THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2012
TENNIS
PAGE 7B
Kansas faces long odds in Big 12 tourney
CORBIN MIHELIC
cmihelic@kansan.com
After a promising 7-0 start to the season, the Kansas women's tennis team finished conference dual play winless.
The Jayhawks finished 0-9 against Big 12 teams in 2012, after their most recent loss in the season finale to Kansas State, 6-1, Saturday in Manhattan.
"Any loss is tough regardless of who it is," coach Amy Hall-Holt said. "We want to beat everybody possible and that's the way we go in. We don't try to have added pressure because it's Missouri or K-State or anything."
Kansas dropped all three doubles matches with the same score, 8-5. One of the losses was to the Wildcat duo of Petra Niedermayerova and Karla Bonacic. Junior Monica Pezzotti and sophomore Dylan Windom's 8-5 loss to the nation's No. 78-ranked doubles team was their fourth in conference play.
The lone Jayhawk who earned a singles victory on Saturday was freshman Maria Belen Ludueña. Ludueña, a native of Curico, Chile, defeated Kansas State's Ana Gomez Aleman, 6-2 and 6-3.
Sophomore Paulina Los had the most competitive loss for
Kansas at No. 2 singles, a 6-1, 3-6 defeat at the hands of Bonacic, the nation's No. 101-ranked singles player. Niedermayerova is also ranked No. 27 in singles for Kansas State.
"We think about it a lot because we want to win and sometimes I feel like it just stops us," Los said.
"We really want to win and we try really hard, but sometimes it just doesn't work. I think we just need to relax and try our best."
Kansas, which ended its regular season on Saturday, will now travel to College Station, Texas for the Big 12 Championships. Play for that event is scheduled to run from April 26 to 29, but the tournament format is single-elimination.
The last time the Jayhawks won a match at the Big 12 Championships was in 2008, when they defeated Iowa State before being blanked by Colorado in the second round.
"After the season is over, we need to get more confidence in the team," Pezzotti said. "We need to build our confidence and work on it."
Edited by Pat Strathman
Sophomore Claire Dreyer returns a volley during doubles action against Oklahoma March 9 at the Jayhawk Tennis Center. Dreyer and her teammate, junior Victoria Khanevskaya. Dreyer and Khanevskaya were defeated 8-4.
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Texas Rangers win in extra innings against Detroit Tigers
MLB
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DETROIT Rangers — Alberto Gonzalez squared to bunt, hoping to drive in the go-ahead run on a squeeze play. The ball hit his bat and glanced off his right leg before bouncing off the ground and out toward the pitcher.
Then the Texas Rangers caught a break.
"As soon as he hit the ball and saw the ball was fair, he didn't stop himself," Gonzalez's translator said. "He was trying to go to first base. He knew the job was done."
Instead of being called a foul ball, Gonzalez's bunt went for an RBI infield single in the 11th inning, lifting the Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers. Gonzalez admitted after the game the ball hit him around the knee — and a replay confirmed that — but the play stood.
it. That's part of the game.
The bases were loaded with nobody out when Gonzalez bunted. Right-hander Thad Weber (0-1), who was making his major league debut, had no play at the plate on runner Nelson Cruz. Weber froze with the ball, and first baseman Miguel Cabrera struggled to get back to the bag in time. Everybody was safe, and Texas took the lead.
Detroit manager Jim Leyland came out to argue, but to no avail.
Plate umpire Tim Welke had a chance to watch the replay afterward and said the ball did in fact hit Gonzalez, but his crew hadn't seen that initially.
"I saw just what it did: The ball came down and hit him on the back knee. Clearly. Clearly. That's not even a question," Leyland said. "The ball clearly hit him, and four guys happened to miss
"We did not see the ball hit anybody on the field," Welke said. "We called what we saw."
Gonzalez appeared to be in the batter's box still when the ball hit him, meaning it would have almost certainly been ruled a foul ball if an umpire had seen the contact.
Robbie Ross (3-0) pitched a scoreless 10th for Texas, and Joe Nathan finished for his fourth save.
Josh Hamilton homered for the Rangers.
The Tigers led 2-1 in the eighth — with rookie starter Drew Smlyh in line for his first career win. But Texas tied it when Elvis Andrus
drew a walk, went to second on a wild pitch and took third when catcher Alex Avila's throw to second went into the outfield for an error.
Hamilton hit a sacrifice fly to even the score.
Weber, who was called up from the minors in between games of Saturday's doubleheader, made his major league debut in the 11th. He walked Cruz and allowed singles to Mike Napoli and Yorvit Torrealba, setting up Gonzalez's at-bat with the bases loaded.
"Bases loaded, nobody out and the right person in the batter's box. The guy who was in the batter's box is one of the guys I do my fundamental stuff with," Texas manager Ron Washington said. "I had warned him that if this situation came up, look for the squeeze on the first pitch."
Weber then got out of the inning without any further damage by getting pinch-hitter Mitch Moreland to hit into a double play and Ian Kinsler to ground out.
Smyly pitched six innings, allowing a run and five hits with two walks and seven strikeouts, but he had to settle for his third straight no-decision. He's allowed only two earned runs in 16 innings on the season.
Texas starter Colby Lewis allowed two runs and seven hits in seven innings.
Hamilton gave Texas a 1-0 lead in the first with his seventh homer of the year, and Michael Young followed with a single to extend his hitting streak to 10 games. But Smily settled in nicely after that.
Detroit tied it in the third when Ramon Santiago hit a leadoff triple and eventually scored on a two-out wild pitch.
In the sixth, Hamilton hit a single and went to second on a groundout. He then took third when — after one of Smyly's
pitches — catcher Alex Avila's throw went over the southpaw for an error.
Smyly recovered, striking out Cruz and retiring Napoli on a flyball to end the threat.
Brennan Boesch hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the sixth, but Detroit couldn't hold on.
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