THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2012
SOFTBALL
Kansas eager for postseason chance
PAGE 5B
CLAIRF HOWARD/KANSAN
Freshman pitcher, Alicia Pile, from Royse City, Texas, winds up a pitch for her UMKC opponent during the Jayhawk's game against the Kangaroos at Arrocha Ballpark on Wednesday afternoon. The Kansas Jayhawks have never lost to the UMKC Kangaroo at home.
ALEC TILSON
atilson@kansan.com
The Kansas softball team enters its final series of conference play this weekend feeling like it has nothing to lose. Facing a ranked team with an elite RPI, Kansas believes it really can't hurt its already legitimate case for reaching postseason play.
But it could certainly better its chances.
"We're in a good spot," coach Megan Smith said. "Luckily for us, we have one team left to play and they're in the top 10 in the RPI, so that will only help us. It will not hurt us."
It's a familiar position for Kansas' upperclassmen, who played on last year's team that the selection committee left out of the tournament. Senior outfielder and team-captain Liz Kocon said this time it feels different.
Kansas (31-17, 6-14) face No. 16 Texas A&M (33-16, 13-8) in College Station, Texas, in a threegame series before ending the regular season with an off-week next weekend.
Texas A&M currently ranks ninth in the RPI poll, while Kansas ranks 42nd. A victory, or more, could ensure an NCAA bid for Kansas, which received votes in the ESPN.com/USA softball poll this week.
"I think in previous years we kind of choked under this pressure," Kocon said. "This year we're reacting a little better to it. We're handling the pressure better."
Kocon leads a senior class that ended its final appearance in Arrocha Ballpark with a 5-4 victory over then-No. 24 Texas Tech last weekend.
This weekend against Texas A&M, Kansas faces a pitcher in Mel Dumezich (24-11), whose 232 innings pitched, leads the Big 12 by more than 36 innings. She ranks in the top five in the league in wins, strikeouts (261), appearances (41), shutouts (11), and complete games (36).
On top of her 2.14 ERA, Dumiezich also leads the Aggies with 12 home runs and 38 RBIs.
Smith said Kansas has plenty of tape on Dumezich — thanks, in part, to the Longhorn Network televising the Texas versus Texas A&M matchup earlier this season — and feels it can make offensive adjustments as it did last weekend against Texas Tech.
"We've got a lot of info on her" Smith said. "We've got a great plan, it's just a matter of executing. We don't really have a lot of information on their other pitchers because they don't really throw."
Texas A&M ranks fifth in the conference in hitting with a .285 team batting average, two spots behind Kansas'. 295 average.
Whatever happens this weekend, Kansas won't know its fate until the NCAA selection committee reveals its choices on May 13. That includes a potentially long week of anticipation.
"It's a little bit weird," junior shortstop Mariah Montgomery said. "It will just be kind of a waiting game. That might be a little scary."
Working against Kansas could be that the Big 12 could conceivably send seven teams to the NCAA tournament ahead of the Jayhawks. Smith said it would simply be out of Kansas hands at that point.
"That's our fear is that they're going to look at the Big 12 and question letting eight of nine teams in," Smith said, "But we're worthy. It just a matter of what the committee thinks."
Record Watch ...
Kansas' current team batting average of.295 ranks as the best in school history since 1985.
Junior outfielder Maggie Hull needs two runs to break the all-time single-season record of 46 at Kansas. She also needs 14 hits to break the single-season record of 78.
Junior Mariah Montgomery's 45RBIs put her in fifth place all-time in a single season. She needs five more to pass Maggie Hull's 2011
second place all-time for appearances by a freshman pitcher.
total of 49 and move into second place. The all-time leader had 61
Freshman Alicia Pille currently ranks third all-time among Kansas
- Edited by Pat Strathman
freshman with 164 strikeouts. Pille needs 22 K's to break the record.
If Fille makes two appearances this weekend, she will move into
OLYMPICS
Organizing chief wants to avoid security trouble
LONDON — London should not be turned into a "city under siege" by the heavy security measures being put in place for the Olympics, London organizing chief Sebastian Coe said Wednesday.
Coe spoke as the British military embarked on operations to test Olympic security, including flights over London by fighter jets and helicopters. Visitors to the Olympic Park encountered lengthy delays at times Wednesday as they went through airport-style security checks.
"We want to make sure these games are safe and secure but at the same time we are not presenting a vision of London that is a city under siege." Coe said inside Olympic Stadium.
About 75,000 spectators are expected at Olympic Park on Saturday for five test events ahead of the July 27-Aug. 12 games.
Typhoon fighter jets from around Britain arrived Wednesday at a Royal Air Force base at Northolt in west London for the test operation, code named Exercise Olympic Guardian. It is the first time that fighter aircraft have been stationed at RAF Northolt since World War II.
The Royal Air Force is also sending Puma transport helicopters and Lynx helicopters carrying teams of snipers trained to intercept aircraft flying without authorization in London's airspace.
"What we will have is a plan that has many levels to it, which will allow us to deal at one end — which is that 9/11-type attack — perhaps down to the lower and the slower type of threat that we may face," said Air Vice-Marshal Stuart Atha, air component commander for Olympics air security. "There is no specific threat and all we are doing is having in place what we would describe as prudent and appropriate measures ... (so) we could react, if required, in a timely and appropriate fashion."
On the ground, British soldiers are also testing missile systems that may be based on buildings and apartment blocks near the Olympic site in east London.
Olympic visitors could also encounter delays just getting into Britain, with a growing furor over recent snaking lines and lengthy delays at Heathrow Airport's immigration desks.
-Associated Press