photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas starting pitcher Ben Krauth delivers to the mound during the fourth inning against Oklahoma on Saturday, April 30, 2016 at Hoglund Ballpark.

In Big 12 play, when left-hander Ben Krauth is the starting pitcher for Kansas University, the Jayhawks win. When it’s somebody else, they lose. It’s almost that simple, although Saturday’s doubleheader sweep of Oklahoma was a welcome exception.

Krauth, the team’s Friday night starter, came through again in a series opener, this one played on Saturday because of Friday night’s rainout. Sure enough, Kansas won, 7-2, and Krauth killed Oklahoma softly.

“We’re 4-1 on Friday nights, and the one loss was 1-0 to West Virginia, and he pitched a great game,” Kansas coach Ritch Price said, counting the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader as a Friday night game. “You go 4-1 in your first five, normally you’d be in the top 25 and the NCAA tournament.”

Usually, but Kansas didn’t have the pitching depth to withstand any injuries comfortably and lost three pitchers to injury, including its projected Saturday and Sunday starters.

“We’re 0-7 on Saturday and Sunday,” Price said in the dugout between games, before improving to 1-7. “Obviously, it’s one of the toughest years I’ve ever been involved in because I really like this team. We play good defense. We swing the bats. We’re just really short Saturday and Sunday.”

The only good fortune on the injury front for the KU pitching staff is that Krauth doesn’t have one. It’s a treat to watch him attack hitters, blending sinking fastballs with changeups that look the same out of the hand and come in 15 mph slower. He mixes in a slider and a developing 12-to-6 curveball here and there, but it’s his changeup that keeps the hitters off balance all afternoon.

Krauth had more trouble than usual locating his fastball Saturday, so he relied even more heavily on his offspeed pitches, called from the dugout by pitching coach Ryan Graves.

Krauth’s biggest out Saturday came in the sixth inning. Bases loaded. Two outs. Full count. Kansas leading, 4-2. Domenic DeRenzo swung and missed at an offspeed pitch, and Krauth bounded off the mound, let out a scream and punched the air.

“I like throwing my changeup a lot,” Krauth said. “It’s a pitch I can trust. I get some swings and misses when I need them and get some groundballs.”

Kansas has a lot of work left to make it to the Big 12 tournament, but Krauth’s work has kept that hope alive. If Price had not answered a longtime friend’s phone call urging him to fly to California to check out one of his pitchers at Diablo Valley College, Kansas would have no shot at climbing out of last place.

Price’s friend told him, “You’re not going to like the radar gun, but the kid can really pitch.”

Price called a scout and was told, “the kid can flat-out pitch,” but the junior-college pitcher needed to go to a four-year school to improve his velocity and breaking pitches.

Price watched him pitch three innings of juco fall ball and offered him a scholarship.

“He gave up a hit and a walk and picked both guys off first base,” Price said. “In my 37 years in the game, he has the best pickoff move I’ve ever seen. A year ago, I think he led the nation in pickoffs, and the first five games he pitched he picked somebody off. Now guys are standing one step off the bag.”

Price could have tried to maximize KU’s chances of winning Big 12 games by pitching his ace on Saturday or Sunday to avoid the other team’s ace, but he never considered doing so.

“He doesn’t want to pitch on Saturday and Sunday,” Price said. “One of the great things about that young man is he wants the baseball on Friday night, and he wants to pitch against the best, and he’s going to go down as one of the best guys I’ve had since I’ve been here.”

Krauth didn’t project as a Big 12 pitcher coming out of high school.

“I gained about 25 pounds after my first year in junior college, and Skip was the first one to come out and see me,” Krauth said of Price. “I did well in front of him, and he said ‘We’ll take you.’ I said, ‘OK.’ It was the best offer I probably was going to get, and I loved it when I came out here. The atmosphere Skip has created is unbelievable. It’s a lot of fun to play for a guy like him. I love playing in Kansas. It’s got a great fan base out here for college baseball. It’s in the Big 12. What else can you ask for?”

A few more healthy pitchers of his caliber.