Taylor, Jayhawks Blank Eastern Michigan, 8-0

March 2, 2013

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Final Stats

Kansas 8, Eastern Michigan 0
QuikTrip Park//Grand Prairie, Texas
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Senior Jordan Dreiling matched a career high with four hits and scored three runs in KU’s 8-0 win over Eastern Michigan.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R
EMU 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
KU 2 0 0 4 1 1 0 0 x 8
Box Score (.pdf) Get Acrobat Reader
Leaders – Batting
E. Michigan AB R H RBI BB HR
A. Sonabend 2 0 2 0 1 0
J. Simpson 2 0 1 0 1 0
Kansas AB R H RBI BB HR
J. Dreiling 5 3 4 1 0 0
A. DeLeon 4 1 2 4 0 0
Pitching
E. Michigan IP H R ER BB SO
R. Lavoie (L) 3.2 5 5 5 4 1
M. Marsinek 3.1 4 3 3 2 2
Z. Birchler 1.0 1 0 0 1 0
Kansas IP H R ER BB SO
T. Taylor (W) 9.0 3 0 0 3 8

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Senior Thomas Taylor tossed his first complete game shutout, while fellow senior Jordan Dreiling went 4-for-5 with three runs scored as Kansas routed Eastern Michigan, 8-0, in the second game of a doubleheader played Saturday at QuikTrip Park in Grand Prairie, Texas. Kansas won the first game of the day, 5-4 in 10 innings.

The Jayhawks improve to 6-4 on the season, sweeping both ends of a doubleheader for the first time since May of 2011. EMU fell to 2-7 overall. KU won back-to-back games for the first time all season after alternating wins and losses in its first eight contests.

Taylor held the Eagles to just three hits Saturday, matching a season-best with eight strikeouts. He recorded the first complete game shutout of his career and the third by Jayhawk pitching since May 12 of last year. After allowing a one-out single to Adam Sonabend in the second inning, Taylor did not allow another base hit until the seventh, which allowed his offense to take over.

The senior pitcher also received outstanding support from his defense. Both Dreiling and junior Tucker Tharp made diving plays to take hits away in the game, while sophomore Michael Suiter threw an EMU base runner out at the plate in the seventh to preserve the shutout.

KU jumped in front early, scoring a pair of runs in the first inning on RBI hits by Tharp and senior Alex DeLeon. The Jayhawks broke the game open with four runs in the fourth inning, which also chased Eagle starting pitcher Ryan Lavoie. After a pair of walks and an RBI ground out, Dreiling doubled home a run to make it 4-0 and DeLeon singled up the middle to drive in two more runs.

DeLeon capped the Jayhawk scoring in the sixth, collecting his fourth RBI of the game on a ground out. The four RBIs by the senior captain were one shy of a career high and mark his third multi-RBI game of the season.

As a team, Kansas collected its second shutout in 10 games this season after recording just four all of last year.

KU will look to claim a series win over Eastern Michigan with the final game of the series set for 11 a.m., Sunday at QuikTrip Park.

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