Blue Monday
Behind a strong outing from starting pitcher Gil Meche, the Royals dominated the Red Sox 7-1 on Opening Day at Kauffman Stadium.
TUESDAY, APRIL 3, 2007 WWW.KANSAN.COM
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Royals
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
PAGE 12A
SOFTBALL
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
The Jayhawks look to rebound from back-to-back losses to Baylor when they face the Arkansas Lady 'Backs in a double header today at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. at Arocha Ballpark
Coach stresses aggressiveness
BY EVAN KAFARAKIS
The Jayhawks host the Lady 'Backs in a double-header today at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. at Arrocha Ballpark.
Coming off its first back-to-back losses to Baylor this past weekend since February 23 at the Red and Black tournament in Louisville, Ky., the Kansas softball team looks to get back on the winning track against Arkansas.
The team struggled offensively all weekend against Baylor, only accumulating five total runs in two
games.
"We need to come out with aggressiveness early on offense," coach Tracy Bunge said.
Kansas played Baylor tough in the seventh inning of the Sunday game, but though it fell short in its attempt, the jayhawks will use the game as a lesson.
"We have to come out strong every inning," freshman second baseman Sara Ramirez said after the game on Sunday.
The team had one hit through the first five innings against the Bears,
"We've had a great crowd the past couple of games and we love playing at home."
SARARAMIREZ Second basemain
but strung together a short really in the seventh to give them a positive feeling after the game.
it's how you sometimes handle that failure seven times that gives you positive at bats in the three times you hit."
Last season these two teams met in Fayetteville, Ark, and the layhawks came away with 2-1 and 1.0 victories.
"In this game, good hitters fall 7 out of 10 times," Barra said. "And
"Akansas is a solid ball club that plays in the tough SEC conference," Burge said.
The lady Backs are coming off a 2-0 victory against Kentucky on Sunday and are 15-30 on the season.
Kansas is in the middle of a five-game homestand and is glad to be playing in front of its home crowd.
"We love to see the fans out," Ramirez said. "We've had a great crowd the past couple of games and we love playing at home."
Kansan sportswriter Evan Kafarakis can be contacted at ekafarakis@kansan.com.
Edited by Joe Caponio
BASEBALL
Jayhawks play second border series
BY ALISSA BAUER
Though the lajawhaws (16-17, 3-6) fell an out shy of taking last weekend's series against Missouri, coach Ritch Price was pleased with his team's effort.
Jumping from one rivalry to the other, Kansas got just one day's rest between wrapping up its Big 12 Conference series at Missouri on Sunday and taking on Kansas State tonight.
Price and his Jayhawks will have to be fine enough to take tonight's game from a K-State (20-8, 4-2) squad whose luck with the comeback last weekend was a little more plentiful. The Wildcats are fresh off swiping two of three games from Texas Tech, both on come-from-behind victories.
"If we keep playing like this, if we keep battling and competing we'll be fine." Price said on Saturday.
Not only did k-State pull the comebacks, the team's sixth and seventh victories this season, but it did so in the late innings. Both came from rallies in the bottom of the eighth.
In the meantime, the Jayhawks rallied in the ninth inning of all three games against the Tigers, but won only one game.
"It is a positive thing, it just doesn't really feel like it," sophomore catcher Buck Afenir said. "We're out here to win, obviously, but after we're done it's a new game."
Afenir was a big help for the Jayhawks last weekend. He tallied three RBI, hit a home run in back-to-back at bats in game two and was the final run to score in that game.
Just as senior center fielder
SEE BASEBALL ON PAGE 10A
The Kansas baseball team will play Kansas State tonight at Tainton Stadium after losing their weekend series against Missouri.
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
THE RANT
Sporting events lag during dog days
BY RYAN COLAIANNI
KANSAN SPORTS COLUMNIST
RCOLAIANNI@KANSAN.COM
College basketball is over. The NFL is over. We must now relegate ourselves to the start of the Major League Baseball season, but even that will get old after a few weeks.
No longer will you be able to turn the television on and have a choice between a top 10 match-up in the Big East, a rivalry game in the Pac-10, and a college football bowl game. We will be stuck listening to chatter about the Red Sox and Yankees rivalry.
Welcome to the dog days of the sporting year.
The only thing that I am really looking forward to is finally seeing Tim Kurkjian whip out some obscure facts on Baseball Tonight. Kurkjian and Peter Gammons are by tar the more knowledgeable analysts sports journalism has to offer in any sport.
Until college football begins in five months, decent sporting events will be held sporadically. The Masters, which starts Thursday, is the first and by far the best golf tournament of the year, but after that what do fans have to look forward to? The NBA playoffs?
I am not a hockey fan but it is pretty fun to watch an overtime playoff game that goes until the early morning hours or see an entire team elect not to shave for two months.
Hockey playoffs start around the same time as the NBAS. Even though its playoffs are often more entertaining than its basketball counterpart, very few in this country care about the sport.
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Sure the playoffs will start up in a few weeks, but the NBA playoffs feel like they last as long as the regular season, with commissioner David Stern trying to milk as much television exposure as he can during the nearly two month playoffs. Plus we all know what is going to happen: whoever comes out of the west is going to win it all.
We can watch old college football games on ESPN Classic to get ready for the season that is too far away, or relive the 1993 NCAA Men's Basketball tournament. Those will at least get your mind off the mind numbing sporting events that occur daily for the next five months.
We also will get to continue to watch ESPN self-promote its coverage of the NFL draft until late April and will probably start to see more Arena Football since ESPN is a partial owner of the league. No one cares that the Dallas Cowboys are looking to improve their defensive line in the upcoming draft.
Just because ESPN broadcasts the draft doesn't make it necessary for the network to cover it daily for more than a month. I wonder if they will do the same thing with the NBA draft in late June?
Locally, not much will go on in two weeks after Royals fans realize
SEE COLAIANNI ON PAGE 10A
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