sports
the university daily kansar
3B
Offense should keep Jayhawks strong this weekend
Meagan True/Kansai
Sophomore Ritchie Price fielded a ground ball yesterday afternoon at Hoglund Ballpark. Kansas beat Oakland 17-2. The baseball team will take on Wisconsin Milwaukee today at 3 p.m.
By Shane Kucera
skucera@kansan.com
Kansan Sportswriter
Kansas will attempt to stay undefeated at home today when it begins a three-game series against Milwaukee-Wisconsin.
Kansas broke out of a six-game slump last week with victories against Creighton and Oakland. The Jayhawks, now 12-7-1, are on a five-game winning streak during which they have outscored opponents 52-12.
Kansas has shown itself to have multiple offensive threats. The Jayhawks are proving coach Ritch Price's prediction that this could be the best offensive team the University of Kansas has ever had.
Sophomore Ritchie Price has set another Kansas record. In 2003, Price shattered Kansas' single-season hit record with 75 hits.
Price set a new Kansas record for most hits in a game by going 6-for-6 in his last game. Price has started all 20 games at shortstop this season.
The San Luis Obispo, Calif. native has proven to be consistent so far with a .313 average, 26 runs and 20 RBI.
Senior Matt Trible has also been hot at the plate. The right fielder from Wheaton, Ill., is currently on an 11-game hitting streak. He is chasing his own record, a 20-game hit streak, which he set in 2003. Also starting in all 20 games, Tribble is batting .373 with two
home runs and 19 RBI
Jayhawk seniors Travis Metcalf and Ryan Baty have provided power to the Kansas lineup so far this season. Metcalf is leading the Big 12 Conference with six home runs and Baty leads the conference with nine doubles. Baty has gone homered twice in his last four games.
Today's game will be the return of Matt Baty. The sophomore sat out the last game because of a mild concussion he got after being hit by a wild pitch.
Batybeen the foundation of the offense this season. He leads the team in batting average (.403), hits (29), runs (22), stolen bases (13) and on-base percentage (.511).
Today's 3 p.m. game at
Hoglund Ballpark will be the season opener for the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Panthers. Last season the Panthers went 25-25 in the Division I Horizon League.
The Panthers lost nine seniors, but still return an experienced team.
Senior Ryan Knippschild will be the Jayhawks' starting pitcher.
Knippschild is coming off of a season-high eight-inning performance in which he only allowed only one run on six hits.
Weather permitting, the first 500 fans to Hoglund Ballpark will receive a free "Pure Kansas" sticker.
MEN'S BASKETBALL: Team depends on juniors for leadership
— Edited by Danielle Hillix
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
The most positive aspect has been the leadership by example and emotion of Kansas' trio of juniors: Wayne Simien, Keith Langford and Aaron Miles.
Langford has been a terror on defense lately. More impressive than his scoring has been his total of six turnovers in the past five games. His defense will be needed against Missouri's two-headed shooting guard tandem of Rickey Paulding and Jason Conley, who have been hot recently.
recently.
Simien has been the model of consistency for the Jayhawks. He has scored in double figures in nine straight games. More importantly, Simien's knack for the big play has provided plenty of emotional pick-me-ups for Kansas during the past few games. The Jayhawks will need plenty of this inspiration to silence the force of a raucous
crowd and a desperate opponent.
"It seems like this is always the pinnacle of the year," Simien said. "They'll be fighting for their lives, so it's going to be a monster game."
Kansas Basketball Notebook
Academic honors—Junior guard Aaron Miles, sophomore forward Christian Moody, sophomore forward Moulaye Niang and senior forward Brett Olson were named to the 2004 Men's Basketball Academic All-Big 12 team Wednesday night.
Moody and Olson were named to the first team, while Miles and Niang were secondteam selections. Olson made his second straight appearance on the Academic All Big 12 team, and was the only member of the 23-man All-Big 12 team with a 4.0 grade point average.
Edited by Louise Stauffer
KANSAS (19-7 Overall, 11-4 Big 12)
Probable Starters
Pos. Name Yr. PPG RPG
F David Padgett Fr. 6.7 4.7
F Wayne Simien Jr. 17.4 9.1
G J.R. Giddens Fr. 10.6 3.6
G Keith Langford Jr. 16.0 4.7
G Aaron Miles Jr. 9.2 3.9
Top Reserves
G Mike Lee Jr. 5.5 2.6
F Jeff Graves Sr. 5.4 4.8
MISSOURI (15-11 overall, 9-6 Big 12)
Probable Starters
Probable Starters
Pos. Name Yr. PPG RPG
G Jimmy McKinney So. 9.3 3.3
G Rickey Paulding Sr. 15.8 4.2
G Josh Kroenke Sr. 3.0 1.2
F Travon Bryant Sr. 10.7 6.5
F Arthur Johnson Sr. 14.9 7.5
Top Reserves
G Thomas Gardner Fr.. 6.5 2.1
G Jason Conley Jr. 7.2 3.5
MURPHY: Athletics Department's financial struggles could be due to the travel style of basketball team
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
with owners over how to split up luxuries. Rich people fighting with rich people to decide who will be the richest.
But the cheese — the cheese will push you over the edge.
It will be impossible to listen to one more bottom-line-eschewing interview with the department officials that pretend to lament stealing seats from old people for the greater good of the program
Here's one: Maybe the basketball team could travel less like the President of the United States and more like, uh, student-athletes
In numerous published interviews on the subject, athletics director Lew Perkins has said he hated to have to charge those loyal fans more money, but he is all out of ideas to keep this struggling department financially feasible. He'd love to hear any better ideas, he'll tell you.
Maybe the basketball team could travel less like the President of the United States and more like,uh,student-athletes.
If the department still wants to boost the budget by charging long-time season ticket holders another $5,000 it should go ahead and do it. But it might want to send them a block of Jayhawk cheese to help break the news.
Doyle Murphy is Baldwin City senior in journalism.
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