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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2014
PAGE 11
BASEBALL
GEORGE MULLINIX/KANSAN
Junior shortstop Justin Protacio lays down a bunt to advance the runner to second base. Protacio is batting .283 with 13 RBIs.
Kansas looks to win final series in Big 12 play
AMIE JUST
sports@kansan.com
The Kansas Jayhawks will host West Virginia this weekend for their final Big 12 series of the season. The Mountaineers are 9-8 in the Big 12, which is fourth in the conference behind Kansas. West Virginia has won nine out of their last 10 games, including series victories against Texas, Kansas State and Oklahoma.
THE JAYHAWKS WILL WIN IF...
THE JAYHAWKS WILL WIN !
They stay hot in Big 12 play. All season, Kansas was hovering around .500 in conference play until the last few series. The Jayhawks have swept their previous two conference match-ups against Baylor and Texas Tech. Kansas is now 12-9 in conference play
and ranks third in the Big 12. Kansas' recent strong play has increased their RP1 to 36th in the nation, giving them a strong chance to make the NCAA tournament.
THE JAYHAWKS WILL LOSE IF...
West Virginia scores more than four runs. Since mid-April, West Virginia has not lost a single game in which they scored four runs. In their winning games, they have scored 89 runs since April 15th. West Virginia leads the Big 12 with a .294 batting average, while junior outfielder Bobby Boyd tops the charts with a .376 batting average. They have three other hitters in the top five of the conference as well.
PLAYER TO WATCH...
Senior right hander Jordan
Piché has been on a tear on the mound recently. In his last two starts, the senior has gone all nine innings and picked up the win. Against Baylor, Piché was the winning pitcher. He threw a complete game shutout, while giving up just one hit. Piché started the season as the closer, but struggled and lost his role to freshman right-hander Stephen Villines. When junior left-hander Wes Benjamin was injured, coach Ritch Price was in need of a Friday night starter. Piché struggled in his first three starts, allowing 17 runs. If Piché can go out on Friday night and pitch like he has as of late, Kansas will be in a good position to start the series off with a win.
Edited by Julie Etzler and Blair Sheade
CLUB SPORTS
Kansas ultimate frisbee team secures national spot
AMIE JUST sports@kansan.com
"We expected to peak in May," said senior captain Clare Frantz. "We knew this team had so much potential, but it was going to take a lot of dedication and hard work to fulfill that potential. It didn't take long for us to realize that we had what it takes."
The Bettys did just that. Over the season, they played in 32 games with a 20-10 record. The Bettys only lost one match to Texas in the South Central D-1 College Women's Regionals.
It's been 15 years since the KU women's Ultimate Frisbee队 had clinched a spot at nationals. This season, the Bettys were hungry to advance.
"We knew going into
regionals that we were going to face teams we had played before," said senior Jordan Warren. "We knew we needed to use our knowledge of how these teams played to secure wins. For the big games, we needed to save ourselves and focus on adapting to the level of play from our opponents. We had to communicate with our teammates on the field and listen to our coach on the sideline."
The Bettys won six of its seven games at regionals, defeating Texas State (13-7), Texas' B Team (13-1), Colorado State (13-7), Washington University (13-7), Colorado (12-8) and Colorado College (11-10). The Bettys only lost one match to Texas (29-10) in the South Central D-1 College Women's Regionals.
With the success at the end of the season, the Bettys achieved their goal and earned their spot in the national tournament. The three teams who earned bids to nationals from their region were Kansas, Colorado College and Colorado.
"Every one of our players has put in the effort and shown the dedication to get to this point and we are finally here, ready to see our hard work pay off", said Frantz.
This year's USA Ultimate D-1 College Championships are held in Mason, Ohio, from May 23-26. As of this time, the seedings for play have not been released, but the Bettys have played 11 games against national qualifying teams.
Edited by Alec Weaver
MLB
Middlebrooks, Red Sox rally past Reds 4-3
BOSTON — Will Middlebrooks hit an RBI single with the bases loaded, capping a two-run rally in the eighth inning that sent the Boston Red Sox over the Cincinnati Reds 4-3 Wednesday night for a sweep of the two-game interleague series.
David Ortiz and Mike Napoli also drove in runs for the Red Sox, who reached .500 for the first time since the fourth game of the season.
Trailing 3-2 in the eighth, the Red Sox scored against two relievers.
Napoli drew a one-out walk from Manny Parra, J.J. Hoover (1-4) pinch-hit pinch-joint Gomes
Koji Uehara struck out the final three hatters for his eighth save.
and A.J. Pierzynski's ground-rule double tied it at 3. Jackie Bradley Jr. was intentionally walked before Middlebrooks sent a hard grounder up the middle.
Raji Udhar striker three batters for his eighth save. Cincinnati starter Mike Leake pitched seven innings and was in line for the win before Boston rallied. He gave up two runs on eight hits, walking two and striking out four.
Boston's Jake Peavy allowed three or fewer runs for the sixth time in seven starts, giving up three runs on four hits with four walks and five strikeouts.
The Reds took a 3-2 lead in the seventh when Roger Bernadina bounced a slow groundout to second against reliever Chris Capuano with the bases loaded.
Bond tied it with a pair of runs in the sixth on a run-scoring single by Ortiz and RBI double by Napoli. It could have been worse for Leake, but Grady Sizemore bounced to second with runners on second and third and, after an intentional walk, Bradley Jr. hit an inning-grounding.
Schumaker, who came off the 15-day disabled list on Saturday after being sidelined since spring training with a dislocated left shoulder, homered in the third after left fielder Chris Heisey had a leadoff double.
The teams bounced into a combined five double plays, with the Red Sox turning three.
Associated Press