THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN MONDAY, AUGUST 14, 2006
SOFTBALL
SPORTS 15B
New season brings nine new faces
BY BETTY KASPAR
The Kansas softball team lost a large portion of its offense to graduation after last year's season — their three through seven spots in the lineup, to be exact. Coach Tracy Bunge is aware that the six seniors
Photo courtesy of Kansas Athletics Department
Photo courtesy of Kahsaa Adams Department Graduated infielder Destiny Frankenstein celebrates with her teammates after Kansas' 4-2 victory against Oklahoma May 13. The victory was Kansas' first Big 12 Softball Tournament title.
will be hard to replace. However, she said she hopes that the nine new faces will help to develop the team's success.
"We have a talented group of
players coming in, with seven freshmen and two transfer students," Bunge said. "We will not have as much experience returning. On the other hand, sometimes youth is bliss."
With the new additions to the team, Bunge said she has yet to
Bunge said that freshmen
Craner, sophomore catcher Erika Simington and senior infielder Nicole Washburn.
"We will not have as much experience returning. On the other hand, sometimes youth is bliss."
often don't realize their abilities as athletes and she hopes that the new players will have a smooth transition into Division I play.
TRACY BUNGE Softball coach
She said she feels confident with the returning players and she said the team already has a great nucleus.
The returning players include sophomore infielder Val Chapple, senior pitcher Kassie Humphreys, sophomore catcher Tiffany
settle on a lineup. She said the team had some good options.
The team will return to campus today to prepare for the season.
After practicing for a month, the team will play host to other schools during
The team will also travel to the Husker Invitational on Oct. 7 and 8.
the KU Fall Invitational, which will take place on Sept. 23, 24 and 30 and Oct.1.
Kansan sportswriter Betty Kaspar can be contacted at bkaspar@ kansan.com.
Edited by Gabriella Souza
Senior Kassie Humphreys pitches the ball against Nebraska May 12. The Jayhawks won 2-0 to advance to the title game.
Photo courtest of Kansas Athletics Department
BASEBALL
Filling gaps a challenge for 2006 squad
Search for leadership includes both returning starters and new arrivals
BY ALISSA BAUER
Photo courtesy of Kansas Athletics Department
Former closer Don Czyz celebrates the last out of the 2006 Big 12 tournament. The victory was Kansas' first Big 12 baseball title.
The downside to having a solid core of senior leadership is the hole the players leave behind after Major League Baseball and graduation take their toll.
This time last year, the experienced veterans held seven positions.
"We obviously have a challenge ahead of us," Price said. "We lost some key players."
Coach Ritch Price and his team suffered a setback in May when seven starters cashed in their final season of eligibility. Eventually, six players were drafted, including junior lefty starter Sean Land.
Although Price, Czyz, Quick and others left gaps in the line up, they didn't leave their former team without tools.
Kansas can't avoid the tough task of replacing key players, such as Ritchie Price, Kansas' all-time hits leader; Don Czyz, Kansas' first All-American; since 1996; and Kodiak Quick, the Kansas record holder for most victories in a season.
"Those guys were definitely great leaders," junior third baseman Erik Morrison said of the departure of his former teammates. "But I'm not nervous. I'm more excited than nervous."
Word is getting out about last year's Big 12 tournament champions, led by that core of seniors.
"Kids are watching it all over America and it's made recruiting fabulous," Price said. "It's made it a great summer."
Price and company will focus primarily on pitching this fall. The experienced weekend starting rotation of Land, Quick, Czyz and Ricky Fairchild must be reconstructed from the ground up.
To do this, Price is looking to newcomers Zach Ashwood and Brett Bollman. Ashwood comes to Lawrence after two seasons at Texas Christian University. The 6-foot-4 lefty threw 33.2 innings last season for a 5.08 ERA.
Contrasting the lefty is the 5-foot-10 Bollman. Bollman, a transfer from Arkansas, threw 16.2 innings in his freshman campaign, but his 89-91 mph fastball will play a large part in his chance of taking a weekend starting spot.
Price is also looking to sophomore left hander Nick Czyz to grow into a weekend starter.
Last season, Czyz had a 4-3 record and saw nearly 50 innings on the mound. His 45 strikeouts to 30 walks shows his command on the mound, but with room for improvement.
Behind the plate, Joe Servais,
Garden City Community College
transfer, may take on in the catcher's spot, which is in need of some stability.
In his second year at Garden City, Servais started all 54 games and hit .356 with a .971 fielding percentage.
Robby Price — Sunflower League player of the year, first team All-Metro and All-State — will join his older brother Ryne in the middle infield. Robby is likely to take
Ritchie's territory at short.
Coach Price said that despite rumors that he's entertaining coaching offers from other teams, he'll stay at KU.
Robby brings 28 RBI and a .511 season from his senior year at Free State High School.
"I've got two sons that play for
me, I'm not looking for another job." Price said. "All those things happen when you're successful."
Kansan senior sportswriter Alissa Bauer can be contacted at abauer@kansan.com.
—Edited by Jacky Carter
BASEBALL
BY ALISSA BAUER
Riding high after its first Big 12 Tournament championship, the baseball team finished the season with a 43-25 record. The 43 victories were the second most in program history and meant a fourth consecutive season with 40 victories. Coincidentally, it was coach Ritch Price's fourth season with the team.
"The first thing for me, it was a fulfillment of a dream," Price said. "And the second thing was our goal to get 40 wins and we've done it for a school record four times in a row. Then we wanted to finish top 20 in the country, we finished at 22 and made the NCAA tournament. It was a great personal feeling of accomplishment."
Nearing the end of a season deemed difficult enough to earn a No. 26 RPI ranking based on strength of schedule, the layhawks dropped a pair of key games to the University of Northern Colorado in May.
Those losses almost killed the opportunity for a bid to the NCAA tournament. Almost.
In late May, the Jayhawks swept Texas A&M at home and took a No. 6 seed with them to the Big 12 Tournament in Oklahoma City. Kansas outscored its opponents 31-18 in four straight victories, including the 9-7 victory against No. 14 Nebraska in the championship.
"It's still fresh," junior third baseman Erik Morrison said of the tournament his team won more than two months ago. "We were just a real close knit group of guys who worked hard and took it seriously."
Morrison said winning the tournament made him sigh with relief.
"We were head and shoulders
better than what everybody thought we were going to be," Morrison said.
But they weren't done, yet. The Jayhawks were automatically granted a bid to the NCAA tournament and were sent to the Corvallis, Ore., regional, hosted by Oregon State, for its first appearance since 1994.
Kansas overcame an early 5-0 deficit in its tournament opener against Hawaii to win 9-6. Deforeating Hawaii stretched Kansa's winning streak to eight games, but it would go no further. Oregon State, the eventual National Champion, crushed Kansas 11-3 before Hawaii ended the Jayhawks postseason run altogether with a 9-5 victory.
"It was kind of a bittersweet ending. Wed just won the Big 12 tournament and everybody was still high off that" Morrison said. "It sucked to lose to Hawaii, but that's how baseball is. One game can end it."
Kansas finished its conference season tied for fifth place, the highest since the Big 12's creation in 1996.
The Jayhawks' conference tournament title was their first since winning the Big Seven in 1949. The six Jayhawks drafted into the Major League tied for the most drafted from Kansas, and its 75 home runs set a team record.
"We'd go out somewhere and people didn't even know KU had a baseball team," Morrison said of their trip to Oregon.
Morrison was amused. "Kansas does have a baseball team," he said. "And we can play a little bit."
Kansan senior sportswriter Allissa Bauer can be contacted at abauer@kansan.com.
— Edited by Mindy Ricketts