Baylor bats too much for Jayhawk pitching
WACO, Texas – Seventeen Baylor runs off 17 hits were too much to overcome, as the Kansas baseball team dropped the second of a three-game set to the Bears, 17-6, Saturday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark.
The Jayhawks (14-9, 1-4 Big 12) needed four relief pitchers to get through the game after senior starter Taylor Turski (1-4) got knocked around by the Bears (12-8, 3-2 Big 12) the first four innings.
“It starts with starting pitching,” head coach Ritch Price said. “Turski is one of our top three guys, and we needed a strong effort from him today. Baylor was on time with every single pitch he threw. That is the hardest I have seen Turski get hit since he has been at the University of Kansas.”
Turski pitched a scoreless first frame, but then gave up back-to-back two spots and then a three-spot in the fourth, ending his day with seven earned runs off nine hits. Of those nine hits, six went for extra bases, including three doubles, two triples and a home run.
Freshman Conner VanCleave came in to pitch the fifth and gave up a four-spot via a two-out grand slam to put the Bears up, 11-0.
The Jayhawks answered with their first runs of the game in the top of the sixth, when they hung four on BU starter Hayden Kettler (3-2). Junior Devin Foyle doubled, senior Owen Taylor singled and sophomore Benjamin Sems doubled to contribute to the four runs.
“We continued to swing the bats,” Price said. “I was pleased with how we swung it today. You look at the board and we scored six runs off 10 hits. Unfortunately, we just didn’t pitch well enough today.”
Baylor scored three more runs off senior reliever Casey Douglas in the sixth and then three off freshman Daniel Hegarty in the eighth to round out the scoring, 17-6.
Nine different KU players contributed to the team’s 10 hits including junior David Kyriacou who hit his first home run of the season. Foyle finished the day with a team-high two knocks while redshirt-sophomore Brendt Citta scored two runs.
UP NEXT
The Jayhawks and Bears play for the series win on Sunday, March 25 at 1 p.m.
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