Sports
Monday, April 7, 1986
University Daily Kansan
9
Baseball set to open regular season
United Press International
After six weeks of formulating questions in the sun of Florida and Arizona, major league baseball teams begin to get some answers today.
That's when the season officially opens with five scheduled games stretching from coast to coast. Detroit is at Boston; Cleveland is at Baltimore and Milwaukee is at Iowa. Larry Johnson is at Philadelphia is at Cincinnati and San Diego is at Los Angeles in the National League.
See related stories p. 12.
Over the next six months fans across the country will get the answers to the following questions and many more:
Is there life in Los Angeles without Pedro Guerrero?
Can Lou Piniella survive baseball's hottest seat as manager of the New York Yankees?
■ Is rookie Pete Incaviglia of the Texas Rangers really the fictional Roy Hobbs come to life?
The Detroit Tigers have the honor of being the first team to take the field this season, entertaining the Boston Red Sox in Tiger Stadium at Citi Field. Jack Morris will start for Detroit against Boston left-hander Bruce Hurst
The starting time of the Red Sox-Tigers game has created a bit of a furor in Cincinnati, where the Reds have traditionally had the honor of opening the season. The Reds will play host to the Philadelphia Phillies today but the game is not scheduled to start until 1:05 p.m.
The fact the Red Sox-Tigers game starts a half hour before the Reds game does not sit well with J. Kenneth Blackwell, Cincinnati's Vice
opening day is a long-cherished tradition in Cincinnati and not one to be taken lightly. Blackwell said.
Mavor.
Tigers spokesman Robert Miller said Detroit had not intended to upstage the Reds.
it's just a quirk in the schedule." Miller said. "There was no intention on the part of the commissioner, the American League or the Tigers to steal the thunder away from the Reds. The Reds' game has been designated as the traditional opener of baseball."
Fans attending the Reds-Phillies game will not get to see baseball's all-time hit leader, Pete Rose, in action. Rose, bothered by a stomach virus and flu all spring, was forced to place himself on the 15-day disabled list yesterday and will be relegated strictly to managing the club for the first two weeks of the season. It is only the second time in his 24-year
career that Rose has gone on the disabled list.
Rose has named right-hander Mario Soto as his opening day starter and the Phillies will counter with left-hander Steve Carlton. The game will mark a comeback for the 41-year-old Carlton, a four-time Cy Young Award winner who appeared in only 16 games last year.
Another left-handed pitcher attempting a comeback, Mike Flanagan, will start for Baltimore in its opener at home against Cleveland. Flanagan missed most of last season with a knee injury and pitched in only 15 games. Ken Schrom will start for Cleveland.
A knee injury is already plaguing the Dodgers as they begin the defense of their National League West title. The Dodgers will take the field without Guerrero, their most feared slugger. He suffered a torn tendon behind his right knee.
Running game still needs improvement
Robby Santos, the White team quarterback, scrambles out of the way of a Blue team defender. The White team won the annual spring intrasquid scrimmage 13-10 in overtime. They were served steaks after the game Saturday by members of the Blue team, which had to settle for hot dogs.
Running Overtime needed for White team to post 13-10 win
By Jim Suhr
Sports writer
Kansas first-year head football coach Bob Valiesente now knows the hill the Jayhawks have to climb.
Valsente completed his first spring season as the Jayhawk head coach Saturday with the White team's 13-10 overtime win in the annual spring intrasquad scrimmage at Memorial Stadium.
Valesente found the problems he inherited from former Kansas
Football
head coach Mike Gottfried are still there — mainly, the lack of a running game.
"The running game wasn't as powerful as I hoped it would be," he said. "We have to keep working harder to improve it."
The Blue team was held to six yards rushing on 24 carries while the White team rushed 34 times for 123 vards.
Running back Mike Rogers led all rushers with 80 yards on 12 carries. Thirty-three of those yards were on the final minute and in overtime.
Rogers ended a defense- dominated game with a one-yard touchdown run in overtime to give the White team the win.
The game was decided in overtime by high school rules. After a 7-7 tie in regulation, both teams scored a point and scored to score from the 10-ard lions.
Valesente said the main thing he was disappointed with was a problem with penalties. The White team lost 85 yards on eight penalties and the Blue team 55 on six.
The Blues had first possession in the overtime period and scored on a 29-yard field goal by Chase Van Dyne. On the White's first play, Rogers swept left for nine yards to
set up his one-yard touchdown run,
his second touchdown of the afternoon.
Rogers, the projected starting tailback, scored the first touchdown of the game on a one-down run with 5.25 remaining in
"After looking at the rosters and the draft, I knew it would be a nailbiter." Valesente said. "I was asked to pick a favorite, but I couldn't — it was a tosup.-
Defenses that bent but never broke dominated the game, which attracted fewer than 1,000 sunseekers to Memorial Stadium on a beautiful and warm Saturday afternoon.
The White defense held the Blue to 196 total yards. The White team did only slightly better, gaining 224 vards.
"I liked what we tried to accomplish defensively," Valesen said. "We've talked all spring about a swarming three-downs-and-off defense. Many times today, we had eight, nine, ten shoes around the football. Whoever had it paid the price."
Defensive end Phil Forte led the Blue defense unit with six tackles, including four unassisted, and a quarterback sack. Defensive end Teddy Newman was the standout for the White squad with six unassisted tackles and two
quarterback sacks.
Offensively, Valesente said the brightest of the bright spots Saturday was the performance of junior quarterback Mike Orth — the favorite to succeed Mike Norseth.
Orth missed his first four passes, but rebounded to complete 15-of-25 passes for 133 yards and one touchdown.
Robby Santos, quarterback for the White team, completed five-of-14 passes for 76 vards.
Eight players, including Kansas' top three receivers (Willie Vaughn, Sal Lewis and Ronnie Caldwell) were excused from the game so they could concentrate on their schoolwork.
Fans in the north end of Memorial Stadium worked on their tans while wait- won by a score of 13-10 in overtime, ching the annual spring intraquad football game Saturday. The White team
van Graves/KANSAN
Kansas second baseman, Geno Nebbitt, eluded the tag of the Missouri first baseman, Mike Rogers, during a pick-off attempt in the first game of yesterday's double-header. The Jayhawks lost the first game 5-3 and won the the second game 7-4.
KU salvages split of weekend series
By Tom Farmer
Sports writer
In the first game, the Jayhawks committed five errors and lost 5-3, after holding a 3-1 lead.
Kansas used a strong pitching performance from senior John Heeney and a couple of clutch base hits to beat Missouri 7-4 in the second game of a Big Eight double-header yesterday afternoon at Quigley Field.
Heeney went the distance in the second game raising his record to 3-3. After allowing three runs in the first two innings, Heeney settled down to strike out four and walk one while allowing seven hits in the victory.
Marty Pattin, Kansas head baseball coach, was pleased with his pitcher's performance, but said he had noticed Heeney was having difficulty getting loose in the first few innings of previous outings.
While Henney held the Tiger offense in check, left fielder Hugh Stanfield and catcher Darrel Matthews singled in two runs apiece to pace the Javahawks offensive.
The first game was marred by five jayhawk errors, a problem that Patrik Bassan had.
Trailing 3-1 in the second inning, Stanfield lined a single to left driving in two runs. Matthews' big hit came in the fifth inning when he stroked a single up the middle to put Kansas ahead 6-3.
"Defense has been hurting us," Pattin said after the games. "Missing balls in the outfield can happen to
Second baseman Geno Nebbitt supplied the power in the victory with his seventh home run this season in the first inning. It was the only home run by either team during the afternoon.
anyone but it seems to happen to us more."
With the game tied at three in the seventh inning, the Tigers took advantage of two KU miscues and scored two runs to win the first game.
"We had some opportunities in the first game, but it slipped away," he said. "We've been hitting well and we've done great pitching. I pleased with that."
A ground ball to shortstop Gary Lang could have gotten the Jayhawks out of the inning, but his throw to second base was off the mark allowing the Tigers to score an insurance run.
Pattin, who celebrated his 43rd birthday yesterday, said he thought the team was playing pretty well overall.
In Saturday's action the Jayhawks also split a pair with the Tigers. Missouri won the first game 8-5, and Kansas came back to win the second game 10-5.
The Jayhawks scored six runs in the second games' sixth innning to increase its 4-3 lead. Jon Pattin and Stanfield each had four hits on the afternoon for Kansas. The victory in the second game went to Steve Purdy, 3-4.
The Jayhawks will play a doubleheader against Fort Hays State Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. at Quigley.
Missouri 5, KU 3
Tigers . 000 101 120-5 80
Jayhawks . 000 030 030-3 10.5
Jaguars . 000 101 120-5 80
and Rifle Book Gun Bufoft (8)
and Pistol W-Warco (2-1)
L—Beford (1-3), WP—Beford,
L—Beford (1-3), WP—Beford,
KU 7. Missouri 4
Tigers ... 210 000 | a-4 71
Jayhawks ... 121 021 | c-3 105
Schnurbush, Richmond (3)
Slavin; Heeney and Matthews.
W—Heeney (3-3) L—Schnurbush
(2-1) HR—HrBritt (7).
Jayhawks defeat Missouri 6-0 to grab share of Big Eight lead
By Jim Suhr
Sports writer
Kansas pitcher Tracy Bunge went the full game and gave up only six hits in a 6-0 shutout of Missouri yesterday at Jayhawk Field. It was the third win in four games played over the weekend by the Jayhawks, who are ranked fifth in the country. Brugge, who also was one of three
Softball
Jayhawks to get three hits against the Tigers, improved her season record to 12-5 and helped Kansas improve its overall mark to 27-9.
The win gave the Jayhawks at least a share of the Big Eight Conference lead at 3-1 — pending the outcome of games played last night at Manhattan among Kansas State, Nebraska and Oklahoma. Nebraska is ranked No. 10 nationally and Oklahoma is ranked No. 19.
Jayhawk right fielder Ann Brent had two of Kansas' six hits, including a single in the third inning that knocked in the Jahwhaws' only run
Kansas, which opened its Big Eight Conference season Saturday with a 2-1 loss to No. 17 Oklahoma State in 1985, that loss has with a 1-4 win yesterday.
Kansas pitcher Sherri Mach gave up seven hits and struck out two batters in 5½ innings before receiving a wild pitch. He saved up her second save of the season.
Bob Stancill, Kansas head coach,
said after the win over the Tigers
that he was pleased the Jayhawks
were some of the confidence
at the plate.
The second game yesterday was the 6-0 win over Missouri. Kansas also beat Missouri 2-1 on Saturday.
"It's just a matter of staying in there and getting our confidence back," he said. "At times we lose our aggressiveness, and we're forced to
hit when we're behind in the count.
"We're not back to where we were. Everyone was so hot at the beginning of the year, and that was contagious. There was no way we were going to keep that pace up. Then we cooled down."
hit when we're behind in the count.
Kansas remained cool Saturday. The Jayhawks had just six hits in its 2-1 loss to Oklahoma State and mustered only two more in its 2-1 win against Missouri.
But just as yesterday's heat warmed about 60 fans at Jayhawk Field, it also warmed up the Jayhawks and their bats. Kansas got seven hits after coming to life midway through Oklahoma State. That momentum came down to the next game and Kansas pounded 10 hits in the 6.0 shutout of Missouri.
Stancilf said he hoped that momentum would continue on the road next weekend when the Jayhawks face Iowa State and Oklahoma at Ames, Iowa.
'Hawks successful at two meets
By Matt Tidwell
and Dawn O'Malley Sports writers
The Kansas men's track team had three athletes place first at the Kansas State Invitational in Manhattan and three team members place at the Texas Relays in Austin, Texas, this weekend.
At the Texas Relays, Scott Huffman placed second in the pole
Track
Jayhawk pole vault coach Rick Attig said this jump could have been a stepping stone for Huffman.
vault with a leap of 17 feet 7 inches, and Chris Bohanan was fourth with a mark of 16-10. Kansas freshman David Bond was fifth in the triple jump at 50-5%.
Bohanan could have finished higher had it not been for an injury.
"I really felt Chris would be right up there with Scott but he strained his hamstring." Attig said.
"We're working on some things with Scott that we feel will really allow him to improve," Attig said. "He's not very far from having a really big jump."
The majority of the men traveled to Kansas State, where three athletes won individual events. No team scores were tallied.
Other highlights for the Jayhaws included Rodney Harris' 21.95 time in the 200-yard dash and Sharrieff Hazim's fifth place finish in the high jump with a leap of 6-8.
Sophomore Mike Miller placed first in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 52.86 seconds, Ron Bahm was first in the javelin with a toss of 230-5 and senior Tom Hays finished first in the pole vault with a jump of 16-1.
Competing against the Jayhawks in Manhattan were K-State. Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa
State, Oklahoma, Central Missouri State, North Dakota State and Barton County Community College.
The men's team will compete once more, next weekend at the Shocker Sports Festival in Philadelphia. The game ends April 18 at Memorial Stadium.
At the Kansas State Invitational, Veranda O'Hara and Kim Jones were the top finishers for the Kansas women's team.
O'Hara won the 400-meter dash with a time of 56.29 seconds. Jones' long jump of 19.9 was good enough to qualify for the nationalional best jump for her this year.
in the triple jump, Rosie Wadman finished fifth with her 37-71 jump.
4
In the high jump, Jaci Tymia placed third with a jump of 5-4. In the 100-meter dash Mimi Walters finished fifth and sixth respectively. Wickliffe ran 12.76 and Aubuchon's time was 12.80.