2B THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2005
ATHLETICS CALENDAR
Baseball vs. Texas, 6 p.m., Hoglund Ballpark
TOMORROW
Liftin' the pigskin
TOMORROW
♦ Softball at Iowa State, 2 p.m., Ames, Iowa
♦ Baseball vs. Texas, 6 p.m., Hoglund Ballpark
SUNDAY
- Baseball vs. Texas, noon, Hoglund Ballpark
* Softball at Iowa State, noon, Ames, Iowa
SOFTBALI
Softball team gains another Chaparral High School alum
The Kansas softball team added its third signee from the high school class of 2005 yesterday.
Kansas coach Tracy Bunge announced the signing of Erika Simington from Scottsdale, Ariz.
Simington has been a four-year varsity starter for Chaparral High School and is considered one of the top hitters and catchers in the state.
She received all-region and all-state honors and is currently hitting .466 with six home runs.
Simington also has a 3.6 grade point average at Chaparral. She intends to major in business and marketing at the University;
Arizona has produced several current Jayhawks on the squad including sophomore pitcher Kassie Humphries junior third baseman Nettie Fierros, junior and freshman outfielders Jackie Vasquez and Cyndi Duran. Assistant coach Christi Musser played high school softball at Chaparral as well.
Simington will join Val Chapple and Stevie Crisosto in the 2005 class.
— Drew Davison
SPORT
Senior golfer earns spot on All-Big 12 Conference team
Senior golfer Kevin Ward was named to the 2005 All-Big 12 Conference team Wednesday for the first time in his four-year career.
Ward has been the team-leader and the most consistent golfer for the Jayhawks all season long.
He leads the team with his 72-stroke average.
His top performance of the season came at the Colorado-Stevinson Ranch Invitational March 21-22.
In the second round, Ward fired a career-low 64 and went on to win the tournament, shooting a three-round total of 208 (8-under-par).
part.
The Leawood native propelled Kansas to its second consecutive victory in the event and sixth in the past seven years.
in the past seven Ward was named national player of the week by Golfweek on April 1 for his play in the Stevinson Ranch Invitational.
Erin Droste/KANSAN
This spring, Ward has been the top finisher in five of the Jayhawk's seven tournaments, and eight of the 10 tournaments in the 2004-05 season.
"He's one of the hardest working players we've ever had," coach Ross Randall said. "I am glad to see that all of his hard work finally paid off."
Ward's name appears on a list with some of the best players in college golf. Oklahoma's Anthony Kim, Big 12 Tournament champion, was named the 2005 Men's Big 12 Golf Player of the Year. Also on this year's all-conference team were Jeremy Alcorn of Baylor, Tyler Leon, Zack Robinson and Alex Noren of Oklahoma State and Matthew Rosenfeld of Texas.
Oklahoma State's Pablo Martin won the Newcomer of the Year award, and Oklahoma State coach Mike Holden won Coach of the Year for the third time.
Kevin Ward will next lead the Jayhawks into play at the NCAA Regionals in South Bend, Ind., on May 19-21. Kansas is seeded fourth in the tournament.
Tim Hall
Chad Addington, Wamego senior, tags Bret Johnson, Troy freshman, during a game of tag football yesterday afternoon outside of Robinson Center. The two played with other members of their weightlifting class in the sunny, 70-degree weather.
WOMEN'S GOLF
Golf team not green
By TRAVIS ROBINETT
trobinet@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTSWITTER
Without any seniors on the women's golf team this season, the juniors were the ones who gave the underclassmen lessons in experience.
"I think the girls really do look up to us, being older," junior Meredith Winkelmann said.
Winkelmann, along with fellow juniors
Chesisey
Pryor and
Tiffany
Woods,
have big
goals for
their last
year at
Kansas s.
With region-
als or
With regionals once Pryor
again the team's main goal, the incoming seniors will be the ones taking responsibility.
"We want to do whatever we can to be the best leaders on and off the golf course that we can be," Pryor said. "We really want to be good representatives of this team and we want to take our team to regionals.
The Jayhawks were close to accomplishing their goal of getting to regionals this year. With everyone returning, the experience gained this year could really pay off.
"Frankly I think just having the opportunity to sit in that room and listen to the list of names going to regionals was really important," Pryor said. "We've never done that before, even never been in that position to do that."
Another positive aspect for next season is that coach Erin O'Neil will be in her second season with Kansas. After taking over for M e g a n m E m n z e l O'Neil, a former Future's Tour player, which is the developmental tour for the LPGA, added
"She's a big fan of getting a lot of quality out of your practice," she said. "It's not necessarily about quantity. Especially for me, and I think for a lot of the girls on the team too, that was really important, and I think that helped us a lot this year."
more organization and focus to the team's practices, Pryor said.
Winklemann
During the summer, Pryor and Winkelmann agreed that their short game would be their
top priority to help lower their scores, and that playing in a few tournaments would keep the competition up. Pryor will go home to Washington, Pa., but Winkelmann said she planned to stay in Lawrence and take advantage of Kansas' facilities.
"A lot of us go to the same tournaments," Winkelmann said. "A lot of people come back to Lawrence maybe once or twice during the summer, too."
When the incoming freshmen show up for practice in the fall, they will have nine returning players to draw advice from. Pryor said that her advice to
Woods
them would be to come in with a positive attitude, but realize that it will not be great every day they go to the course.
"If you realize that sooner rather than later, you'll be able to handle it better," she said. "Fun is key. It's college, and although everyone is here to work hard and do well you also need to have a good experience. And we're fun."
MLB
Edited by Austin Caster
Nationals confident in possibilities
BY HOWARD FENDRICH THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Toward the end of the Washington Nationals' first month in its new home, where the team has been winning more than losing, someone took a black marker to the white board outside its RFK Stadium clubhouse and scribbled this:
"We might not have it all together right now
guys but together we can have it all. Let's do it."
Inspirational? Perhaps. Sappy? Sure. Indicative of fresh expectations for a team that not long ago was the last-place Montreal Expos? Very much so.
One calendar page into their debut season, the Washington Nationals are 15-13, averaging better than 30,000 fans and taking pleasure in the little things — such as packing a tiny overnight bag for short road trips.
"We've just got to fight back and not let ourselves get down because we lost two in a row or whatever. This club is more mature and doesn't let that bother it," said second baseman Jose Vidro, whose Montreal tenure was the longest among current players. "This team is capable of winning one-run games, 1-0 games. This team is capable of anything."
And there's no lack of confidence.
anything. Such as taking two of three games at the NL West-leading Dodgers, a feat capped yesterday with Livan Hernandez's complete game in a 5-2 victory.
to going 0-795.
“If you want to look at last year, it’s making tremendous progress,” manager Frank Robinson said. “But I don’t look at last year. I look at this year, and how the team is playing. I like the way we’ve played.”
A win at San Francisco today would be No. 16. The Expos didn't have that many until May 30 last season, by which point they had lost 33 en route to going 67-95.
Yet asked what the most pleasant surprise of 2005 has been, the Hall of Famer didn't refer to John Patterson's 1.60 ERA or Washington's 7-4 record in games decided by one or two runs; the 2004 Expos were 16-30 in one-run games.
Instead, he pointed to support at home.
Instead, he polluted the last year's Expos averaged 9,356 spectators in Montreal and San Juan. Through 13 games, the Nationals are averaging 30,672 — 12th in the majors. And that's without any marketing to speak of: The first campaign, "Let Yourself Go," starts next week.
In Baltimore, the Orioles are drawing 29,354, a drop of nearly 15 percent from last season's average. Only 15,641, the smallest crowd in Camden Yards' 14 years, showed up Monday for the team leading the AL East.
And it's not just the numbers that excite Robinson and his players.
It's the jeers when opposing pitchers throw to first base to hold a runner. It's the standing ovation for Vinny Castilla when he went to bat needing a single to complete a cycle. It's the bouncing that makes the stands shake. It's the "Gooooz" calls when Cristian Guzman comes to the plate.
"I figured we'd draw well," Robinson said, "but I didn't know if they'd be this enthusiastic."
There are other adjustments, of course. Robinson gets to and from the stadium with the help of a car and driver, because the D.C. streets are tough to navigate. Outfielder Brad Wilkerson was checking out real estate ads in front of his locker last weekend.
There have been problems with RFK. The mound is being rebuilt this week, and co-tenant D.C. United complained that its soccer field was lopsided. But the Nationals are learning the park's quirks — balls carry down the lines and die in center, for example.
Now, if they could just get a new owner, the Nationals would finally feel like any major league team. The other 29 clubs own the Nationals.
"I'd still like to see an owner get in here and take control of this ballclub," Wilkerson said. "It would make a huge difference."
FR