LONG AWAITED...
it's been a long time since St. Louis Cardinals fana have been able to cheer post-season victories, making the team's sweep of the San Diego Padres Saturday night extra sweet.
"This is absolutely fabulous. Wonderful," said Molly Riley St. Louis County resident at Maggie O'Brien's, a downtown pub. "I feel like the Cardi-
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
nails can win it all now."
SPORTS
Prior to this year, the Cardinals last playoff action came in 1987.
The bar exploded when Brian Jordan hit a ninth- inning homer Saturday night to cement the Cardinals' '7-5 win.
ANGRY BEAR
The volcano known as Bryan Cox finally erupted, mercilessly ripping his teammates for lacking heart, and challenging the Chicago Bears organization to find better players.
"We need to look ourselves in the mirror because some of us need to go see the wizard," Cox said yesterday after the Bears lost 37-6 to the Green Bay Packers.
CHIEFS UPDATE
MONDAY, OCTOBER 7,1996
They remember Jerome Bettin in Kansas City. Do they ever,
The Chiefs were 3-0 a couple of years ago when Bettis accompanied Los Angeles to Arrowhead Stadium and rushed 35 times for 132 yards, keying a 16-10 Rams win that turned out to be a pivotal loss for the Chiefs. (3-1) that year.
"He whipped up on us pretty good," said corner-back Dale Carter.
Now Bettis is back with a better
PAGE 10
Jurgen Steelers (3-1)
Into Arrowhead for the
Chiefs' only Monday
night home game.
Kickoff time is set for
8 p.m.
Baseball team recognizes a weakness in pitching
By Cameron Heeg Kansan staff writer
Without having to look hard, the Kansas baseball team found its major problem: pitching.
"Our pitching staff is still a big question mark for us," head coach Bobby Randall said. "We need to find out what all these guys can do for us."
Last season the Jayhawks carried 13 pitchers. This season they increased the pitching roster to 18 in an effort to relieve the short rotation turnaround typically felt with a small staff.
Now there are seven returning pitchers, two transfers and nine freshmen on the team. Pitching coach Wilson Kilmer said that eight of the nine freshmen were expected to pitch next spring.
"We recruited on the basis that they can help us out now," Kilmer said. "Very seldom do you see a freshman in any sport come in and be the man, but they will help with taking the load off the other guys."
The coaches said they would push the returning pitchers to throw strikes. Last season the team threw 305 strikeouts, the lowest since 1987's season of 274.
"We obviously had a tough time throwing strikes," said senior pitcher Josh Wingerd. "If we don't throw more strikes, the freshmen will be waiting right there to do the job."
Kansas junior kickoff returner Eric Vann returns a kick 100 yards, tying a school record for a first-quarter touchdown.
Last season, Wingerd finished with 5.66 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 41.2 innings. He also led the team with 25 appearances on the mound.
AP Top25
Kilmer said that last season was a growing season, and that the pitching staff lacked the experience needed to compete at the Division level.
"A majority of the pitchers coming back and even the new guys have good stuff like fast balls, curves and changeups," Wingerd said. "Command is the big issue. It is just a matter of being able to throw it at the right time and place, and we weren't doing that last year."
While the team didn't set a record for strikeouts last season, it did set a record for hits allowed, which was 637. That was 34 more than the 1995 record of 603. It also walked 308 batters, ranking fourth on the all-time record list.
The Top Twenty Five teams in The Associated Press college football poll, with first place votes in parentheses, records thought Oct. 5.
rank team rec pts prv
1. Florida (38) 5-0 1,643 1
2. Ohio St. (24) 4-0 1,609 3
3. Florida St. (4) 4-0 1,557 2
4. Arizona St. (1) 4-0 1,471 5
5. Nebraska 3-1 1,374 7
6. Miami 4-1 1,312 8
7. Tennessee 3-1 1,243 9
8. Alabama 3-1 1,052 13
9. Colorado 3-1 1,019 10
10. Penn St. 5-1 995 4
11. Notre Dame 3-1 988 11
12. LSU 3-0 977 14
13. North Carolina 4-1 910 15
14. Michigan 4-1 863 6
15. Northwestern 4-1 743 22
16. Washington 4-1 680 18
17. West Virginia 6-0 618 19
18. Auburn 4-1 483 21
19. Brigham Young 5-1 348 12
20. Virginia 4-1 339 12
21. California 5-0 322 —
22. Kansas St. 4-1 281 16
23. Georgia Tech 4-1 206 —
24. Wyoming 6-0 185 25
25. Texas 3-2 162 23
Other teams receiving votes: Utah 125, Kansas 70, East Carolina 42, Southern Miss. 40, Virginia Tech 35, Southern Cal. 83, Iowa 79, Arkansas 62, North Carolina 64, Georgia 6, Texas A&M 1, Texas Tech 1.
KU scoresugly win at OU
The Associated Press
Sooners outgain 'Hawks but lose on scoreboard
By Dan Gelston
Kansan sportswriter
NORMAN, Okla. — Kansas players said after its 52-24 win Saturday against Oklahoma in Norman that they didn't necessarily feel they were the better team.
Just the luckier of the two.
"We got lucky breaks. We had them all throughout the game," Kansas junior quarterback Matt Johner said. "We had those lucky breaks and thank God we did. Today was a lucky day for the Jayhawks."
The Jayhawks, 3-1 overall, 1-0 in the Big 12 Conference, got six first downs as a result of Sooner penalties. Senior running back June Henley, who entered the game with a 201 yards per game average, only gained 63 yards on 27 carries. The Jayhawks also were out gained in total yardage 358-368.
But it eventually wasn't the Jayhawks luck that did in the Sooners, 0-4. It was Kansas capitalizing on its opportunities and some stellar special teams play.
Still, coach Glen Mason said the Jayhawks did not play a great game.
"The first thing I think of is that we stunk in some areas," he said. "When you look at the game, we didn't play well offensively. We didn't establish the run and we didn't have many big plays."
It looked like Kansas might need some big offensive plays after Oklahoma scored first with 6:52 left in the first quarter. Oklahoma
quarterback Justin Fuente capped a five-play drive with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Chris Blocker for a 7-0 lead.
Kansas then proceeded to get the big plays, but not from its offense.
Junior running back Eric Vann tied a
school record by taking the ensuing kickoff 100 yards to even the score at 7-7.
Kansas took a 14-7 lead with 2:04 left in the second quarter, thanks in part to some of the luck Johner was talking about.
Kansas kicker Jeff McCord attempted a 44-
yard field goal, but missed. However, the Sooners were flagged for having too many men on the field and the Jayhawks got a second chance. Facing a fourth and one at the five yard line, Johner connected with senior
Kansas senior punt returner Isaac Byrd returns a punt 94 yards, a school record, for a touchdown in the third quarter.
See FOOTBALL,Page 7
Kansas scores three times on returns by special teams
Kansan sportswriter
By Dan Gelston
NORMAN, Okla. — The Oklahoma homecoming crowd of 64,333 was whipped into a frenzy.
But 13 seconds later junior kick returner Eric Vann silenced the crowd, killed the Sooners momentum and put the game back in the hands of the Jayhawks.
Sooner receiver Chris Blocker had just caught a 16-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Justin Fuente with 6:52 left in the first quarter for a 7-0 lead, Oklahoma's first lead in a game since last October.
The momentum was on the Sooner's side.
His 100-yard return for a touchdown set the tone for a game dominated by the Jayhawks special teams in their 52-24 win.
"When I was standing there I thought, 'Oh my God, they got the crowd in the game,'" Kansas coach Glen Mason said of the Sooners' early lead. "But then, boom, we took them right out."
Kansas special teams scored three touchdowns, including one from a blocked field goal.
Mason said the success was a result of extra special teams practice last week.
"We worked very, very hard on the kickoff returns this week, harder than we ever worked on it." Mason said.
He said against a winless team like Oklahoma, 0-4, his touchdown was a morale killer for the Sooners.
"The momentum was on their side and it kind of neutralized their momentum," Vann said. "It maybe put them in a here-go-again type of mindset."
Vann was the first one to have that work pay off with his touchdown.
They were never able to recover from Vann's touchdown, as the Jayhawks scored 24 unanswered points,10 more of those points coming from the special teams.
Oklahoma's Jeremy Alexander attempted a 42-yard field goal, but it was blocked by junior nose tackle Bret McGraw. Sophomore Patrick Brown scooped it up and ran untouched for a 54-yard touchdown, which gave Kansas a 24-7 lead.
Indeed, the Sooners did go down the losing path again.
Kansas junior Jeff McCord kicked a 31-yard field goal with 7:14 left in the second quarter for a 17-7 lead.
"We made as many big plays in one game as most special teams might make in a season," Vann said.
The Jayhawks final special teams score came courtesy of senior punt return Isaac Byrd.
Byrd, who Mason called the best athlete on the team, turned potential danger for Kansas into disaster for Oklahoma.
Oklahoma punter Brian Lewis
He eventually caught it at the Kansas six-yard line while backpedaling.
booted a long, lofty punt that sent Byrd backpaleding.
He regained control and ran down the left sideline, cut to the middle and then made his way down the right sideline for a 94-yard touchdown — the longest punt return for a touchdown in Jayhawk history. Byrd broke Bob Marshall's record of 90 yards set in 1956.
"The ball was kicked really high, but I had my mind made up that I was going to return it," he said. "I lost track of where I was, but when I caught it, I knew I had to do something with it."
Byrd also attributed the extra practice to the Jayhawks success. He said there was a reason why they put in the extra time.
"The coaches showed us on the film that there had been a couple of big returns by other teams and we saw that," he said. "We did all this work and we knew sooner or later it was gonna pay off, but we didn't know it it was going to be as big as it was today."
Women's soccer revives after loss
By Brian A. Petrotta Kansan sportswriter
Homecomings are often made into a grand event, yet don't quite seem to live up to the hype. But Kansas freshman midfielder Shayna Teutsch returned to her hometown of Albuquerque, N.M., this weekend for the Lobo Women's Soccer Classic and put together an impressive two-game series of the season.
At first, it looked like the Jayhawks would spoil the first game in the new confines. At the 5:11 mark, Teutsch took a cross pass from freshman midfielder Kendyl Michner to score her second goal of the season. Ten minutes later, freshman forward Cynthia Dahle scored her fourth goal of the year off a pass from Teutsch. Then Lobo junior Laurie Hegedom put New Mexico on the board with her ninth goal on the year. The score remained 2-1 for the rest of the first half.
Led by Teutsch, who tallied two goals and one assist, the Kansas women's soccer team split the weekend series, losing to New Mexico 5-2 and defeating Texas-El Paso 3-1.
Kansas began the weekend on Friday with its first night game of the year against New Mexico. This match was also the inaugural contest for the Lobos women's soccer team at the UNM Soccer/Track Complex.
The 15-minute break was all it took for the Lobos to come alive. Three minutes into the second half, Hegedorn sent a penalty kick past freshman goalkeeper Jennie Feke to tie the score. The New Mexico attack never let up, pelting Feke with 17 shots on goal, the most she's faced since the Sept. 13 contest with Texas A&M. Two more shots snuck in, and the Jayhawks fell 5-2. Feke still recorded 12
"I think that we came out really fired up," said Kansas soccer coach Lori Walker. "I was pleased with how we played in the first half. It wasn't a game we were supposed to win, and overall I was pleased with our performance."
saves in the game.
"I told them in order for us to come out on top, we were going to have to take risks like the hail mary that they took," she said. "So that's what we did. Shayna saw that the keeper was out too far, so she launched it and that improved our confidence."
Kansas reversed their fortune yesterday versus Texas-Elas Paso. The Miners, a first-year program, were on a high after a 2-1 victory over Arizona St. two days earlier. That momentum carried over yesterday when UTEP midfielder Brenda Fierro catapulted a bomb from the center stripe that just escaped Fecke's reach, giving the Miners a 1-lead.
Once again, the game shifted at halftime, but this time it was Kansas who turned it up a notch. Just 11 seconds into the second half, Teutsch put an exclamation point on her outstanding weekend with her own blast from the midfield stripe. Walker saw that as the turning point of the game.
Midway through the second half, sophomore co-captain Amy Dyksterhuis scored her first goal of the year off a set play after a corner kick. Dahle was credited with the assist. Then, 20 minutes later, Dahle beat the defense down the field and scored her second goal of the weekend and her team-leading fifth goal of the year. Meanwhile, Fecke continued her tremendous play in the net, making a season-high 15 saves.
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The victory was the first for Kansas on the road this year and moved the team to 4-8 overall.
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