Jayhawks Win Slugfest at UALR, 16-12

May 1, 2012

Final Stats

Kansas 16, UALR 12
Gary Hogan Field//Little Rock, Ark.

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Junior Jordan Dreiling went 4-for-6 with three RBIs in KU’s 16-12 win over UALR Tuesday at Gary Hogan Field.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R
KU 3 0 0 2 0 4 1 6 0 16
UALR 0 1 0 4 3 0 2 3 0 12
Box Score (.pdf) Get Acrobat Reader
Leaders – Batting
Kansas AB R H RBI BB HR
J. Dreiling 6 1 4 3 0 0
M. Suiter 5 1 2 5 1 1
UALR AB R H RBI BB HR
N. Rountree 5 3 4 6 0 2
S. Bignall 5 3 3 1 0 0
Pitching
Kansas IP H R ER BB SO
T. Taylor 4.0 8 6 6 1 6
J. Jakubov (W) 2.0 2 1 1 1 2
T. Poppe (SV) 3.0 7 5 4 1 4
UALR IP H R ER BB SO
A. Pfeiffer 3.1 5 5 4 3 2
T. Buckley 1.1 1 0 0 3 0
M. Hamrick (L) 0.2 2 4 4 2 0
M. Brown 1.2 4 1 1 1 0
A. Hohn 0.0 4 4 3 0 0
E. Schlechte 2.0 1 2 0 0 2

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Junior Jordan Dreiling matched a career-high with four hits and three RBIs, while Alex DeLeon and Michael Suiter both hit big three-run homers as part of a six-run eighth inning as Kansas survived a slugfest with UALR Tuesday afternoon at Gary Hogan Field.

The Jayhawks improve to 18-27 on the year, while the Trojans fall to 22-22.

Kansas scored a season high 16 runs on 17 hits. The Jayhawks’ two most important hits came in the eighth inning when, after UALR had cut the KU lead to one run, Suiter and DeLeon delivered three-run homers to left field.

Chris Manship and Connor McKay – who hit KU’s first home run of the day in the fifth inning – started the eighth with back-to-back singles. Suiter then crushed an 0-1 fastball deep over the left field fence to stretch the Jayhawk lead to 13-9. Later in the inning after Justin Protacio singled and James Stanfield reached on an error, DeLeon hit his third round-tripper of the season, a high-towering fly ball that cleared the fence in left center by at least 20 feet.

The Trojans answered with three runs in the eighth inning on a two-run double by Nick Rountree and an RBI double in the ensuing at bat by Myles Parma. However, junior Tanner Poppe recovered by retiring five of the final six men he faced to earn his fifth save of the season.

Senior Jordan Jakubov picked up his first victory of the season by pitching two innings of relief, allowing just one run on two hits.

Junior Thomas Taylor started the game for Kansas and allowed just one hit and one walk through the first three innings, which allowed KU to build a 5-0 lead. However, the Trojans came back with four runs in the fourth and three in the fifth to knock Taylor out of the game.

Kansas trailed 7-5 after five innings, but rallied for four runs in the sixth on an RBI single by Dreiling, a bases loaded walk by Manship and a two-out, two-run single by Suiter.

Suiter collected a career-best five RBIs in the game and recorded his first multi-hit game since March 17. Kevin Kuntz recorded his third multi-hit game in the last seven days, going 3-for-5 with three runs scored. Protacio also chipped in two hits and two stolen bases.

UALR’s Rountree led the home team with a 4-for-5 effort, which included two homers and six RBIs. The Trojans entered the game ranked ninth in the country averaging 7.6 runs per game and fourth among NCAA Division I members with 50 homers on the year.

KU’s 17 hits were the most since it collected 19 base knocks in an 11-10 win over Southern Utah on March 21 of this season.

The Jayhawks will return to Lawrence to host the Jayhawk Classic this weekend, opening the tournament on Friday against Air Force at 6 p.m.