Waters, Walz Lead Kansas Past No. 22 Texas A&M, 9-5

April 1, 2010

Box Score in PDF Format

LAWRENCE, Kan. –

Junior Jimmy Waters went 3-for-5 with two doubles and four RBIs, while junior T.J. Walz bounced back with 7 1/3 strong innings as Kansas earned its fourth-straight victory with a 9-5 triumph over No. 22 Texas A&M Thursday night at Hoglund Ballpark.

KU, which has claimed wins in seven of its last eight, improves to 18-9 overall and 3-1 in Big 12 play, while the Aggies fall to 17-8 and 4-3 in league play.

The Jayhawks used two big innings and solid starting pitching to snap a seven-game losing streak against the Aggies.

In a tie game in the bottom of the fifth, sophomore Chris Manship led off the inning with a sharp single up the middle, and moved around to third on a single by Casey Lytle and a walk to Robby Price. Junior Brian Heere delivered a two-run single to break the tie.

Waters capped the inning with an RBI double to left-center giving KU a 4-1 advantage.

Two innings later, Waters gave the Jayhawks a 5-1 lead with his second double – off the left fielder’s glove, plating Heere, who also had three hits in the game. With two outs in the inning, Manship roped another double to left to give KU a six-run advantage.

However, the Aggies stormed back in the eighth – cutting the deficit to two runs on RBI hits by Andrew Collazo, Scott Arthur and Caleb Shofner. Waters made a diving catch in left field to record the third out in the inning, and save at least one run.

The eighth inning rally knocked Walz out after 7 1/3 innings. The junior righty scattered 11 hits and held the Aggies to four runs with two walks and a season-high eight strikeouts to tie for the league lead with his fifth win of the year.

Kansas answered the A&M rally with two runs of its own in the bottom of the eighth. After Lytle, Price and Heere led off the inning with three straight base hits, Waters again delivered the clutch knock with a single to right field.

Junior relief pitcher Brett Bochy earned his fifth save of the year, pitching the Jayhawks out of trouble in the eighth and surviving a pair of infield singles in the ninth.

Price collected a single in his eighth inning at bat to extend his hitting streak to 11 games, just five away from his career high.

The Jayhawks will look to take their second-straight Big 12 series on Friday when the teams play game two of the three-game series at 6 p.m. The game can be heard on radio station KLWN (1320 AM).