After loss, Missouri looks ahead to KU series

Coach Tim Jamieson said this exhibition game was not important.

By JJ Stankevitz

Published April 23, 2009

In front of a vocal crowd of 4,102 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City on Wednesday, Missouri fell to Kansas by a score of 7-3 and dropped back to .500 with a 21-21 record on the season.

The game did not count toward the Big 12 standings -- Missouri and Kansas will play a three-game conference series May 8-10 in Columbia. Because it was an exhibition game, Missouri was able to try a few new things.

Missouri did not employ its "Johnny Wholestaff" approach against Kansas, instead electing to give senior pitcher Ian Berger -- who opened the year in Missouri's weekend rotation -- a chance to go deep into the game.

"As much as anything, we want him to get it done," coach Tim Jamieson said.

Berger only made it to the third inning before being pulled after loading the bases for freshman Ryan Clubb, who threw 4.1 scoreless innings in a weekday start against Indiana State April 14.

Clubb fell behind the first batter he faced 3-0 and was in serious danger of walking in a run that would have put KU up 2-0. However, Clubb fired a strike on 3-0 and then got KU cleanup hitter Buck Afenir -- who ripped an RBI double to center in the first inning -- to ground to third baseman Kyle Mach, who stepped on third and threw to first for an inning-ending double play.

Missouri took the momentum from that double play and converted it into a lead, scoring twice in the top of the fourth to take a 2-1 lead.

"It was good to be up for once in a while," Greg Folgia said, who began the rally with a double to center. "We usually have to come back, so it was good to have that momentum in our favor. We just had to keep it."

After Clubb cruised through his next two innings of work and Steve Gray picked up an RBI single in the top of the sixth, it appeared that Missouri had kept that momentum. However, any momentum Missouri had going into the bottom of the sixth was shot when KU's Preston Land drilled a two-out, three-run home run off Clubb that just barely cleared the left field wall and put Kansas up 5-3.

"(Left fielder Aaron Senne) was pretty close. The wall got in the way," Folgia said.

Despite the home run allowed by Clubb, Berger felt responsible for the loss.

"(Clubb) went out there and competing his ass off," Berger said. "It's not his fault. I'll take the blame for the loss only going two and a third."

After the Land home run, Missouri's offense was unable to respond with any sort of rally, only recording one hit the rest of the game.

"We didn't swing the bats particularly well," Jamieson said. "(Kansas) swung it well when they needed to and pitched it better than we did."

Jamieson kept things in perspective after the game.

"The games that matter more are the games we play on the weekend in Columbia," he said in reference to Missouri's three-game series with Kansas in May. "We weren't about to show them a lot of things that they're going to see when they come to Columbia. We wanted to win this game, don't get me wrong, but in the scheme of things at the end of the year, this game won't matter."