, was impressed with Durbin's poise.
Toronto starter Kelvim Escobar (0-1)
gave up three runs on seven hits in 5 1-3
innings.
Sweeney singled home two runs, Joe Randa had two RBI, and Johnny Damon and Carlos Febles one each. The Royals also scored on catcher Darrin Fletcher's throwing error to third, first baseman Carlos Delgado's bases-loaded high throw to the plate and right fielder Raul Mondesi's fielding error.
The Royals, who split the four-game series with Toronto, sent 13 men to the plate in the sixth.
"My location wasn't so good." Escobar said.
Twenty three of Escobar's 44 pitches in the first two innings were balls.
Escobar threw 68 pitches in the first three innings.
The Blue Jays finished with five hits.
Baseball notes:
Rigby pitched three innings for his first major league save.
The Royals have activated shortstop Luis Ordaz and sent infielder Ray Holbert to Triple-A Omaha, Ordaz was claimed off walkers from the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday. When Ordaz reached the majors last season, he became the 100th Venezuelan to play in the big leagues.
Damon broke an 0-for-17 slump with an RBI single in the sixth.
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