There’s nothing like a run-rule romp to cure what ails a softball team.

Kansas University came out with smoking bats and flying feet and flogged Texas Tech, 9-0, on Saturday afternoon at Jayhawk Field.

“We were really pumped up,” said KU third baseman and co-captain Megan Urquhart. “We were relaxed and having fun.”

Coach Tracy Bunge thought her players had been pressing, so she prescribed kickball for Friday’s practice.

“That’s all we did for an hour and a half,” Urquhart said. “It was a lot of fun.”

Then on Friday evening, the Jayhawks attended a dinner honoring the 1992 Kansas team that had advanced to the College World Series. That, too, was a hoot.

“They were telling stories about when they were here,” Urquhart said. “They really made you want to go out and play ball.”

Senior Shelly Musser set the tone when she led off the bottom of the first inning by mashing a Maggie Ayers change-up over the right-field fence. It was Musser’s third homer in the last two weeks, and only the fourth of her career.

Change-ups aren’t pitches Musser normally attacks.

“Not really,” she said, “but it was high.”

Not as high as the Jayhawks were in the second inning when they scored six runs, mostly by running the bases with abandon.

“We hit the ball well,” Bunge said, “but what we did extremely well was run the bases. Our kids were heads up and we took advantage of them being flat.”

Texas Tech’s players, in fact, performed like they had just stepped off the bus.

“We didn’t come out ready to play,” Tech coach Bobby Reeves said, “and Tracy’s team did a good job of taking advantage of our mental lapses.”

Kansas (4-6 in the Big 12, 27-17 overall) finished with six hits and six stolen bases, two each by Courtney Wright and Lindsey Weinstein. Four of the six hits were for extra bases  Musser’s homer and ringing doubles by Christi Musser, Leah Tabb and winning pitcher Serena Settlemier.

Settlemier pitched the first three innings and Kirsten Milhoan hurled the last two frames, each allowing one hit. The Settlemier-Milhoan rotation may re-occur in today’s 1 p.m. finale because Kara Pierce, the Jayhawks’ No. 1 starter, is favoring a wrist injury, and Kelly Campbell, the other mound staffer, has a stiff neck.

“Kelly can’t move,” Bunge said, “and Pierce may need another day of rest. We’ll see how she feels tomorrow. I’m not going to push her.”

Bunge will, however, push her other players to put the pressure on the slumping Red Raiders (1-10 in the Big 12 and 12-31 overall) again today.

“Texas Tech was beaten 12-1 by Oklahoma State one day and came back and won the next day,” Bunge said. “So I expect tomorrow to be a battle.”

For his part, Reeves hopes the KU coach is right.

“We’re struggling,” the Tech coach said, “but we’ll come back and see if we can play better.”