Kansas may be known as more of a basketball school as evidenced by its No. 1 overall seed in this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament, but the Jayhawks proved this weekend to be pretty adept at baseball as well.Kansas (11-4) came into Baton Rouge and took two of three games from LSU (13-2), giving the Tigers their first losses of the season.Kansas won, 11-9, on Friday. LSU won, 4-2, Saturday, and the Jayhawks took the rubber match on Sunday, 8-4.”It’s a bitter feeling to lose a series at home like this, but there’s no shame because Kansas just outplayed us,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “We just have to take that and see where we need to improve and get better — and we will.Kansas was the first to score Sunday when sophomore designated hitter Chris Manship belted an RBI single that allowed redshirt junior center fielder Brian Heere to score in the top of the first inning. At that point, Kansas lead, 1-0.LSU responded shortly thereafter when sophomore right fielder Mikie Mahtook hit a two-RBI single in the bottom of the first.Sophomore left fielder Trey Watkins and senior first baseman Blake Dean scored on that play to make it 2-1 LSU.LSU tacked on another run in the second on a groundout from Watkins that allowed redshirt freshman third baseman Wet Delatte to score from third.The fifth inning was when Kansas pulled ahead for good.The Jayhawks were able to string together five hits in the inning and pushed across four runs in the process to make the score 5-3.”I left a couple of balls up that they hit real hard, but I wasn’t missing my spots” said LSU freshman pitcher Jordan Rittiner. “They’re a great hitting team. — there’s no question about that. They just started hitting the ball on a couple of pitches that I missed, but on some of them, they were hitting good pitches.”During the inning, LSU had a chance to escape after only giving up two runs when Kansas junior right fielder Casey Lytle hit a ball hard to the left field wall.Watkins missed the catch, and the inning stayed alive for the Jayhawks.”Watkins made a valiant effort at the ball,” Mainieri said. “It wasn’t for lack of trying that he didn’t make the catch. I’d like to think he has the ability to make that catch, and if he does, we finish five innings tied 3-3, but instead we fall behind, and after that, it just didn’t work out for us.”LSU inched closer during the sixth inning when senior Matt Gaudet hit a pinch-hit single to allow junior outfielder Leon Landry to score and bring the score to 5-4, Kansas.But from there, it was all Jayhawks.Kansas scored one run in the seventh inning and two more in the eighth to extend its lead and make the final score 8-4.Senior pitcher Cameron Selik (4-0) was credited with the win for the Jayhawks.Selik pitched six complete innings, gave up four runs on six hits and struck out four batters while walking three.”We didn’t know how long he’d be able to go today, but thankfully he took the baseball and managed to grind out six innings for us,” said Kansas coach Ritch Price. “He put us in a position where we could match up with the bullpen late in the game.”Rittiner (2-1) had his first loss of the season after going for five innings and allowing five runs on seven hits while striking out four and walking one.”He really made some big pitches for us early in the game, and I don’t think he’d lost [his stuff], and I still don’t think he lost it,” Mainieri said.  “We just need to make some plays. His forte is to throw the ball over the plate and let them hit it, and we have to play defense behind him.”LSU will take the field again Wednesday night against Nicholls State at 6:30 p.m.
 
 
 
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