WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8, 2005
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
15
BASEBALL
Jeff Jacobsen/KUAC
Junior infielder Ritchie Price dives back safely to first base on a Baylor pick off attempt. Kansas lost to No. 13 Baylor in extra innings 2-1 on May 25. The next day Kansas lost to No. 3 Texas 9-0. The Big 12 Tournament marked the end of the Jayhawks' postseason as they were not invited to compete in the NCAA Tournament.
Team achieves third most winning season
BY ASHLEY MICHAELS
amichaels@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
The University of Kansas baseball team ended the 2004-2005 season with a 36-28 record and succeeded in being the second team in the University's baseball history to make it to the Big 12 Tournament since joining the Big 12 Conference.
Although its season was cut short when an NCAA Tournament invite did not come through, the KU baseball team has nothing to be ashamed of. Its 36 victories makes it the third most winning baseball team in school history. Three Jayhawks, senior catcher Sean Richardson, junior shortstop Ritchie Price and junior outfielder Matt Baty, were selected to the Big12Baseball.com Preseason All-Big 12 team. Junior outfielder Matt Baty, junior outfielder A.J. Van Slyke, junior outfielder Gus Milner, and junior pitcher Don Czyz were all awarded Big 12 Player of the Week honors during the season. Slyke was honored twice this year.
"It was a great honor being chosen as Big 12 Player of the Week," Baty said. "I was playing well at the time. For that many people to be honored, that is fairly new for our program."
The season started out well for Kansas. They headed to Hawaii and swept Hawaii-Hilo, starting the season with a 7-0 record for the first time since 2002. Coming off a great start in Hawaii, the team headed to Palo Alto, Calif., to face No. 6 Stanford, losing the series 3-0.
"We started out really well in the beginning of the season going to Hawaii and heading to Stanford with a 7-0 record, which was a first for me since I have been at KU," Baty said. "When we played Stanford we got a wake-up call and realized we weren't quite ready for conference play and we struggled."
Texas, but lost the Border Showdown against No. 20 Missouri. It ended conference play 11-14, with a victory against Oklahoma State University to ensure it a spot in the Big 12 Tournament.
"We struggled, won the games we should have won and then the last month we were playing the best ball of the season." Batv said.
Going into the tournament, the Jayhawks were on fire, having won three of their last four conference series.
The team made it to the Phillips 66 Big 12 Tournament, May 25-29 in Oklahoma City. Seeded No. 7, their first opponent was No. 2 Baylor. The Jayhawks lost to the Bears 2-1.
"We were probably the hottest team in the Big 12 heading into the tournament," Baty said. "But baseball is a weird game, one more catch here or one more out there and we could have won that game against Baylor."
Ten members of the KU baseball team earned All-Big 12 honors. Van Slyke became the second Jayhawk to be named first team All-Big 12.
Next they matched up against No. 3 Texas and lost 9-0. Earlier in the season they won the series against Texas, but failed to defeat them in the tournament. Playing a ranked team on national television and winning was the highlight of the season for the Jayhawks, Baty said. The two losses in the tournament brought the Jayhawks' all-time record in the Big 12 tournament to 0-4.
Kansas won the series against No.2 —Edited by Erin M. Droste
Baty said he is looking forward to next season but the loss of 12 seniors would also bring a loss of leadership.
"It will hurt us a lot if we lose Milner or Quick to the draft," Baty said. "But we have good arms coming in and good arms coming back, so we are looking forward to it."
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