Wednesday, February 11, 1998
The University Daily Kansan
Section B·Page 3
Pitching variety to throw depth into 'Hawks game
By John Blakely Wilson Kansan sportswriter
The Atlanta Braves count on seven innings a game from their starting pitchers. The Kansas Jayhawks are happy to get four innings out of their starters.
College baseball is a different game from the Major Leagues. Great pitchers rarely throw into the seventh inning and almost never give up less than four runs per game. Aluminum bats inflate scores. Teams consistently use five or six pitchers per game and need depth in their bullpens.
Kansas pitching coach Wilson Kilmer said that although college baseball was fueled by offense, great teams still won with pitchin.
"Most teams in college baseball can score," Kilmer said. "In my years here, our best teams have had excellent pitching depth which translated into allowing fewer runs
and winning more games."
Kilmer, who has been Kansas' pitching coach for ten years, cited the 1993 College World Series squad as an example. Pitchers Jamie Splittorff, Dave Meyer, Jimmy Walker and Chris Corn al'
Kilmer. Says pitching depth is key to a good season.
went on to play professional baseball.
"That team had five veteran consistent pitchers and then another four that could also be very effective," Kilmer said. "We had to go eight or nine deep to win the regional and qualify for the series."
Head coach Bobby Randall said depth was key to the future of
Kansas baseball.
"We have our top six slated, at least for the first part of the season," Randall said. "The challenge now is to find out who will throw in the middle innings and who will close."
Senior Casey Barrett (2-3 record, 5.16 earned runs average) and junior Chris Williams (5.86) are the most experienced relief pitchers, and both will have an opportunity to be the closer.
"Having a guy who can finish games can be a huge advantage mentally," Randall said. "We have several candidates who will get chances early in the season — they just have to perform."
Kilmer said all pitchers would work in relief during the season. Seniors Linus Williams (2-0, 6.00) and Josh Bailey (4-3, 6.66) and sophomore Jake Good (3-2, 6.53) lead returners not in the six-man rotation.
U.S. hopes buried in snow
The Associated Press
NAGANO, Japan — Let the games begin for the United States. Please.
Four days into what was expected to be perhaps its most successful Winter Olympics ever, the United States is skidding and stumbling from the ski slopes of Happo' one to the speedskating oval in Nagano.
Wherever Americans go, someone wearing another country's colors is going faster, higher, longer and to the medals stand.
The Ukraine and Bulgaria have medals in Nagano. Belgium's one-man Olympic team has a medal. The United States is tied with Kenya
for dead last with zero medals.
Four days into the 1994 Games in Norway, the United States had two golds and one silver, with good-as-gold Bonnie Blair, Dan Jansen and Cathy Turner still to compete.
This time, the snowboarders were geared up to go gold early in the games before the Dream Teams in hockey and figure skating took the ice.
"Welcome to my nightmare," U.S. snowboard coach Peter Foley said, referring to the Americans' inexplicable wipeout in the first-time Olympic sport.
Last week, U.S. Olympic Committee executive director Dick Schultz had all but promised that these
would be breakthrough games for the United States. Instead, it has been all downhill for the Americans.
Significant improvements in athlete support, training and training helped the U.S. claim 11 medals in Albertville, Canada, in 1992 and 13 in Lillehammer in 1996.
This year, the snowboarders got shredded, munching too many "death cookies," hitting ice chunks underneath the snow. The dependable speedskaters, who have accounted for nine of the last 24 American medals, slipped and slid to low finishes. America's most prolific winter medal-collector, Bonnie Blair, has retired.
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