Kansas pitcher Travis Blankenship looks toward home as Texas Tech catcher Jeremy Mayo rounds third after a three-run homer in the game Sunday, April 25, 2010.

A strong wind like the one blowing in Lawrence can play strange games on the minds of those playing outdoor sports.

Golfers hitting into it know the right approach is to swing easier, but they tend to swing harder trying to sting their drives through the wind. Pitchers throwing into it know it’s imperative to get ahead of hitters so as not to work themselves into home run counts. Yet, they tend to nibble for fear a pitch that catches too much of the strike zone will be blown right out of the ballpark.

The tentative pitching, more than anything, was what ate at Kansas University baseball coach Ritch Price after his team dropped a pair games to Texas Tech, 11-8 and 21-10, Sunday at cold and windy Hoglund Ballpark.

“I think the whole key to it was we were behind in the count almost every single hitter and got into power counts where we had to throw fastballs,” Price said.

In the series finale, Texas Tech tied a Big 12 record with 12 doubles.

“Twelve, was it?” Price asked. “Seemed like 14.”

Six of them came in the seven-run second inning. Kansas starting pitcher Tanner Poppe didn’t make it out of the inning.

Kansas won the first game of the series, 10-2, Friday night and was trailing 2-1 when Saturday’s game was suspended in the bottom of the fourth. Kansas scored five runs in the sixth inning of the resumed game. Hot-hitting center fielder Brian Heere, who made a spectacular diving catch in the second game, led off the inning with a home run. At the end of the inning in which KU sent 10 batters to the plate, the home team held a 6-2 lead. Not for long.

Tech opened the inning with a single and a pair of walks against Thomas Taylor and then roughed-up lefty Travis Blankenship during the six-run inning.

“The guys who pitched poorly today were the same guys who pitched great in Nebraska on Saturday and Sunday and in Kauffman Stadium on Wednesday night,” Price said. “Hopefully, we’re just out of rhythm a little bit and they’ll be able to correct it next time out.”

Kansas third baseman Tony Thompson appeared out of rhythm in the first few weeks back from a hairline fracture of the kneecap, but looks more like himself at the plate of late. Thompson blasted a home run over the batter’s eye in center field in the seventh inning of the first game and went 5-for-6 with four RBIs in the final two games of the series.

“It felt real good to finally start swinging the bat better, find a little more barrel, and hopefully that will carry out the rest of the season, and I’ll start putting better swings on it and help the team out a little more,” said Thompson, last season’s Big 12 Triple Crown winner.

Shortstop Brandon Macias supplied the offensive highlight in the finale, blasting a grand slam over the fence in left field in KU’s six-run sixth that started with the Jayhawks trailing 14-2. Macias supplied more drama in the seventh with two outs, the bases loaded, the count full and KU trailing 15-10.

Facing Tech closer Chad Bettis, a member of Team USA last summer and projected as an early-round draft choice, Macias got under a pitch. The wind took it all the way to the warning track, where the inning and KU’s last serious threat died.

“I was trying to blow it out a little bit myself, give it a little extra wind,” Thompson said. “The way the wind was blowing, I thought it might have a shot.”

Said Macias: “I feel like I just missed it a little bit. Would have been nice.”

Macias’ shot at a second grand slam in three innings died, just as KU’s shot at moving up the Big 12 standings did.

Texas Tech (24-20 overall, 10-8 in conference games) ended the series alone in third place. Kansas (25-16-1, 6-8-1) is tied with Baylor for fifth place.