SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, April 29, 1994
11
K-State's record no consolation
Wildcats have beaten Hawks despite losses
By Andrew Gilman Kansan sportswriter
At 3-19 in the Big Eight Conference and 12-34 overall, the Kansas State baseball team hasn't had much good fortune.
The Wildcats' pitching staff has an ERA of more than 7 1/2 runs a game, has given up more than 8 1/2 in conference contests and has no pitcher with more than four victories.
They have been outscored by 100 runs in their conference games, including being outscored in every individual inning and 107-61 in the first three innings.
But when K-State comes to bat at 7 tonight at Hogland-Maupin Stadium, it will bring a 1-1 record against Kansas with it.
b"We've had a tendency to overlook the K-State and the Iowa State's this year," senior catcher Kent Mahon said. "We can't do that."
That oversight translated into four losses for the Jayhawks. Four losses to the conference's two last-place teams.
Kansas has struggled against the bottom of the conference, losing three out of five to sixth-place Iowa State, and losing 8-5 March 23 in Manhattan, giving Kansas its first conference loss.
"They caught us at a time when we were looking for a fourth starter." Kansas coach Dave Bingham said. "They caught us with inexperienced pitching, and we didn't play well."
Kansas won the first game against Kansas State, 15-5, but Bingham said this weekend's three-game series would be a totally different situation.
"They haven't played since Tuesday," he said. "And since we had our games canceled, it will be our best against their best. It will be a truer indicator of where we are. That wasn't the case in Manhattan."
The Jayhawks now are fighting for a second-place finish after having two games canceled against Oklahoma State. Bad weather forced a cancellation for Wednesday's doubleheader, and Bingham and his team said they were disappointed in not having another shot at the league-leading Cowboys.
Kansas lost two of three games in Stillwater, Okla., April 8-10.
"Our kids wanted the opportunity to play them," Bingham said. "We would have still needed some help the rest of the way, but it's unfortunate."
Junior left fielder Josh Igou had similar thoughts.
"It really is unfortunate," he said. "There would have been some good games, and a lot of people would have been there. One of our goals was to win the conference regular season, but we'll see them in the Big Eight tournament."
Kansas State (12-34, 3-19)
But the loss of the Oklahoma State series was not the main topic of concern yesterday outside the Jayhawk's locker room.
Kansas (31-13, 14-9)
"We're not going to do anything different," Mahon said. "Their pitching isn't that great, but it's still quality. We can't look at their ERA and think that we should be scoring a lot of runs. We need to play as if they all have a 1.50 ERA."
Pitching for the Jayhawks this weekend will be the three most consistent starting pitchers so far this season for Kansas.
Kansas' probable starting pitchers:
today at 7 p.m.: Senior Chris Corn, 9-6, 4.62 ERA
Tomorrow at 2 p.m.: Senior David Mever, 6-4, 2.96 ERA
Sunday at 1 p.m.: Sophomore Jamie Splittorff, 8-0, 2.91 ERA
Senior Chris Corn, 9-64.62 ERA, will start today, senior David Meyer, 64.2 96 ERA, will go tomorrow, and sophomore Jami Splitterwill pitch for the first time since April 13 on Sunday.
Splittertorr, 8-0, 2-91 ERA, recovering from a right shoulder injury. Bingham said that yesterday's workout convinced him that Splittertorr was ready.
"From what we saw today, he'll start," Bingham said. "He threw about 60 pitches at 75 percent today in the bullpen. He should be ready."
Splittorff has been the staff ace so far this season, but Corn has provided some timely pitching of his own.
He threw back-to-back complete-game victories against Oklahoma earlier this season, and came in to relieve Splittorff and pitch four scoreless innings against Wichita State to earn the victory.
"Complete games are better than anything," Corn said. "But any position the coaches put me is fine."
Corn said he was confident going into the Jayhawks final conference games.
"I feel in control of all of my pitches," he said. "Coach Kilmer has helped me. It's getting a lot better."
John Gamble / KANSAN
Ted Meadows, sophomore catcher, tosses balls for Jack Wilmont, junior catcher, during batting practice yesterday at Anshutz Sports Pavilion.
Softball team hopes for third playoff berth
By Matt Siegel
Kansan sportswriter
"It's quiet and peaceful," Williams said. "I've grown accustomed to it. I've done it for the past two years."
Kansas senior pitcher Stephani Williams said she was looking forward to the school year ending — so she can concentrate on a potential berth in the playoffs.
Williams and her teammates might have a chance to make it three consecutive years in postseason play. The Kansas softball team plays Iowa State Saturday and Sunday at Jayhawk field. The four-game series has playoff implications for the Jayhawks.
Kansas coach Kalum Haack said that if the team swept the Cyclones, the Jayhawks should qualify for postseason play. But Williams said even if the Jayhawks swept the Cyclones it might not be enough.
"I think it's going to take four solid wins," Williams said. "After that, it's at the mercy of the voters."
The Jayhawks were scheduled to play a doubleheader against Creighton on Wednesday, but the games were canceled because of rain. Williams said that might have hurt the Jayhawks in the long run because those games would have given Kansas a chance to improve its record.
In the first game against Southwest Missouri State on Tuesday, the Jayhawks managed only four hits, wasting nine shutout innings by Williams. The team worked on its hitting yesterday in Anchorage Sports Pavilion.
"I know what they are going through," said Williams, who has had her own hitting problems. "I myself am going through it. This team will come through."
Former runner comes to terms with loss
Tragic accident deprived junior of sport he loved
By Matt Siegel
Kansan sportswriter
However, running, not music, used to be McClain's favorite subject to talk about.
"We produce a sound that can't be found anywhere," McClain said. "People seem to really enjoy our music. We have never had any vegetables thrown at us."
Kansas junior Jeremy McClain likes to talk about his favorite subject, his band Lou's Revenge. He plays keyboard for the band, which will play at the Full Moon Cafe May 5.
He came from a running family. His dad, Gene, was a former runner at Kansas, and his older brother Ladd currently runs for the Kansas track team. Jeremy, his twin brother, Shane, and Ladd, were All-State runners at Shawnee Mission West High School.
But a jog in early September of 1992 changed,Jeremy McClain's life - forever.
Brian Vandervliet/ KANSAN
Kansas junior Jeremy McClain had to leave the Kansas cross country team after being hit by an automobile while jogging through town in September, 1992.
THE ACCIDENT
McClain had missed practice because he was in a physics lab. Kansas coach Gary
The summer before his sophomore year, McClain trained in the high altitudes of Colorado in preparation for the upcoming cross country season. McClain said that as the season approached, the coaches told him he was slated to run varsity for the first meet.
Then tragedy struck.
Schwartz told him to run six to eight miles on his own. McClain set off to do a seven mile run. At 23rd and Louisiana streets he headed south. McClain had a green light to cross the street.
"I saw out of the corner of my eye a car, and I heard the sound of brakes," McClain said. "The car had obviously been speeding up to make the light, but it had evidently run a red light. It knocked me a good 10 feet into the air."
The blow knocked McClain into the opposite lane where he crashed through a car windshield.
"As my adrenaline started to wear off, this deep-seated pain started," McClain said. "I remember thinking it was the most pain I had ever been in. There was such a pressure in my left leg and swelling was inhibiting my blood flow. They told me that I was in danger of losing my leg."
He didn't lose his leg. He was flown to the University of Kansas Medical Center, and he had a metal rod inserted in his leg. The doctors thought they had McClain stabilized. However, he developed breathing problems and was diagnosed with Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome.
McClain's running career was over.
THE AFTERMATH
The doctosrs put him on life support
McClain survived. After a week and a half, he showed signs of being able to breathe again on his own and was taken off of life support. The doctors told him that he had survived largely because he was in such good shape.
"They put me in an induced coma," McClain said. "It wasn't a natural coma. They don't have a cure for ARDS. It has a 50 percent survival rate."
"It didn't seem right that it was my leg." McClaim said. "I wondered why couldn't I have broken a couple of ribs. It's really hard dealing with something like that, especially because it was someone else's mistake. It wasn't the competition. I felt that I was born a natural runner. It was something where I had a gift and could push myself. Now that gift was taken away from me."
He lived at home in Overland Park that semester. When he first got out of the hospital, he had to carry around an oxygen tank to support his weakened lungs. His mobility was severely limited.
McClain said he had to search for something to fill the void of not being able to run. It was also a transition for his parents.
"It went from not being able to run again, to his life being threatened," McClain's father said. "At that point, running became unimportant. I just feel extremely lucky that I have a son who is alive today."
At the start of the 1903 spring semester, Jeremey returned to school.
TIMES CHANGE
This spring, Jeremy's older brother, senior Ladd McClain, is finishing his track career at Kansas. Before the accident, their father said that he treated running as the most important thing in his sons' lives. After the accident, his perspective has changed.
"I'm actually more relaxed watching Ladd run now," Gene said. "This has taught me a lesson in life. I realized that there is something more than running. Family is what is important. I can recall Ladd, Shane, and Jeremy being on the same state winning relay team. Those are things that you remember."
Jeremy also has moved on. He still feels a slight discomfort when he walks, but he could run for enjoyment if he wanted to. Instead of running, he has taken up biking. He wondered why the accident had to happen to him. But he has eventually come to gris with it.
"The accident is over," McClain said. "It's behind me. Maybe I would have ended up running purely for my enjoyment anyway. I
had to reevaluate my situation. When you are a runner, you spend a lot of time running, thinking about running, and planning your meals so you can maximize your performance.
"I feel like I have more time to spend on other things," Jeremy said. "I'm trying to find things that I enjoy doing and pursuing those avenues, like my band. Did I tell you about my band?"
No-hitter too mysterious to believe
Pitcher's game looked like that of earlier years
MINNEAPOLIS — The way Scott Crickson was pitching, it couldn't have been April 27, 1994.
he Associated Press
v Mike Nadel
It had to be April 26, 1991, when Erickson beat Seattle for his first big league shutout. Or maybe May 1, 1991, when Erickson blanked Boston on a two-hitter.
Or May 28, 1991, when Erickson guaranteed a win over Texas and delivered a 3-0 beauty that put the Minnesota Twins back into the pennant race. Or June 24, 1991, when Erickson's two-hitter against New
York gave him his 12th consecutive victory.
Was Scott Erickson really pitching a no-hitter and beating the Milwaukee Brewers 6-0 Wednesday night? Or had the Metrodome become a time machine?
"Submitted for your approval," he would say. "Just another home game for the Minnesota Twins, but not for Scott Erickson. Mr. Erickson, you see, is a visitor ... a visitor to the Twilight Zone."
It's the only rational explanation for what was taking place, because the Erickson on the mound could not have been the Erickson who had become baseball's most hittable pitcher.
At any moment, Rod Serfing would be standing in the batter's box.
It had to be the Erickson of 1991.
Back then, he would stare coldly at the batter, like a shark ready to sink its teeth into its victim, before omniously peering around his black glove
He was Darth Vader with a baseball, pitching the Prince of Darkness. He terrorized batters with a darting 90-plus mph fastball and a diving slider.
for his catcher's sign. He wore his stirrups so low that only his black socks and black cleats could be seen below his pant legs. "I love black," Erickson would say.
Yes, that Scott Erickson was back, sprinting to the mound to start each inning, wasting no time delivering each pitch. And the Brewers had the misfortune of being stuck in the Twilight Zone with him.
"That's the beautiful thing about this game — you never know what'll happen," Milwaukee manager Phil Garner said. "Except it wasn't beautiful for our side."
Don't worry, Phil, it was only a time warp. It had to be.
It had to be the Erickson of 1991, who went 20-8, who was 12-3 at the All-Star break, who finished second in the American League Cy Young balloting, who helped Minnesota win the World Series.
It certainly couldn't have been the Erickson who had gone 22-34 since the start of 1992, who had been 9-24 in his previous 40 starts, who had a 7.48 ERA as part of a rotation that had an awesome awfully 8.44 mark.
In reality, Erickson hadn't changed his routine. It's just that he had pitched so poorly that no one bothered to notice that he still wore his stirrups low and still sprinted to the mound. All anyone noticed was that his fastball wasn't as fast, that his slider wasn't sliding as sharply and that batters no longer feared the man in black.
That's why Wednesday seemed like something from another world and another time.
"I kind of reverted back to the slider I had a couple of years ago," the 26-year old right-hander said. "I was just throwing in the pen the other day and it felt a little different. I don't know if it
was a different grip or just a different arm angle or something."
It was 1991 again, and pitching's Prince of Darkness was back.
Erickson pitched Minnesota's first no-hitter since Dean Chance in 1967. The major league's only other no-hitter this season was by Atlanta's Kent Mercker, April 8 in Los Angeles. Jim Abbott of the Yankees had the most recent ALno-hitter, against Cleveland last Sept. 4.
Indeed, he had the zip and direction of the Scott Erickson of three years ago.
"He really concentrated for all nine innings," Twins manager Tom Kelly said. "I just thought he had a little more zip and direction."
Erickson struck out five and hit a batter. He also walked four — including two during a hold-your-breath ninth inning that ended with left fielder Alex Cole barely avoiding a collision with shortstop Pat Meares to catch Gravin's shallow fly.
Bowl officials offer championship game
There currently is no championship game, but the NCAA is studying the idea.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Gator Bowl officials have made a $20 million offer to host a Division I national championship football game in 1996.
"I think the general feeling around the country is that people would like to see a national championship game. We're willing to provide a venue and a game which would make that work," said Carl Cannon, president of the Gator Bowl Association.
The Associated Press
The game would be played at least a week after the Jan. 1 bowl games, with the team selection process determined by the conference commissioners.