No. 4 Arizona State Upends Kansas, 9-4
March 13, 2009
SURPRISE, Ariz. –
Sophomore Tony Thompson went 2-for-2 with a two-run homer to extend his hitting streak to 21-straight games, but it was not enough for Kansas baseball Friday. Fourth-ranked Arizona State scored five unearned runs in the bottom of the fifth to tackle Kansas 9-4 in a non-conference baseball game Friday at Surprise Stadium.
Kansas snaps its seven-game winning streak, falling to 9-4 on the season. The Sun Devils improve to 13-2.
Thompson’s 21 game streak is tied for the second-longest in KU history with former Jayhawk Ryan Baty, and is tied for the 12th longest in Big 12 history. Jared Schweitzer holds the Kansas record for consecutive games with a base hit with 24 straight in 2005.
The Jayhawks put up a valiant effort, but were done in by two misplays in the field.
In a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fifth, Mike Leake reached base on an error with one out and came around to score the first run of the game on base hits by Riccio Torrez and pinch hitter Andy Workman to give the Sun Devils a 1-0 lead.
Following another RBI single and a sacrifice fly, Carlos Ramirez hit a big three-run home run to left center and give the home team a 6-0 lead.
The big inning knocked Kansas ace Shaeffer Hall out of the game after five innings. Hall looked dominant through four frames, but hit a wall in the fifth. The Kansas lefty scattered seven hits over five innings and allowed just one earned run.
After Tony Thompson’s fourth home run of the season cut the lead to 6-2 in the top of the sixth, Kansas again faced a jam in the bottom of the inning.
With the bases loaded, relief pitcher Travis Blankenship got the second out of the inning and induced a fly ball to left that was misplayed by the Kansas outfield and went for a base-clearing double.
Kansas cut the lead to 9-4 on David Narodowski’s two run single, however that’s as close as the Jayhawks got. Narodowski also extended his hitting streak to nine games with the base hit in the ninth.
Thompson and Brunansky led the Jayhawk offense with two hits a piece, the freshman outfielder turned in two spectacular catches in center field.
KU will look to even the three-game series Saturday when it takes on the Sun Devils at approximately 6:30 p.m. CST at Surprise Stadium.
