M sweeps Jayhawks

Kansas won’t go undefeated in baseball this season.

No. 13 Texas A&M, which succumbed to a KU rally on Friday, swept the Jayhawks on Sunday at Hoglund Ballpark. The Aggies (16-5 overall, 5-1 Big 12) won, 5-3 and 10-6, to hand KU (10-2, 1-2) its first losses.

The Jayhawks led late in both contests before A&M battered KU’s bullpen.

“I think right now what we’re struggling with is when young guys come in,” KU coach Bobby Randall said. “It’s a lot of pressure. Sometimes you want to do it so badly that it works against you. The conference does those things to you.”

Texas A&M, held to six hits Friday, exploded for 20 hits in the doubleheader.

In the first game, Tim Petru resurrected the Aggies’ offense with a fifth-inning home run to put A&M up, 1-0.

“It felt good to get up on them,” Petru said. “We hadn’t been swinging the bats well since we came up here this weekend, but getting that blow gave a little life to our bats and got things going.”

Kansas responded in the bottom of the first, scoring two runs on a walk and three singles up the middle against A&M’s Khalid Ballouli.

Travis Wong tied the game in the sixth with a two-run double, and the Aggies scored two unearned runs in the top of the ninth against KU freshman reliever Tom Gorzelanny for the victory.

In the nightcap, Kansas led 6-1 through six innings, but the Aggies’ bats warmed up again.

Justin Pouk and Eric Reed both drove in runs in the seventh and a RBI double by Neal Stephenson in the eighth pulled A&M within two.

Sophomore reliever Chris Smart came in to pitch the ninth and, after allowing a leadoff single, forced Pouk into a double play.

Smart then walked Reed and then surrendered a towering home run down the left-field line to David Evans. The Aggies then tacked on four more unearned runs.

“We didn’t have any worries,” Evans said. “As long as we could get a couple guys on base, we could get a couple runs in and that’s what we did. I wasn’t really looking to hit a home run obviously with a 1-2 count, I was just looking to get a hit, but it came and I was happy.”

Although the Jayhawks dropped two of three to the Aggies after being in position to sweep the series, Randall believes they’ll do better in the future.

“I just told them when they walk out of this place to keep their heads up,” he said. “They have nothing to be ashamed of. We can play better than that and we will. And we will win those games.”

Texas A&M coach Mark Johnson agreed.

“Kansas has a good ball club and I can see why they were undefeated when we came in here,” he said. “They’re going to win some good ball games. Top to bottom in our conference, on any given weekend anybody can win. Certainly we could have walked out of her getting swept just as easily.”

KU will play Tuesday at Southwest Missouri State in Springfield, Mo.

Texas A&M 5, Kansas 3

Texas A&M 000 012 002Â5 8 4

Kansas 000 030 000Â3 8 4

Khalid Ballouli, Logan Kensing (7) and Justin Pouk. Dan Olson, Tom Gorzelanny (8) and Cole Armstrong. W Â Kensing (2-0). L Â Gorzelanny (0-1).

2B Â A&M: Travis Wong. HR Â A&M: Tim Petru.

KU highlights  Matt Tribble, 3-4, run, RBI; Ryan Baty, 2-3, run.

Texas A&M 10, Kansas 6

Texas A&M 001 000 216Â10 12 1

Kansas 000 510 000Â 6 10 1

Ryan Warpinski, Zach Dixon (4), Brian Finch (5) and Justin Pouk, Jordy Mitchell (9). Jake Wright, Chris Smart (9), Kevin Wheeler (9), Ryan Jakubov (9) and Beau Thompson. W Â Finch (2-0). L Â Smart (0-1).

2B Â A&M: Coby Mavroulis, Neal Stephenson, Ty Garner. 3B Â A&M: Stephenson; KU: Lance Hayes (3). HR Â A&M: David Evans.

KU highlights  Ryan Klocksien, 2-3, 2 runs; Pat Holmes, 2-4, run, RBI, Jason Appuhn, 1-4, 2 RBI, run.