Kansas outfielder Connor McKay

Kansas outfielder Connor McKay

Kansas University junior Connor McKay wishes he could do more to help the baseball team.

Perhaps that’s the problem.

As the Jayhawks have won 11 of their last 15 games, McKay has been mired in a nasty slump, batting .189 (10-for-53) with just six runs and six RBIs.

This is the same player who carried the Jayhawks throughout nonconference and early Big 12 play. McKay still ranks fifth in the Big 12 and leads KU with 44 RBIs this season. He’s also 11th in the conference in slugging percentage (.454) and tied for third in home runs (9).

“You see yourself playing so well, you feel good. You feel like you can hit anything. Then they don’t give you anything to hit, and you still feel like you can do that,” McKay said. “I buried myself there. It’s a learning process. I’m definitely still a little behind the curve there.”

McKay doesn’t think his slump has anything to do with his swing. It’s not an injury or anything physical. He believes it’s just the pitches he’s being thrown, and now he’s trying to do too much.

“It was one of those things where I was being stubborn,” McKay said. “I wouldn’t take a walk when they were giving me a walk. I’d see an open base and runners in scoring position, something I’ve done all year, and they wouldn’t give me the opportunity to drive them in.

“The pitches they were giving me, they were further outside or further low or more offspeed or whatever you might say it was, but it’s still my job not to swing at those,” he added. “By trying to do too much, I really buried myself.”

There have been signs McKay is improving at the plate and letting the game come to him. He has drawn at least one walk in six of his past seven games, after only walking twice in the previous 26 games. In a loss to Baylor during the Big 12 tournament, he hit a two-run double.

However, he hasn’t homered since hitting three in a doubleheader against TCU on April 12. In his last 20 games, he only has two multi-hit performances.

“I was having selfish at-bats, trying to play for myself rather than play for the team,” McKay said. “I learned that the hard way over these last couple of weeks. But I’m really glad to see the team still support me. They still help me. They’ve been winning games, swinging the bats hot as ever.”

Senior Tucker Tharp and junior Dakota Smith have picked up the slack with runners on base. Tharp has 16 RBIs in the last 13 games, and Smith has added 20 RBIs.

A reason the mental part of the game has caused McKay to struggle is the suddenness of everything. After crushing pitching all season with one of the most powerful swings on the team, now he has to accept a smaller role at the plate.

“We were all contributing, we were all winning, we were all doing our thing,” McKay said. “As the year went on, I felt more and more pressure to see, ‘Hey, McKay needs to produce.’ I felt it was more about me rather than about the team, and I think that’s where my idea was flawed.”

One of the reasons McKay puts so much pressure on himself is the chance to improve his draft stock. McKay suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in a knee during his senior year of high school at Regis Jesuit in Aurora, Colo., and he didn’t get to play much baseball in his final prep season. He was still drafted in the 24th round of the 2011 Major League Baseball draft by the Colorado Rockies but possibly could have been taken much higher before his injury. He will be eligible for the MLB draft in June for the first time since joining KU.

“Honestly, this is probably been one of the tougher adjustments of my career,” McKay said. “Everybody wants to get drafted. Everybody wants to throw up the big numbers. I took that away from myself rather than being patient and playing for the team.”

Despite his struggles at the plate, McKay is enjoying this season because of the team’s success. He admits checking the rankings each week to see where KU has jumped. Whatever role the team needs him to fill, he’s looking forward to the NCAA Tournament.

“It’s like a dream come true,” McKay said. “This is one of those things where you sit here and you wonder for three years, and you’re playing and playing, and you always think about it in college, ‘I want that one year when you have that special run.’ It’s tough to step back and say, ‘This is it. This is our time, and why not us?'”