KANSAN
6, 2009
THE UNIVERSITY OF MARY KANSAN
THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2009
SPORTS
3B
BASEBALL
Bottom half of lineup hits a slump
Weston White/KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Head coach Ritch Price speaks with an umpire after a questionable call on Kansas base runner Nick Faunce after being picked off at second base During an April 4 game against Baylor.
Jayhawks remain confident they can bring back the bats
BY JOSH BOWE
jbowe@kansan.com
The top of a baseball lineup generally gets all the attention but the bottom usually determines how good a team really is.
Case in point: This year's Javahawks.
Kansas has seen the one through five hitters excede expectations in almost every way. Lead by sophomore third baseman Tony Thompson, the one through five hitters have combined for a .347 average and 129 of the Jayhawks 221 RBIs.
Unfortunately, the bottom half hasn't been quite as successful. Sure, the weaker hitters are generally designated to the six, seven, eight and nine spots of the lineup, but coach Ritch Price said he needs more contributions from that part of the order when Kansas travels to Texas Tech this weekend.
"If we can get some help on the tail end of our lineup, wed be really good offensively." Price said. "Right now we've got some holes in seven, eight, nine in our lineup."
It's not as if Price hasn't tried mixing things up. A total of six players have seen their
fair amount of playing time in those last four spots, and every time it seems as if one player is poised to break out, the next few games are a disappointment.
Sophomore
"I've been struggling at the plate lately, I've just been trying to battle through it."
outfielder Jimmy Waters started the season as the designated hitter and left fielder. For a majority of the season he batted in the six spot and performed admirably enough, keeping his average around .270.
But in his last 12 games Waters only had three hits as his playing time had fluctuated.
bat in the lineup if his Jayhawks are going to keep at the winning rate they've been at the last two weeks.
JIMMY WATERS Sophomore outfielder
"He has not gotten it going yet," Price said. "He's late on fastballs, and he's on his backside, and we can't get him in rhythm to get him loaded up to be on time with the fastball and he knows it."
After Tuesday's extra inning victory over Creighton, Kansas is now 8-7 in one-run games
And with the way the bottom of the order has performed, Price acknowledged that those numbers could have been better with a more complete team production, specifically the second game of the Texas A&M series back on March 28th.
Players who have batted sixth or lower in the lineup:
"The one run losses that we had at Texas A&M I mean one of those games we're 0-for-15 from our six through nine spot in our lineup." Price said.
With the top of the order hitting so well, those 0-for-15 games from the bottom of the
| | AVG | HR | RBI | SO |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Zac Elgie | .310 | 1 | 16 | 14 |
| Casey Lytle | .301 | 0 | 14 | 16 |
| Nick Faunce | .264 | 2 | 23 | 23 |
| Jason Brunansky | .247 | 2 | 8 | 26 |
| Preston Land | .229 | 0 | 6 | 37 |
| Jimmy Waters | .224 | 0 | 9 | 17 |
order leave a lot of runs on the bases. It seemed as if freshman first baseman Zac Elgie was ready to account for the bottom order's struggles after last week, which saw him have three consecutive multi-hit games, including his first home run as a college player.
But since then Elgie has gone 1-for-9 with five strikeouts as the bottom order carousel continued.
guy to see better pitches to hit as opposing pitchers will try to work around them. But considering Kansas has played about as well as any other team defensively and on the mound, Price is ready to be patient.
"Yesterday Elgie was the triple and the home run and he was really good," Price said after last Saturday's victory against Oklahoma State. "Then today he got exposed with the slider."
"If I can get some consistency from Elgie and Waters continues to make progress, the last half of the season. I think we can get it going a little bit." Price said.
If the latter half of the order doesn't produce, look for the top
MLB
Edited by Realle Roth
Fan says ejection violated his rights
He didn't want to participate in patriotic song
LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press
NEW YORK — A baseball fan who says he was ejected from Yankee Stadium by police after he left his seat to use the bathroom during the playing of "God Bless America" sued the New York Yankees and the city on Wednesday.
Bradford Campeau-Laurier said in his federal lawsuit his
The lawsuit said the officer did not let him take a step before grabbing his
rights were violated at an Aug. 26 game between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox when he tried to pass a police officer.
"God Bless America," written by Irving Berlin in 1918, was played at big league ballparks throughout the country when baseball resumed after the Sept. 11, terrorist attacks. It was discontinued in some cities the following seasons but remained a fixture at Yankees games, at which security personnel and ushers use chains to block off some exits while it's played
Trufant said the city hadn't seen the lawsuit but planned to review it thoroughly. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and a ruling that the city and the Yankees acted unconstitutionally.
"It's patriotism being imposed on people on a mass scale."
Campeau-Laurion, a director of Web productions for a media company, does not participate in religious services and objects to being required to do so, the lawsuit said. He is proud to be an American but objects to being required to participate in displays of patriotism, it added.
right arm and twisting it behind him. It said two officers marched him down several ramps to the stadium's exit, where he was pushed out as one officer told him to leave the country if he didn't like it.
City lawyer Muriel Goode-
CHRISTOPHER DUNN Associate legal director
Police spokesman Paul J. Browne said the officers, who were being paid by the Yankees to work at the Bronx stadium, ejected Campeau-Laurier, 30, after they "observed a male cursing, using inappropriate language and
acting in a disorderly manner while reeking of alcohol."
He said the officers "decided to eject him rather than subject others to his offensive behavior."
The lawsuit
sawtown said Campeau-Laurion, who lives in Queens, and a friend "enjoyed the game quietly," though there were rowdy young men seated a few rows away. After buying a second beer an hour after his first, Campeau-Laurion remained in his seat, eating peanuts and watching the game, it said.
A Yankees spokeswoman, Alice McGillion, said the team had no comment.
Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said it was a "troubling example of compelled patriotism" to force fans to remain in the stands for the playing of the song.
"It's patriotism being imposed on people on a mass scale," he said. "It's the first person we know of who actually been physically thrown out of Yankee Stadium, but we certainly know of many other people who have expressed concern about the policy."
McALISTER'S DELI