THE UNIVERSITY DARY KANSAN
SPORTS
3B
BASEBALL
Weston White/KANSAN
**Weston White/ARMAK**
Junior shortstop David Narodowski crushes a double to right-center field during the first inning against Northern Colorado. Narodowski had three runs and two RBIs in the Jayhawks 15-6 victory against the Bears.
Kansas defeats Northern Colorado 15-6
BY TIM DWYER
tdwyer@kansan.com
David Noradowski drew a full count over ten pitches, leading off the first inning for Kansas. Then, on the 11th pitch of the at-bat, he roped a double to right-center field. Things only got worse after that for Northern Colorado starter Cameron Tallman in Wednesday nights 15-6 Kansas victory at Hoglund Ballpark.
"That helps us out a ton," sophomore third baseman Tony Thompson said. "It lets us know everything they have. You're probably going to see everything when you have that good of an at-bat."
Narodowski's leadoff double extended his hit streak to 11 games and the Jayhawks abused Tallman — who left the game after eight hitters, five runs and one out — on their way to their biggest first inning of the season. It stole the lead away from the Bears, who had jumped out 2-0 on the strength of
Jarrod Berggren's two-run home run to start the game off.
Junior second baseman Robby Price tried to sacrifice bunt Narodowski over to third and ended up beating the throw for an infield single. Brian Heere followed that with a walk and then back-to-back doubles from Buck Afenir and Thompson opened the game up for Kansas. The first five Jayhawk hitters to come to the plate ended up crossing it in the first.
"That was huge," Thompson said. "We need to come out, especially after they score two runs in the first, and put some numbers on the board, too. Get some runs for the pitching staff to work with."
Afenir and Thompson didn't stop after inning one, though, and ended up combined for nine RBIs in the win, more than half of the Jayhawks' 15.
"We come up in some spots, and I think that happens just with how the top of the order plays," Afenir said. "You can count on David and
Robby and Heere and whoever else is in the mix up there to do some things and get on base. As long as those guys are hitting good it's our job to knock them around the bags."
The layhawks, even after their five-run first inning, never let off the throttle, being held scoreless in only two of the team's trips to the plate.
"One of the things we talked about after the first inning was 'Don't stop scoring, it could take 15 runs to win today.' Coach Ritch Price said. "We have not done a very good job of that, of keeping the foot on the opponent's throat when we've got them down. Today, I thought we kept swinging the bats, kept having good at-bats."
The 15-run explosion on offense was complemented by a solid startling performance by junior right hander Brett Bollman, 3-0 with a 1.80 ERA. After giving up the two-run bomb in the first, Bollman buckled down and didn't surrender
another run in five more innings of work. He worked his way out of a jam in the third after giving up singles to the first two hitters of the inning.
After a pop fly and a strike out, Northern Colorado catcher Seth Budde rapped a ball up the middle off of Bollman's glove. Instead of allowing the Bears to load the bases, though, Narodowski made a great play in the field to go with his offensive success, bare handing and firing to first just in time to nab Budde.
Ritch, who just moved Bollman to a starting role a few weeks ago, said the former reliever was absolutely huge for Kansas against Northern Colorado's potent offense.
"That was crucial," Ritch said. "They can really swing the bats, if you look at their numbers, it's impressive."
Edited by Heather Melanson
BASEBALL
Veteran busts weekend slump Senior catcher Buck Afenir drives in five runs with two doubles
BY JOSH BOWE
jbowe@kansan.com
Coach Ritch Price wasn't happy and he didn't hold his feelings back from Buck Afenir, his senior captain.
He wasn't pleased with Afenir's at-bats the last few games. The senior catcher had failed to produce in key at-bats during the Texas A&M series last weekend.
Afenir wasn't scheduled to catch Tuesday's 8-6 comeback victory, relegated to a mentor role with the younger players in the dugout. But before the game Price decided that Afenir would be the designated hitter.
Then Afenir went 0-for-5 and Price made sure the veteran and Escondido, Calif., native was well aware of how he felt.
"I gave him a chance to DH yesterday, and the quality of his atbats weren't very good," Price said. "Basically, I got on his butt about not being a surfer and being a baseball player."
"We've had a couple midweek performances where we've come out flat," Afenir said. "Today was good for us because we came out with a lot of energy and it showed. Scoring a lot of runs, doing a lot of good things."
That clubhouse-only discussion seemed to click with Afenir. Kansas routed Northern Colorado 15-6 Wednesday with Afenir accounting for two hits in two at-bats with five RBI, the most by any Jayhawk this season.
With Kansas struggling to produce with runners in scoring position, the brunt of those troubles fell on Afenir. As the cleanup hitter, Afenir is expected to drive runs homes when players get on base in front of him. Afenir said it was a relief to finally produce in those situations after struggling the last few games.
"It was nice not only for myself but for the team," he said. "Usually, I come up in those RBI spots. I produced today."
Price said he was very pleased with Alenir's quick turnaround. Kansas is a young team and if its number-four and number-five hitters, sophomore third baseman Tony Thompson, aren't producing, Price's team isn't scoring many runs.
"If Thompson and him don't produce, we don't score," Price said. "That's their job in the middle of that lineup to be productive."
This is only Thompson's second full season starting, and, although he is off to a fast start, he relies on
"I thought the middle of our order did a great job today, especially Buck," Thompson said. "Coming up there with runners in scoring position and driving them in any way he could. You can't ask for much more than that."
Weston White/KANSAN
Alemir to help bring home as many runs as possible. Without the pressure of batting fourth, Thompson leads the lahayhs in batting average, home runs and RBI.
But Thompson knows this team is only half of what it can be without Afenir's bat one spot ahead of him.
Edited by Andrew Wiebe
Sophomore right fielder Brian Heere sprints toward the foul line to catch a fly ball during Wednesday's game against Northern Colorado. Hee hit 1 for 1 with two runs and one RBL.
804 Massachusetts St.
Downtown Lawrence
(785) 843-5000
A.
BOX SCORE
Northern Colorado 200 000 121 1 - 6 102
Kansas 523 022 010 15 133
Northern Colorado AB R H RBI
Hilker SS 5 2 2 1
Berggren CF 5 1 2 2
Mees 1B 2 0 1 0
   Borziller PH 0 0 0 0
Sandberg DH 4 0 1 0
   Roche PH 0 1 0 0
Hegstad LF 3 0 0 0
   Keene LF 2 0 0 0
Budde C 4 1 2 1
Berge 2B 3 0 1 0
   Crudo 2B 2 1 1 0
Santucci 3B 3 0 0 0
   Coy 3B 1 0 0 0
Schenk RF 3 0 0 1 5
Totals 37 6 10 5
Kansas Jayhawks AB R H RBI
Narodowski SS 5 3 2 2
Price 2B 4 3 1 1
Heere RF 1 2 1 1
Lincoln PH 1 0 0 0
Lytle RF 0 0 0 0
Afenir C 2 1 2 5
Manship C 0 0 0 0
Thompson 3B 2 1 1 4
Stanfield 3B 1 0 1 0
Waters LF 4 0 0 0
Brunansky Cf 1 0 0 0
Land 1B 2 0 0 0
Lisher 1B 2 1 1 0
Herbst DH 4 3 3 0
Faunce CF 2 1 1 1
Elgie PH 2 0 0 1
Totals 34 15 13 15
E — Northern Colorado: Berge (8); Hegstad (4); Bergue (7). Kansas: Thompson (2); Narodowski (5); Stanfield (1); 2B — Northern Colorado: Hilker (4); Kansas: Thompson (11); Narodowski (7); Afenin (6); Herbst 2(2); 3B — Kansas: Narodowski (1), HR — Northern Colorado: Berggren (3)
PITCHERS
Northern Colorado IP H R/ER BB/SO
Tallman L (1-3) 0.1 5 5/5 2/1
Sciba 2.1 4 5/5 3/1
Skufca 3.1 2 4/2 1/0
Jacobs 1.0 1 0/0 1/2
Sandberg 1.0 1 1/1 0/0
Kansas Jayhawks * IP H R/ER BB/SO
Bollman 6.0 6 2/1 1/7
Boyer 2.0 3 3/1 1/2
Marcin 1.0 1 1/1 2/0
GOING STREAKING
HOME-FIELD LOVE
notes
Jayhawks shortstop David Narodowski went 2-for-6 Wednesday, extending his career-high hitting streak to 11 games. Narodowski's hit streak is second to Tony Thompson's now-defunct 23-game stretch from last season. It's the first time two Jayhawks have had double-digit hit streaks in the same year since 2004.
The Jayhawks moved to 14-0 at Hoglund Ballpark this season, which makes them the only Big 12 team not to lose a game at home in a conference that has been exceptional at defending home turf. Teams in the Big 12 have a winning percentage over 81 percent at home. The 14-game streak is the third-longest home win streak in Kansas history.
— Tim Dwyer