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Blue Devil of a race
The University Daily Kansan
Songandaprayer, a horse owned by former Duke basketball star Bobby Hurley, will compete at the 127th Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Chruchill Downs.
Sports
Inside: Kansas senior rower Ali Brox describes the experience of a regatta race.
SEE PAGE 3B
Inside: The Kansas women's swimming team signed five recruits yesterday.
SEE PAGE 3B
TUESDAY, MAY 1. 2001 For comments, contact Shawn Hutchinson or Shawn Linenberger at 864-4858 or sports@kansan.com
KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
Rocket science could explain baseball team's season woes
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand what's put the Kansas baseball team off course lately.
But it would help.
Ray Taghavi is a rocket scientist and professor of aerospace engineering. He doesn't consider himself a baseball fan, but he knows the game well enough to lend some insight on the similarities between Kansas' hot-and-cold play and the basic principles of rocket propulsion.
Taghavi is a former NASA researcher who lists among his areas of expertise "supersonic jet noise." Take note — a team that has won just five of its last 23 games should be open to taking the scientific approach to figure out what's gone wrong.
The first rule of rocket science is Isaac Newton's Second Law of Motion — a body's momentum is equal to the force acting upon it. When applied to a rocket, it's explained by a simple formula: F (the force on the rocket) = T (the rocket's thrust) · M*g (gravity) · $ \frac{1} {2} $ (the downward force on the rocket)
The same principle applies to this year's baseball team.
F is the team's momentum through the season. The force on a rocket is not constant — it comes in fiery spurts as the motor struggles against gravity and drag force.
Kansas' season has also been defined by hot and cold spells. After going 7-1 in mid-March, the Jayhawks dropped 10 straight. They were shut out twice during the slide and allowed 10 runs three times. Since then, they've gone 5-8, struggling against Nebraska and Texas Tech. They allowed at least five runs in every loss from the time the skid began up to last week's series with Texas Tech.
A rocket's thrust, "T" is like the team's overall hitting consistency. Opponents regularly put up enough runs to demand an offensive response from the Jayhawks. Kansas' bats will have to give the team a boost if it wants to scrounge up wins against Kansas State to close out the season.
Since the month-long dry spell began, Kansas' team batting average has dropped from .286 at the team's peak to .264 after Sunday's loss to Texas Tech.
the one constant in rocket science is gravity — it always exercises the same level of force against a rocket blasting off into the stratosphere. Unless, as Taghavi points out, the rocket loses weight as it unloads its warheads. But for the sake of the comparison, he will willing to assume the rocket is "naked."
Like gravity, Kansas' opposition has been steady during the drought. Opponents were hitting about .290 against Kansas pitching at the beginning of the team's slump in March and maintained that average through their weekend series in Lubbock.
The drag force on a rocket, referred as "K*V*2", depends on wind resistance. The finesse with which the rocket's nose and fins cut through the thinning atmosphere as it climbs into space at several times the speed of sound helps determine its force.
"Say you have a rocket with a missile on it that's leaving the atmosphere," Taqhavi said nonchantly in his Learned Hall office. A rocket moves faster and easier when it exits the atmosphere, he explained.
Despite its decreasingly productive offense, Kansas has shown some signs of finesse since beginning its midseason slide. More tactful baserunning has hiked the team's stolen base success rate by 20 percent, and baserunners have been caught just four times in 29 attempts in the season's second half.
Perhaps like a rocket cutting more easily through a weakening gravitational field as it leaves the Earth?
"Something like that." Taghavi said.
Krall is a Bartlett, MI, sophomore in journalism.
But the resistance that held Kansas back early in the season had to do with a lack of finesse as well — defensive finesse. The Jayhawks have committed nine errors in their last seven games, but Kansas pulled out of the 10-game slide with some of its most solid defense of the season — they strung together six of seven errorless games last month.
1 here were signs of life in Kansas' 5-12 run in April, including Sunday's narrow 4-3 loss Sunday against Texas Tech.
But at this point, fans can start looking forward to next spring's launch.
Kansas now playing for pride
Right fielder Jesse Gremminger collides with Nebraska-Omaha's catcher during a recent home game. The Jayhawks will play Washburn at 6 tonight at Hoglund Ballpark. KANSAN file photo.
Close losses drop baseball team to last in Big 12
By Ryan Malashock sports@kanson.com
Kansas sportwriter
Failing to win close ball games finally caught up with the Kansas baseball team.
The Jayhawks know they will be playing for pride when they go up against Washburn at 6 tionight at Hoglund Ballpark.
After dropping all three of their weekend games at Texas Tech by only a combined total of four runs, the Jayhawks were eliminated from contention for the Big 12 Conference Tournament.
Kansas fell to 19-29 overall and is in last place in the Big 12 standings with a 5-22 record. But some of Kansas' opponents have said the Jayhawks' record does not indicate the quality of their team.
Texas Tech reliever Steve Rowe recorded the final two outs in the Red Raiders' 4-3 win Sunday, but said he was impressed by Kansas's talent and performance.
"It's good to get a sweep from Kansas," he said after his save Sunday. "They played really well. They played us as tough as anyone has all season for three ball games. I don't understand how they're last in the conference."
Kansas' troubles this season have stemmed from the team's failure to win one-run or two-run games. The Jayhawks' record in games decided by one run this season is 3-10, including a 0-7 mark in the Big 12.
Close losses have plagued the Jayhawks in the last two seasons also. Since the beginning of the 1999 season, Kansas is 8-9 in non-conference play and 3-11 in the Big 12 in games decided by one run. In Big 12 games decided by two runs since 1999, the Jayhawks' record is 2-10.
senior pitcher Pete Smart said numerous reasons contribute to his team's poor record in close games.
"I think about it all the time," he said. "The difference between an average team and a great team is so small in baseball. It's a game of inches, and we just haven't been able to win those close games."
Until this season, the Kansas baseball team has been consistently comprised of young players. Smart said that close games, especially in the Big 12, are extremely intense and that it's tough for young players to jump into those situations.
"Our inability to execute in clutch situations has hurt," he said. "Since I've been here, we've almost always been young, and it's not easy for guys to perform in pressure situations who haven't been there before."
Senior relief pitcher Eric Thompson said bad luck has played a big role in the Javhawks close-game woes.
"We were kind of joking around the other day that the baseball gods were not happy with us," he said. "We work so hard and want to win so bad, but something always happens."
Those gods must have a strange sense of humor then. Nearly two weeks ago Kansas shocked then-No. 3 Nebraska, beating the Cornhushers 123. The Jayhawks won their next two games — against Nebraska-Omaha and Newman College before dropping three to the Red Raiders.
Thompson said the Jayhawks play Washburn tonight and that they need to work on the little things that could make a difference in close games.
"There's always something to look back at in a close game," he said. "As pitchers, we need to keep the ball down, and we need to execute buns and move baserunners. For the most part we've been doing that, but we need to do it better."
Edited by Doug Pacey
Consolation prize
Shortstop gets diamond after game
By Brent Briggeman
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Mike Castoro, an Arizona native, was in Lawrence Saturday to watch Courtney Wright, his girlfriend of four years, take on No. 6 Oklahoma in a key Big 12 Conference softball game at Jahyawk Field.
The day wasn't going well for the junior shortstop. Her team lost a 2-1 heartbreaker, and she was in pain after getting hit in the knee by a pitch in the fourth inning — a shot that kept her on the ground for several minutes.
A romantic post-game plot eased her pain.
Castoro told Wright to join him at home plate so her father could get a picture. Once there, he dropped to a knee and proposed.
A tearful and shocked Wright said yes and hugged her husband-to-be
"It made my knee stop hurting," she said. "We've felt this way about each other for a long time — now everybody knows."
Castoro said the most difficult part of the proposal had already taken place.
"The worst part was asking her parents," said Castoro, who works as a firefighter in Tucson, Ariz. "I took them out to eat the day before and asked her dad. After that I just decided I was going to do it and I went for it."
The proposal was momentarily delayed because Wright had to help rake the field.
"Mike kept call me over, but I told him I had to take," Wright said. "I think he wanted to do it with more people still there, and I'm sure I was frustrating him, but I had no idea what he was calling about."
The engagement adds to an already great year for Wright.
See WRIGHT on page 3B
After a heartbreaking 2-1 loss against Oklahoma Saturday, shortstop Courtney Wright received a heart-filled proposal from long-time boyfriend Mike Castoro. Castoro, who lives in Arizona, said things just fell into place. Photo by Selena Jabara /KANSAN
Two men win singles championships
Bv Aaron Johnson
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Three days after the regular season ended for the Kansas men's tennis team, the Jayhawks were still earning accolades.
Kansas junior Rodrigo Echagaya was named the No.2 Big 12 Conference singles champion and junior Quentin Blakeney was named No.3, the conference announced yesterday.
The Jayhawks, whose regular season ended with a loss to
"It really shows that they have produced at their positions all year," said Kansas coach Ross Nwachukwu. "I have had confidence in these guys all year."
Oklahoma State Friday in the Big 12 Championships, also earned four runner-up honors.
Echagary, who has won two consecutive Region V doubles titles, finished the season winning nine of his last 11 matches. His record for the season is 20-14 overall and 5-3 in the Big 12.
Blakeney, meanwhile, posted a 34-6 record overall and a 8-0 record in the Big 12, and his last three victories came against Top 75 opponents. This season, Blakeney accumulated the most wins by a Jayhawk since Craig Wildew went 35-17 in 1987-88.
Other Jayhawks who earned runner-up honors were sophomore Pete Streer at the No. 4 position, junior Alex Barragan at No. 5, freshman Andrew Metzler at No. 6, and sophomore Eleazar Magallan and Metzler at the No. 3 doubles position.
Stroer earned No. 4 singles runner-up status with a 15-8
spring record, including a 5-3 mark in Big 12 play. Stroer also teamed with Blakeney and formed a nationally-ranked doubles team that went 25-11 this season
Barragan went 12-20 this season, including a pair of wins in Big 12 play against Nebraska's Fungal Tongonao and Texas Tech's Chris Drumm.
Metzler reached the 20-win plateau in his first season, going 20-17 overall and 5-3 in His 12 nav.
In doubles play, Metzler and Magallan accumulated a 5-1 record in the Big 12 and a 6-3
"While playing with Metzler we did a really good job," Magallan said. "We had a couple of good wins that decided a lot of doubles matches."
The men's team can extend their season with a possible berth in the NCAA Championships. The NCAA will announce the 64-team championship field Thursday.
record overall.
"We needed to beat Oklahoma State in the Big 12 tournament last week, but anything is possible," Magaillan said.
— Edited by Jason McKee
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