Kansas Baseball Opens Fall Practice Thursday

Sept. 22, 2010

LAWRENCE, Kan. –

Kansas baseball begins its journey toward the 2011 season by opening its 45-day fall practice schedule on Thursday at 2:30 p.m., on the new turf at Hoglund Ballpark. The Jayhawks will practice five days per week from Thursday until Nov. 6 in preparation for the upcoming season.

The team will scrimmage at various times throughout the fall, including Saturday, Sept. 24 at noon in KU’s first public event of the season. Admission to the scrimmage is free of charge.

Fans can get their first glimpse of the improvements done over the summer at Hoglund Ballpark, which includes the $1.2 million project to overhaul the playing surface and Astroturf installation throughout the park. The project was recently completed by AstroTurf USA which installed their Gameday 3D playing surface, the official turf of Major League Baseball.

Kansas will return 19 letterwinners, including five position starters and nine pitchers, from last year’s team which finished 32-27 overall and placed seventh in the Big 12. KU also will be welcoming in 11 freshmen to the fold this season.

Head coach Ritch Price is beginning his ninth season at Kansas and has an overall record of 274-220-2 (.554), which includes a pair of trips to the NCAA Tournament.

Kansas opens the 2011 regular season on Friday, Feb. 18 at TCU – a team which qualified for the College World Series a season ago.