Price is Right for Jayhawks' Sixth-Straight Win
April 14, 2009
OMAHA, Neb. –
Junior Robby Price’s sacrifice fly in the top of the tenth plated Casey Lytle from third base and lifted the 24th-ranked Kansas baseball team to its sixth-straight win, 7-6 in 10 innings over Creighton Tuesday evening at Rosenblatt Stadium.
The Jayhawks improve to 24-12 overall, while Creighton drops to 17-17.
Kansas led 5-0 early in the game, but had to withstand a furious Bluejay rally in the final four innings to pull out its second consecutive extra inning win.
Lytle, who scored the winning run, reached on an error to lead off the 10th inning and then advanced to second on Preston Land’s sacrifice bunt. The Kansas sophomore moved to third on a Jason Brunansky base hit and scored on Price’s sacrifice fly.
Price led off the ninth inning with a triple, but was stranded at third as Creighton relief pitcher Jack VanLeur pitched through the middle of the Jayhawk order. Price finished the game 2-for-3 with an RBI, and made a pair of spectacular plays at second base.
Relief pitcher Brett Bochy pitched a scoreless 10th to earn his third victory of the year out of the bullpen. The Kansas sophomore went 2 1/3 innings, allowing just one hit to go with three strikeouts.
Kansas looked as if it wouldn’t need Price and Bochy’s heroics early. Brunansky homered in the top of the second inning behind base hits by Lytle and Tony Thompson to stake the Jayhawks to a 3-0 lead. It was the freshman’s second round-tripper of the season.
KU tacked on single runs in the third and fourth on a Jimmy Waters’ RBI single and an RBI hit by Brian Heere.
However, the home team fought back in the seventh, taking advantage of two Jayhawk errors to come within 5-4. Creighton scored three runs on a dropped ball at first base, a passed ball and a bases loaded hit by pitch.
After Zac Elgie gave KU a two-run cushion with a two-out RBI single in the eighth, Creighton came back to tie with two out singles by Nick Becker and Elliot Soto.
The Creighton rally wasted a brilliant start by KU junior Brett Bollman. Bollman, who entered the game at 4-0, allowed two unearned runs on five hits over 6 1/3 innings to go with no walks and four strikeouts. He recorded KU’s 13th quality start of the season.
Four different Jayhawks had two hits in the game, including Thompson, who extended his hitting streak to 13 games. The Kansas third baseman has hit safely in 30 of his 34 starts this season.
The two teams combined for 13 runs in the game, scoring all of them with two outs in the inning. This is nothing new for the Jayhawks, who scored 15 two-out runs in their recent series with Oklahoma State.
