Wichita State Outlasts Kansas Baseball, 11-9
April 20, 2005
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Junior outfielders A.J. Van Slyke and Gus Milner each connected on a home run but it was not enough to lift the Jayhawks to victory as the University of Kansas baseball team fell to in-state rival Wichita State, 11-9, on Wednesday at Hoglund Ballpark.
With the loss, Kansas falls to 24-19 overall, while WSU improves to 32-12. The two teams will square off for the final time this season on May 4 at Eck Stadium in Wichita, Kan.
“I thought that it was a highly competitive game for a midweek game,” said Kansas head coach Ritch Price. “Both teams played hard and competed well, but in the end they found a way to get some clutch hits off of one of our best guys.”
The Shockers drew first blood in the contest scoring a run in the top of the first inning off of Kansas starter Mike Zagurski. After a pair of walks to begin the game, Zagurski retired the next two batters and was in a position to get out of the inning unscathed before a fielding error by shortstop Ritchie Price allowed WSU to tally the game’s first run.
The Jayhawks responded with three runs of their own in the bottom of the first inning to take a 3-1 lead. With one out in the inning, Ritchie Price doubled down the right field line and was followed by Van Slyke, who connected on his seventh home run of the season. The long ball was a two-run shot to left center and gave Van Slyke a temporary share of the team home run lead with Milner. Freshman second baseman Ryne Price added a RBI double for the third Kansas run of the frame.
Van Slyke finished the game 2-for-2 at the plate with two RBI and a career-high four runs scored.
In the top of the third inning, Wichita State added another run to its score on a RBI single by designated hitter Danny Jackson. The run cut the KU lead to 3-2.
In the home half of the inning, Kansas plated a pair of runs to open a 5-2 advantage. The Jayhawks were able to score on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Milner and a RBI single from senior first baseman Mike Dudley.
The Shockers scored two runs in the top of the fourth inning to chase Mike Zagurski and tacked on three more runs in the top of the fifth inning off of three KU relievers to take a 7-5 advantage.
Milner, who finished the game 2-for-4 with three RBI, retook the KU season lead in home runs and knotted the game at 7-7 in the bottom of the fifth inning when he blasted a two-run homer over the wall in center field for his eighth long ball of the season.
In the top of the seventh, Wichita State plated three runs to take a 10-7 advantage off of Kansas relief pitcher Don Czyz.
Czyz (3-2) took the loss in the contest after allowing three earned runs in three innings of work.
Back-to-back RBI singles from Jared Schweitzer and Brock Simpson in the bottom of the seventh cut the Wichita State lead to 10-9, but the Shockers responded to put another run up in the eighth inning to send the game to the ninth inning with WSU up 11-9.
Kansas was unable to put together a final rally as it failed to put up a run in the final two innings to drop its second game of the season to the Shockers.
Kansas baseball returns to conference action this weekend as it travel to Lubbock, Texas, to take on Texas Tech in a three-game series at Dan Law Field.
