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MONDAY, MARCH 26, 2012
GOLF
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Women's golf team struggles with short game in Tucson
The Kansas women's golf team finished 14th with a total team score of 915 at the Mountain View Invitational Saturday in Tucson, Ariz., but they had difficulties around the green.
TREVOR GRAFF
tgraff@kansan.com
Senior Katy Nugent led the Jayhawks for the second-straight week with an eight-over total of 224, tying her for 37th, five strokes out of the top 20.
Sophomore Thanuttra Boonrakasat cut five strokes from her total in the final round, climbing 14 spots on the leader board.
"Our ball striking was pretty
good, but it was our short games that let us down overall," said coach Erin O'Neil in press release.
Nugent relied on her short game on a weekend when short game play plagued the Jayhawks; Mountain View Golf Course proved tough around the greens.
"I am disappointed that we didn't play better at this tournament," O'Neil said. "It was a very scorable course, and we didn't make many birdies to offset our bad holes."
Boonraksasat shot a 77 and 79 in her first two rounds and improved to a 74 in the final round, moving from 72nd to 58th on the leader board. Junior Audrey Yowell tied
Kansas has two weeks off before traveling to the Knights and Pirates Invitational from April 9 to 10 in Melbourne, Fla.
for 66th with a 232 while freshman Michelle woods tied for 68th with a 233. Sophomore Meghan Potee tied for 75th with a 235 and freshman Gabriella DiMarco rounded out the lineup, tying for 79th with a 237.
"We will continue to focus on getting better around the greens in practice this week, and hopefully, we can turn things around to finish the season on a positive note," O'Neil said.
Edited by Taylor Lewis
MEN'S GOLF
Men's golf drops to 8th place in Desert Shootout tourney
TREVOR GRAFF
tgraff@kansan.com
Kansas men's golfer Chris Gilbert tied for ninth with a three-round total score of 211 at the Desert Shootout in Goodyear, Ariz. Saturday.
The Jayhawks finished in eighth place with a 54-hole team score of 860 in the 15-team field that included Wichita State, Brigham Young, Denver and Kansas State. Gilbert finished in the top ten for the fourth time in his career.
"I'd definitely happy with Chris' play this week," said Kansas coach Kit Grove. "He's kind of rounding back into form. Hopefully he can build off this week going into Charlotte next week."
The Jayhawks' performance Saturday was the best of the tournament. The team's highest individual round was a one-over par
73. Senior Doug Quinones shot a 71 while juniors Paul Harris and Alex Gutesha shot a 73. Freshman Dylan McClure added an evenpar 72 to cap Saturday's solid performance.
"Having a high score of 73 is definitely a step in the right direction," Grove said. "It's disappointing to end up in eighth when you're only four shots out of fourth, but we'll
in the team's total. Auer finished the event one-under with a total score of 215.
"It's disappointing to end up in eighth when you're only four shots out of fourth, but we'll take all of the positives away from this week."
"David's going through a couple of grip changes and some different things," Grove said. "As a fresh-
take all of the positives away from this week. All in all, it was a much more positive week."
The Jayhawk's second-best individual finish came from freshman David Auer, who was competing as an individual and didn't count
KIT GROVE Coach
man, going out and shooting under par for the week is all you can ask for. He's making a great play to get into our starting lineup."
el to the Irish Creek Collegiate in Charlotte, N.C. next Saturday.
T he
Jayhawks trav-
Edited by Pat Strathman
BASEBALL
Jayhawks get swept in first Big 12 series
MAX LUSH
MAX LUSH
mlush@kansan.com
ASHLEIGH LEE/KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Sophomore right fielder Tucker Tharp gets to the base right before his opponent could get him out during game one against North Dakota Tuesday, March 6 in Lawrence.
The Kansas baseball team had a tough weekend.
But the Jayhawks clawed their way tying the game in the seventh inning at 6-6 with junior designated hitter Alex DeLeon's first homer of the year.
Then it all fell apart.
the taj Hawks were losing 6-1 Sunday against Baylor in Waco, Texas after losing the first two games of the series. After three innings, the offense had failed to score an earned run off of Baylor pitchers.
Junior relief pitcher Tanner Poppe (0-3, 6.28 ERA) came on in the eighth inning to preserve the tie. He walked the leadoff man. Baylor moved the runner to second on a sacrifice bunt. Poppe hit the next batter, his fourth of the season in 14.1 innings of work.
Following a strikeout, Baylor first baseman Max Muncy came to the plate. He was already 3-for-4 on the afternoon with two runs scored.
Muncy took a 2-1 pitch and drilled it down the right field line to drive in two runs. The game was called before 5 p.m., due to travel curfews, with a final score of 8-6.
"I was proud of him," coach Ritch Price said. "He was so sick yesterday, we left him in the hotel for the game. He went out there
The Baylor Bears swept Kansas in the weekend's three-game series. The Jayhawks fell to 10-13 on the season and 0-3 in Big 12 play.
Kansas' starting pitcher, freshman Wes Benjamin (1-2, 4.30), battled the flu all weekend long, but still pitched his way through 4.2 innings. He allowed six runs on nine hits and two walks.
and grinded and got us to the fifth innning."
Senior third baseman Zac Elgie contributed a rare clutch hit for the Jayhawks this season in the fifth inning with the bases loaded, a two-run single to pull within one run of Baylor.
The Jayhawks loaded the bases three times in the game, but only converted those to runs on Elgier's single. Elgie said that Kansas has set itself up well all season, but they have to take advantage of scoring opportunities. Kansas stranded nine runners Sunday.
"We have to stay with our approach and try not to do too much," Elgie said. "We're playing too tight. We have to loosen up."
Baylor, meanwhile, executed plays perfectly early in the game. The Bears hit a sacrifice fly in each of the first two innings. They also laid down a perfect squeeze bunt to advance a runner to second base in the second inning. That runner later scored on one of the sacrifice flies.
The victory gave the Bears
Price said Kansas played a lot of the games on the road in the non-conference part of the season to prepare themselves for Big 12 teams like Baylor. But with such a young team, it will likely be a struggle.
their 21st series sweep in Big 12 play since joining the conference. When the Bears have won the first two games of a series, they have only failed to win the third game three times.
"We've got a long ways to go until we can be competitive in this league," Price said.
Elgie said that the team would need to focus on the little things and build some confidence.
"We're playing really good teams in this conference," Elgie said. "We just need one or two games to push us over the top."
Kansas will travel to Springfield, Mo., Tuesday to play Missouri State.
Edited by Ian Cummings
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