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WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 2005
PAGE 1B
BASEBALL
Junior center fielder Matt Baty swings at a pitch during the game against Texas last Sunday. Baty and the Jayhawks travel to Springfield, Mo., tonight to take on Southwest Missouri State
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Growing confidence
Baseball team takes winning ways into Southwest Missouri State
BY ALISSA BAUER
abauer@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTWRITER
Despite a game-three loss to Texas on Sunday, the Jayhawks' momentum from the series victory remains strongly on their side as they travel to Springfield, Mo., to take on the Southwest Missouri State Bears (17-29, 4-14 Missouri Valley Conference).
Kansas (33-22, 8-11 Big 12 Conference) heads into tonight's contest after winning six of its last seven games. Two series victories in a row, against Kansas State and Texas, proved that the Jayhawks were playing their game, junior outfielder Matt Baty said.
"I'm feeling really good about where we are at," he said. "We're playing our best baseball right now and this is the time when we want to play
good baseball."
The starting pitching has taken shape in the last two weeks, and players who have not been swinging the bats well are coming alive as the season heats up for postseason play.
The Bears enter tonight's game after winning a non-conference series against Louisiana-Monroe two games to one (4-12, 8-5, 8-4).
two games to one (4-12, 3-0).
Making up for a rainout earlier in the season, the Jayhawks now find themselves on a road trip during a crucial part of the season. Tonight's game was originally scheduled for March 22, during Kansas' nonconference spring break trip, but the cancellation forced the game to be pushed back to May.
fortored the game "The last time we were there they had 6,000 fans there last year in May," coach Ritch Price said. "Plus it was on TV."
said. Thus it was on it. This evening's match-up would put Southwest Missouri State coach Keith Guttin at 800 career
victories if the Bears fair as well against the layhawks as they did in the earlier matchup.
Jayhawks as they mark the second between the two clubs in 2005. The Jayhawks will look to improve over the performance they put up in their last meeting. Six Kansas errors gave the Jayhawks little opportunity to win as they dropped the game to the Bears 8-4 on March 1.
to the Bears 8-4 on March 14.
Freshman second baseman Matt Lawson enters tonight's game after contributing a clutch RBI double to knock in the run that clinched the series victory against Louisiana-Monroe. Lawson is hitting .232 and went 1-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored against Kansas this season.
run scored against. Senior catcher Scott Nasby led the Bears in game two when he drove in five runs on two hits, including a home run against Louisiana-Monroe.
SEE CONFIDENCE ON PAGE 6B
▼ HORN RAISED, HAWK BRED
TRAVIS ROBINETT
trobinett@kansan.com
NBA satisfies post-NCAA joneses
I like college basketball better than the NBA
I take college basketball better than the NBA. Ask any student here at Kansas, and almost all of them will say the same thing. But I love basketball, and with the NCAA Tournament more than a month past completion, the NBA playoffs are all that I have.
are all that I have.
There are a few good reasons to turn your attention to the NBA playoffs. The one I find works best is finding the teams with former Jayhawks on the roster. That was an easy task in round one. The only former Kansas player in the NBA whose team didn't make the playoffs was Drew Gooden of the Cleveland Cavaliers. He finished one game out.
Paul Pierce and Raef LaFrentz, two college All-Americans, play for the Boston Celtics, who faced the Indiana Pacers and Scot Pollard.
the Indiana Pacers and see their what a series that was. Seven games of basketball and three starters from my favorite Kansas team, with the possibility of them all being on the court at the same time. I was going for the Celtics, but seeing Reggie Miller advance in his last season wasn't all bad.
They weren't the only three from the 1997 Kansas squad in the playoffs. Before they were destroyed by the Miami Heat, I could tune in to watch Billy Thomas and the New Jersey Nets. Jacquie Vaughn would have played with the Nets too, but he broke a bone in his right foot in early April.
There were plenty more Jayhawks to go around.
There were plenty more playoff games. The Chicago Bulls turned their miseries around and made the playoffs for the first time since Michael Jordan, thanks to young talent including Kirk Hinrich, who started every game this year for Chicago. Yes, the Bulls lost to the Washington Wizards, but Hinrich was more than fun to watch. He averaged 21.2 points for the series, including 34 points on 80 percent shooting in game two.
54 points on the 60 percent line. Turning to the Western Conference, the only two Jayhawks on the court were Greg Ostertag of the Sacramento Kings, and Nick Collison of the Seattle SuperSonics. Coincidentally their teams played against each other and Collision's Sonics came out on top after six games.
Even though most Jayhawks are out, Collison and Pollard continue to carry the torch for Kansas basketball in the NBA. So what if Collision is only averaging 19.7 minutes a game and Pollard manages only 8.3. Even if you choose not to watch the NBA playoffs, take pride in the fact that our University was able to produce such fine pro athletes who helped their teams get to the biggest stage in basketball.
Robinett is an Austin, Texas, sophomore in journalism.
FOOTBALL
New duds for football
Rumors are appearing on Internet fan message boards about what the new Kansas football jerseys will look like.
Will they be wearing gray pants? There are also rumors of new white helmets and special red jerseys.
The new uniforms will be royal blue, said Jim Marchiony, associate athletics director, and will be accompanied by royal blue helmets—not white, as rumored. While the base color will change, the design will not. Also new next season will be a gray face mask, replacing the white one on last year's helmets, Marchiony said.
Junior shortstop Destiny Frankenstein throws toward first base during a game against North Dakota State last month. Frankenstein was named Big 12 Player of the Week yesterday for her performance last week.
Just a couple of those changes are actually for sure. With the designation of an official KU blue — royal blue — the football team was forced to abandon the navy blue jerseys it had worn since coach Mark Mangino arrived on campus.
Kansan file photo
The change in the color of the face mask brings up another popular rumor. It has been widely reported that Kansas will sport gray pants with the new color of uniform. Marchione
was unsure as to whether this would happen.
Mangino, as well as the Athletics Department and adidas, the department's new apparel supplier, all had a say in the design of the jersey for next season. Marchiony said he expected no major changes for the design of the uniform.
Still under discussion is whether the football team will have an alternate jersey next season. If the alternate jersey is designed, it will be crimson, much like the ones worn by the men's basketball and the softball teams.
"Every coach has been met with individually, and they are all part of the process," Marchionn said.
All of the department's coaches have been approached about how uniforms will look next season, the first year with adidas as the uniform provider.
No date has been set for revealing the new uniforms.
Ryan Colaianni
The Jayhawks open next season Sept. 3 at Memorial Stadium against Florida Atlantic.
Frankenstein scares competition
SOFTBALL
BY DREW DAVISON
ddavison@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTWRITER
Junior shortstop Destiny Frankenstein, team co-captain, earned her first career Big 12 Player of the Week honors, the conference office announced yesterday. Frankenstein went 6-for 10 during the week of May 2-8, helping the Jayhawks sweep Iowa State in Ames, Iowa.
"It's about time," coach Tracy Bunge said.
Bunge said there had been several weeks this year that she felt Frankenstein was deserving of the honor. The last three weeks, in particular, Frankenstein has been consistent offensively and defensively, Bunge said.
Burgie said. "I feel really honored to win. It kind of blindsided me but I'm really excited," Frankenstein said.
Frankenstein drew attention this week as she led the Jayhawks to 2-1. But most importantly, Kansas moved up to No.6 in the Big 12 standings, averting the single elimination play-in game in the conference tournament. She had six hits, including one home and a perfect fielding percentage during the week.
"The honor is very much deserved," Bunge said.
She is the second Jayhawk to be named conference Player of the Week. Junior second baseman Jessica Moppin was honored April 26.
Frankenstein, Broken Arrow, Okla., native, leads the team in batting average .360), runs (36), hits (53), home runs (14), total bases (106), slugging percentage .741), walks (22), onbase percentage .458) and assists (111).
The team left for Oklahoma City yesterday afternoon for the Big 12 tournament. Frankenstein said the team needed to continue being aggressive at the plate to do well. She said Kansas could defeat anyone in the conference.
Earlier this season, she broke the single-season home run record for Kansas. She passed Leah Tabb on the all-time list when she hit her 13th home run of the season on May 1 against Texas Tech.
"We want to win. My goal is for us to play our best ball. If we lose, I don't want it to be because we beat ourselves," she said.
"The first time we played Texas we were in awe of Osterman. We still have a great deal of respect for her but we're not in awe," Bunge said.
Bunge said the team had a lot of respect for Osterman's accomplishments.
The first stop for Kansas will be against No. 3 seed Texas on Thursday at 11 a.m. Frankenstein said the team couldn't let Cat Osterman, an Olympian, get in the way.
She said Texas was a great team but the Jayhawks would bring their "A" game to the stadium.
1
"We have to play our game every day," she said.
Bunge said the team needed to take advantage of the opportunities they got with Osterman in the circle. But the bottom line, she said, started with the pitching staff. The pitchers need to hold Texas down offensively because Osterman does not give up many runs, Bunge said.
Edited by Austin Caster
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