THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2008
SPORTS
3B
SOFTBALL
Team heads into cold weather confident after on-road stint
BY KELLY BRECKUNITCH
kbreckunitch@kansan.com
The Kansas softball team has competed in tournaments in Florida, Nevada, Texas and Illinois. After compiling a 15-5 in these road
tournaments, the Jayhawks will open their home season with the Jayhawk Classic tournament.
The layhawks return from Carbondale, Ill. where they finished with a 3-1 record last weekend. They lost a close game to the eighth-ranked Northwestern Wildcats 2-0. The Jayhawks finished the tournament by shutting out Southern Illinois and exploding offensively on the final day by beating Western Illinois 8-6 and Bradley 10-2.
McCaulley
The Jayhawks face Western Illinois again this weekend, along with Indiana State and Pittsburgh.
"It's a nice balance of teams," coach Tracy Bunge said. She said each team brought something different to the competition. Bunge said Western Illinois had a good line-up, Indiana State had good pitching and Pittsburgh was a team that got off to a good start but had struggled lately.
Junior center fielder Dougie McCaulley said the team was very confident going into this weekend's games.
weekend games
Saturday:
vs. Indiana State, 3 p.m.
Sunday:
Sunday:
vs. Pittsburgh, noon
vs. Indiana State, 4 p.m.
Monday:
vs. Western Illinois, 2 p.m.
"There's no reason why we shouldn't go undefeated these next couple weekends. We feel like we can compete with any team out there right now," McGaulle said.
McCauley had a great weekend in Illinois batting .571 in the Southern Illinois Invitational and leads the team with a .403 season batting average.
The layhawks are finally receiving votes in the Top 25 polls, but McCaulley said that didn't really matter to her.
Bunge mirrored that statement
"The polls are nice to get some recognition, but that's basically all it is. It's recognition," Bunge said. Bunge said it was more important to make the post-season tournament, because the Jayhawks were ranked in the Top 25 at the end of the season and missed out on post-season play before.
Bunge said a strong factor in
making the College Softball World Series was winning the regional games the team played in the regular season. Indiana State and Western Illinois are both teams in the Jayhawks' region.
McCaulley said the team chemistry had grown a lot so far this year. She also shared Bunge's idea that the Jayhawks are very balanced and team-oriented.
"Every player plays a key role in every win that we have," McCaulley said.
Bunge said this week the team will try to improve offensively and will fight the cold weather for some practice time outside. The team will have to play in cold weather this weekend and Bunge said they would have to adjust.
Bunge said that she tried to start this season this time each year because it was the earliest time she thought the weather could work for a softball tournament.
"The hard part is always to get people to come here and play here in March," Bunge said.
The weather was the reason why the game times were rescheduled this weekend. The teams will try and avoid the cold weather as best as possible, but Western Illinois, Indiana State and Pittsburgh are all from cold areas so they should not be affected.
Edited by Nick Mangiaracina
MLB
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kansas City Royals shortstop Tony Pena Jr. can't get a glove on a ball hit by Arizona diamondbacks' Eric Brynes during the fifth inning of a spring training baseball game in Surprise, Ariz. Thursday. The Royals defeated the Arizona diamondbacks 4-3.
Royals defeat Diamondbacks 4-3
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SURPRISE, Ariz. — Ryan Shealy is making a case to break camp as Kansas City's starting first baseman — with his bat.
Shealy led off the bottom of the ninth with a home run Thursday to give the Royals a 4-3 win over
the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Dianne Brooks
Shealy began last season as the starter, but lost the job after a slow start and hamstring injuries. He is competing with Ross Gload and
"It was good to see" Royals manager Trey Hillman said. "Shealy's got some pop. He's got a big frame with long levers. His swing right
Shealy, who's 6-foot-5 and 240 pounds, has homered in back-to-back games.
games this year. I was sick. I'm just glad to be out there."
Billy Butler for the spot.
Shealy, who missed a week with the flu, homered into the left-field bullpen on the first pitch from right-hander Jailen Peguero.
"Shealy's got some pop. He's got a big frame with long levers. His swing right now is pretty good."
Shealy, who has won two minor league home run titles, hit only three in 172 at-bats last year for the Royals.
"It's good just to be healthy and be able to play," Shealy said. "I didn't get to play at the end of last year. Then, soon as we started
TREY HILLMAN Kansas City Royals manager
now is pretty good."
Shealy also committed a
fielding error in the top of the first inning, but rookie Carlos Rosa struck out two Diamondbacks to prevent any damage.
The Diamondbacks jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second off Zack Greinke. Orlando Hudson drove in a pair of runs with two-out single after Chris Burke's first double scored Chris Snyder for Arizona's first run.
Diamondbacks starter Dan Haren threw three scoreless innings, allowing two hits and striking out three.
"This time it wasn't really me pitching real bad," said Greinke, who gave up three runs on five hits and two walks in three innings. "They hit some pretty good pitches. I broke two bats."
After the victory, Hillman huddled his team around home plate to address base running. Gload was thrown out trying to steal third, and Butler was thrown out at second trying to tag up on fly out by Justin Huber.
"I was just talking about running the bases," Hillman said. "We had a couple of mistakes today, I'm not displeased. We won the game, but we've got to run the bases the right way all the time. We had a couple of mistakes, but I'm not going to go into them, and we could have been in a better position."
》 CLUB SPORTS
Team to play first home tournament
BY JOE PREINER
jpreiner@kansan.com
Three teams for the KU women's club volleyball program will play in the team's first home tournament of the semester Saturday. The team, comprised of many new players, looks to continue its productive season after playing well in its first two tournaments. The Jayhawks' third tournament is made up of Kansas A, B and C teams as well as five other teams from the Midwest.
The KU women's squads will go up against teams from Missouri, Kansas State, Iowa State and Missouri Sciences and Tech. The home tournament will be played at George F. Collins Jr. Gymnasium at Baker University. The arena is located at Sixth and Freemont streets in Baldwin City, a 10-minute drive from campus.
Emily Strusz, Republic, Mo., sophomore, has high hopes for the weekend's matches.
"We are expecting to do very well this tournament and place high," Strusz said. "Hopefully, with this being our home tournament
The women's club volleyball team has not won either of its previous two tournaments this year, which were both held out-of-state. The performance has not deterred or discouraged the team. Having only two players returning from last year's top team, the Jayhawks have found winning streaks hard to come by.
and all, we will be able to win the whole thing."
"This year started out a little rough," Strusz said. "But we have a lot of great new girls who have contributed a lot to the team."
This tournament will be the first time the entire squad is able to play together. The lack of gaps in the lineup helps the team be more competitive on the floor. The event, which marks the midway point of the team's season, also allows friends and family to see the team play close to home.
Team president Sara Schemmel, Shawnee senior, said the tournament day was split into two parts. The first part is round-robin pool play, which establishes the rankings for the elimination round later
Saturday afternoon. She also said team unity was an important factor if the team expected to win.
"This weekend will be all about team cohesiveness, playing to our level and enjoying ourselves," Schemmel said. "The biggest difference between a good and a great team is being able to play at your top level even when you aren't playing the most challenging teams. We tend to play to the level of our competition instead of our own, which hurts us in the end."
The tournament is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. and end sometime after 5 p.m. The KU women's club team is confident about its abilities and players said they would continue to have good sportsmanship and attitudes no matter the result.
"We have a lot of young girls, lots of freshmen and sophomores, so even if this season isn't extremely successful it's a good season to build on," Strusz said. "This season has already been a lot of fun, so hopefully we can continue to play well and have fun while doing it."
—Edited by Samuel Lamb
NFL
Broncos sign Champ Bailey's brother
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Bailey brothers are teaming up in Denver.
The Broncos on Thursday signed free agent linebacker Boss Bailey, the younger brother of perennial Pro Bowl cornerback Champ Bailey.
"I'm excited to have the chance to play with my brother, and I know that Boss' speed and versatility will have a great impact on our defense," Champ Bailey said. "I can't wait to get on the field with him."
Boss Bailey spent his first five seasons in Detroit, after being selected in the second round of the 2003 draft. He had a standout career at the University of Georgia, where he followed his older brother as an all-conference selection.
The 28-year-old linebacker has
Last season, he had a career-best 3 1/2 sacks and 47 tackles in 15 games.
appeared in 58 games, including 51 starts, and has made 258 tackles, seven sacks and two interceptions.
A phone message left for his agent, Jack Reale, was not immediately returned.
The Baileys will be the fourth pair of brothers to play for the Broncos, and will join Dave and Doug Widell (1990-92) and Eldon and William Danenhauer (1960) as the only brothers to play for the franchise at the same time.
Although coach Mike Shanahan has said the organization is shifting its emphasis from free agency to the draft to fill its many needs after missing the playoffs two straight years, the Broncos shored up their linebacker corps with experience this week.
They already had signed free agent Niko Koutouvides, who will get a chance to start at middle linebacker, and waived Ian Gold, who spent seven seasons in Denver sandwiched around a season in Tampa Bay in 2004.
Boss Bailey will play strong side linebacker in Denver, and D.J. Williams will move back to the weak side after a year in the middle.
Shepherd is a fifth-year player who's spent time on the rosters of Detroit, Houston (2006), Tampa Bay (2003-06) and Chicago (2002-03). He has 13 catches for 163 yards and one touchdown in 25 career regular season games.
The Broncos also signed free agent receiver Edell Shepherd on Thursday. He spent the 2007 season out of the NFL after the Detroit Lions released him in late August.
》 NCAA BASKETBALL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tennessee dominates play in SEC
Since Tennessee defeated Memphis and moved to No.1 for the first time in school history, the Volunteers played three straight three-point games.
They lost 72-69 to Vanderbilt in their first game as a top-ranked team early last week and then beat Kentucky 63-60 on Sunday.
After dropping to fourth in the rankings, Tennessee had another close one Wednesday night, defeating Florida 89-86 to set a school record with its 27th victory and clinch its first Southeastern Conference regular-season title since 1967.
"I hope everyone back home is celebrating. You have to respect the competition to appreciate how difficult it was for us to do this on a night Florida played great basketball."
"You hate to equate it to what's bigger, but it's clearly one of the biggest wins of the last three years," Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said. "To win it outright against the competition we're facing is special.
Jajuan Smith scored 23 points and Chris Llootton added 21 for the
"Those two guys, they do it every single game," Gators coach Billy Donovan said. "It's a special and unique quality that they have to really be able to make extremely difficult shots and I thought that was the difference in the game in the second half."
In other games involving ranked teams on Wednesday, it was: No. 2 Memphis 72, SMU 55; No. 6 Duke 86, Virginia 70; No. 10 Wisconsin 77, Penn State 41; No. 16 Vanderbilt 86, Mississippi State 85 in overtime; No. 18 Indiana 69, Minnesota 55; and No. 19 Notre Dame 68, St. John's 55.
The Gators (21-9, 8-7) made their first nine shots, were ahead
But Tennessee turned to Smith and Lofton down the stretch, and they delivered. The duo combined to shoot 15-of-26 from the field, including 8-of-15 from three-point range.
Volunteers (27-3, 13-2), who trailed by 16 points in the first half.
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Smith's two threes were equally impressive. After he gave the Volunteers their first lead of the game, 70-69, with a layup, he hit threes on consecutive possessions.
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Lofton's first three, a wide-open shot from the elbow, made it 63-58. His second, an off-balance shot with a defender in his face, started a 14-0 run.
Lofton and Smith started shooting well late.
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35-19 midway through the first half and looked like they might get their biggest win of the season.
"I'm starting to think Coach Pearl is a genius," Smith said. "I just figured it out. He told us before the game that Florida was going to come out hot. ... He told us, 'Handle it. They're not going to keep shooting the ball that well.'"
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