KU Hits Four Home Runs But Baylor Spoils Senior Day
April 26, 2009
LAWRENCE, Kan. –
Four different Jayhawks recorded a home run in Kansas softball’s game Sunday morning but it was not enough as KU fell to Baylor 11-8 on the Jayhawks’ senior day to split the series with the Bears.
The game turned into a two-day affair when the teams got through three innings on Saturday afternoon before severe weather postponed the contest. Kansas and the Bears resumed the game Sunday morning in the top of the fourth inning.
The Jayhawks fell to 18-28 overall and 5-9 in Big 12 Conference games, while Baylor exploded for 17 hits in the game, a KU opponent season high, to improve to 36-18 and 11-6 in the conference.
Following a three-run inning by Baylor in the top of the seventh, Kansas trailed 11-7 heading into its last at bat. Sophomore Allie Clark led off the inning with her team-high eighth home run of the season and third in the last five games to close the gap to just three runs. However, Baylor’s Whitney Canion (23-14) struck out the next three Kansas batters to end the game.
Canion finished with 12 K’s on the day.
Senior Val Chapple, junior Amanda Jobe and sophomores Liz Kocon and Clark all recorded a homer in the contest to account for four of KU’s nine hits.
Jobe got the Kansas offense started in the bottom of the second inning with a shot over the scoreboard for her fourth home run of the season to knot the score at one run a piece.
Kansas’ bats fell silent over the next two innings while Baylor tacked on two more runs to take a 3-1 lead.
After four and a half innings KU’s outlook appeared grim as the Jayhawks trailed 7-1 following a four-run frame by Baylor in the top of the fifth that included a two-run homer and five singles.
Not willing to give up, Kansas rallied back in its next turn at bat scoring four runs of its own to come within two at 7-5. Sara Ramirez, who led off the inning with a single to shallow right field, worked her way to third and scored on a bad throw by the Bears’ first baseman. Chapple then knocked a three-run home run to left center to cap KU’s fifth inning drive.
Kocon hit a round-tripper in the sixth inning to plate two more runs for the Jayhawks making the score 8-7. Before the inning was over, Stevie Crisosto doubled, Ramirez singled and Dougie McCaulley was hit by a pitch to load the bases but Canion worked her way out of the jam with a pair of strikeouts to end the threat.
Kansas senior Val George (9-14) tossed the first 4.1 innings of the contest giving up five earned runs and eight hits as she took the loss. She fanned three batters and allowed no walks.
Junior Sarah Vertelka finished the game from the pitchers circle but was unable to stop the Bears’ offensive attack as Baylor notched nine hits and six runs against the hurler. Three of the six runs were unearned.
Kansas continues its busy schedule of 13 games in 16 days on Tuesday, April 28 when it travels to Wichita State for a nonconference doubleheader slated to begin at 5 p.m. Then the Jayhawks return to the friendly confines of Arrocha Ballpark on Thursday, April 30 to host a twinbill with Texas A&M in KU’s final home games of the 2009 season.
