THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY. MARCH 4, 2009
SPORTS
5B
BASEBALL
Thompson helps Hawks pummel North Dakota
Weston White/KANSAN
Sophomore third baseman Tony Thompson watches the ball after a hit. Thompson scored one run and hit a double in Tuesday's 8-2 victory against North Dakota at Hokkaido Ballpark.
BY TIM DWYER
tuwyer@kansan.com
Tony Thompson has arrived as a hitter.
Thompson, a sophomore third baseman who hit .276 as a freshman, stepped in against North Dakota left-hander Brandon Baumgartner and knew he was looking for something to take to the opposite field.
"I figured I'd be going with a right-field approach off of a lefty," Thompson said. "I just tried to stay back and drive the ball to the right."
Thompson waited on a 1-1 count and drove an outside breaking ball down the right-field line and later scored on Zac Elgi'e's line-out. It was a piece of hitting that coach Ritch Price said showed the maturation Thompson had displayed since the beginning of last season.
He's done a really nice job to
stop being all dead pull oriented, which is what he was when he got here," Price said. "Now he's staying more in the middle of the diamond, and I think you see that production. I think he understands that he has to use the whole field, and he's made some great adjustments."
The double extended Thompson's hit streak to 15 games, and Kansas beat North Dakota 8-2. The streak dates back to May 2 of last year, a game the Jayhawks won against Oklahoma 17-15.
Thompson has been dialed-in on his tear, hitting .441 in 15 games with four doubles, two homers and 11 RBIs.
pitching, so I'm hoping as I go along that I'm going to get better."
"I think I'm taking pretty much the same approach that I did at the end of last year," Thompson said. "I just think I got some more experience, and I've been seeing the ball a lot better. I'm facing some good
Thompson has been hitting after preseason All-Big 12 senior catcher Buck Afenir, who has hit .462 since returning from a three-game suspension to start the season. Afenir credits some of his success to the emergence of Thompson.
"I'll get a lot more fastballs probably during the course of the season," Afenir said, "just because of the numbers he puts up and the presence he has in the lineup"
His presence in the lineup has helped the Jayhawks average 8.3 runs per game since Afenir's return.
"He's a great player," Afenir said. "He's got a great swing, great eye. Everybody's got to come through their freshman season, kind of break out of their shell."
BASEBALL (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
- Edited by Grant Treaster
to his second win of the season. Ridenhour (2-0) had fewer base runners this time around and credited that to his ability to stay ahead of hitters in the count.
"I learned a lot from the Arkansas game that I took into this game," he said. "Really getting ahead of hitters was huge and not letting the leadoff guy get on us one big thing too."
The Jayhawk offense collected eight hits, five of them singles, and used three sacrifice flies to move runners over and keep the pressure on North Dakota starter Brandon Baumgartner (0-2). He still managed to last six and one-third innings, but by that time the Jayhawks were able to take advantage of a comfortable six-run lead.
Edited by Chris Hickerson
BASEBALL NOTES
OPPOSING PITCHER GOES ON STREAK
After giving up the double to extend Tony Thompson's hit streak to 15 games, North Dakota left-hander Brandon Baumgartner retired 10 of the next 11 hitters in one of his most efficient stretches of the season. It's hard to fault an eight-run output, but
the Jayhawks are going to have to consistently hit against pitchers like Baumgartner to win in the Big 12.
HOME RUN DROUGHT
The Jayhawks have started the season with six straight games without a home run. Their longest streak of that nature last
year? Four. The Jayhawks are still scoring, with 8.3 runs per game in the past three outings, but the power outage is getting a little disconcerting for coach Ritch Price. "I'll be honest with you," he said. "I'm a little nervous that we haven't had a home run in six games."
Kansas picks some strange innings to show up in, but it got the job done Tuesday. The Jayhawks have outscored opponents 9-1 in the second inning and 8-1 in the seventh. With a 4-0 second and 2-0 seventh, that trend continued to grow against
STRONG IN SECOND AND SEVENTH
With Tuesday's win against the Fighting Sirius, the Jayhawks extended their home-opener win streak to 10 games, with their last loss coming in 1999. The Jayhawks are 41-8 in openers in Hoglund Ballpark, and coach
ON A ROLL AT HOME
BASKETBALL (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
North Dakota
"I was probably 80 percent of his choice coming here," Collins said.
Pretty impressive considering the two met only a week before Taylor committed at the end of last April. Taylor took his official visit to Kansas two weeks after it won the national championship last year.
Marquette released Taylor from his letter of intent after coach Tom Cream left to become the coach at Indiana. Kansas was one of the schools Taylor decided to visit after his de-commitment.
But one thing was constant — Taylor said Collins was "the person with me the whole time." In other words, Collins was Taylor's host.
His official visit was eventful, to say the least. Taylor met all the Kansas coaches. He watched a specially prepared national championship video. He looked around Lawrence.
"He's just a special kid," Collins said before the season. "I'm learning to love him."
When Taylor went home to Jersey City, N.J., Collins called him. He wanted there to be no doubt in Taylor's mind about how much the jayhawks wanted him. Less than a week later Taylor chose Kansas over Georgia Tech.
After Taylor committed, the
calls and texts didn't stop coming. The two kept in touch until Taylor arrived on campus for summer classes in June.
By then it was established that the two would be close. Leading up to the season, they became even closer.
"We do everything together," Collins said. "From haircuts to shopping, it's just me and him."
Collins and Taylor connected. They had similar backgrounds. Both were from big cities - Collins from Chicago and Taylor just outside of New York City. Both lived in rougher areas of those cities. Both grew up without their fathers around.
Collins understood Taylor. So when Self was particularly hard on him during practices at the beginning of the season Collins knew how to deal with it. He often pulled Taylor aside in the middle of drills and helped him.
But Taylor didn't know how to handle it when Collins chastised him.
"This is his third year here so he knows what I'm going through when I'm having trouble," Taylor said. "He knows how to handle Coach so when Coach gets on me, he tells me to keep my head up."
They don't remember the specifics. Or at least they won't discuss them.
Some time during Kansas' nonconference season, Taylor was having a bad practice. And Collins had no comfort to offer. He was angry.
Collins said Taylor wasn't exerting full effort and went into "freshman mode" — something he usually doesn't do. Collins confronted him.
"We got into a little tussle, a little altercation. We walked into each other's faces," Collins said. "That's what happens. It's just like brothers. Brothers fight. Brothers get into it and argue."
They both spoke their minds and moved on. Since then, neither can remember any negative incidents.
"We feud sometimes." Taylor said. "That's what we do. We're competitive players."
That it hasn't happened again has Kleinman thinking it was a
Senior center Matt Kleinmann remembered the showdown between Collins and Taylor. He said it was no big deal and something that happened on a team more often than people realized.
necessary step in the maturation of their relationship.
"Over time, Tyshawn has realized Sherron is looking out for what's best for him." Kleinmann said. "Sherron has realized how to get guys involved in the right way."
Kleinmann said Taylor's presence had helped Collins grow into the best leader Kansas has had in years. Believe it or not, it didn't come naturally to Collins.
Now, Collins is comfortable approaching anyone. And Taylor never gets frustrated with Collins' criticisms.
"When it first started, Sherron wasn't quite sure how to be a leader. He'd be the first one to admit that he didn't know how to talk to guys and encourage them the right way," Kleinmann said. "There were a couple times when Tyshawn was like, 'You're coming at me and no one else. You're trying to get me to play better and you're not talking to Cole or anyone.'"
Well, maybe he does when they play video games.
When Taylor needs an escape from basketball, he likes going to Collins' layhawker Towers room
and relaxing with a game. Collins particularly enjoys EA Sports' NCAA Basketball' 09.
"We just chill out," Taylor said.
Maybe those sessions have something to do with Taylor's sudden breakout. In the past two games, Taylor has cemented his role as the Jayhawks' third scorer — behind Collins and sophomore center Cole Aldrich — and increased his average to 10 points per game.
Taylor leads all Big 12 freshmen with 89 assists and is second in steals with 32. Collins, of course, was not surprised to see Taylor's slump end.
"His confidence is big," Collins said as he grinned and glanced back at Taylor, who was laughing with reporters. "Look at him now — he's loose and he's back to his old self. That's something good for us. We need it."
As much as Taylor is enjoying his success, Self knows Collins is just as happy.
"Sherron is so proud of his progress." Self said, "Sherron lets him know all the time how good he can be."
Sounds like brothers.
— Edited by Chris Hickerson
Tim Dwyer
the intelligent thing to do, but great expectations aren't reserved for London orphans.
Ritch Price is 113-57 at home with Kansas.
Edited bv Chris Horn
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Brett Dennen
we should opt for what we'll probably do anyway. Be fans, and find a way to justify filling in Kansas six times on our NCAA tournament bracket. That might not be
Thursday, March 5th
The Bottleneck 737 Mass St • Lawrence Kansas
Band of Heathens w/Charlie Horse
Friday, March 6th Chicago Afrobeat Project
BEECHER (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
Message Annotated Project Monday, March 9th
Monday, March 9th The Alternative Routes
But then there's that not-so-little matter of the NCAA tourna-
Thus we have the question of where expectation levels ought to be. Should we do the "smart" thing and consider any NCAA tournament success the proverbial cherry on top of the season? Maybe, but that won't happen. So
on any given night. Of course,
there's the unfortunate other side
to that coin — that Kansas could
also lose to a lot of tourney teams
if things were to go wrong.
The Alternative Routes Saturday, March 14th Greg Laswell & Jay Nash
As stupid as it is for sportswriters to make assumptions — even apparently safe ones such as this
ment. True, Bill Self has had his problems dancing in March while at Kansas. But his premature exits were with a team that had seemingly quit on him and a young team. The latter may sound like this year's Jayhawks, but there's an important difference: Sherron Collins. And it's worth reiterating that this year's field appears to lack dominant teams. In other words, Kansas could beat anyone
Wednesday, March 18th
The Black Lips
Saturday, March 21st
Andy McKee
w/oJel Tipkid / Hidden Pictures
Thursday April 23rd
The Kills
w/The Horrors
— I'll do it anyway. Kansas will defeat Texas Tech tonight, thus giving it at least a share of the Big 12 championship for a fifth consecutive season. That by itself would make this season a successful one.
www.thebottlenecklive.com