KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – The Royals have placed outfielder Alex Gordon on the disabled list with a strained groin and reinstated right-hander Yordano Ventura to start Thursday’s series finale against Tampa Bay.

Kansas City also optioned right-hander Aaron Brooks to Triple-A Omaha and recalled left-hander Brandon Finnegan from the same club.

Gordon was injured while tracking a fly ball in the fourth inning of Wednesday night’s win over the Rays. He crumpled to the field near the warning track and lay there for several minutes, eventually needing a cart to leave the field. He later underwent an MRI.

It was still not known how long the All-Star would be out.

Ventura has been on the disabled list with ulnar neuritis, a condition that caused numbness in his pitching hand.

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Alcides Escobar hit a bases-loaded double, Alex Gordon matched a career high with four RBIs and the Kansas City Royals cruised to a 7-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday and a sweep of their day-night doubleheader.

Escobar fell behind 0-2 against Brandon Gomes (1-4) in the sixth inning before battling back to a full count. On the 11th pitch of the at-bat, Escobar yanked a fair ball just down the third-base line, emptying the bases and breaking a 1-all deadlock.

Brandon Finnegan (2-0), Luke Hochevar and Ryan Madson made the lead stand in relief of Royals starter Edinson Volquez, who allowed only John Jaso’s homer in five innings.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Paulo Orlando hit his first career grand slam in the ninth inning off All-Star closer Brad Boxberger to give the Kansas City Royals a 9-5 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in the opener of a day-night doubleheader on Tuesday.

Boxberger (4-5), added to the AL roster by Royals manager Ned Yost on Monday, gave up one-out singles to Eric Hosmer and Alex Rios before walking Omar Infante to load the bases.

Orlando followed by hitting his second career home run into the bullpen in left field.

The Rays had just tied the game off Royals closer Greg Holland (3-0), who allowed a leadoff triple to Kevin Kiermaier in the ninth.

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State head coach Bruce Weber announced today that Austin Budke (Beloit, Kansas/Beloit/Hutchinson Community College), Pierson McAtee(Manhattan,Kansas/Manhattan) and Zach Winter(Andover, Kansas/Andover Central/Hutchinson Community College) have joined the men’s basketball team as walk-ons.

 

Budke and Winter arrive at K-State after spending the past two seasons at Hutchinson Community College in Hutchinson, Kansas, where they helped the Blue Dragons to a 55-14 combined record from 2013-15. This past season, the duo helped the school to a 29-6 overall record, a Region VI Championship and the No. 6 seed in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) National Tournament.

 

A 6-foot-6, 210-pound forward from Beloit, Kansas, Budke appeared in 64 of 69 games in his community college career with 48 starts. He was one of only two players to start in all 35 games in 2014-15, as he averaged 12.7 points on 47 percent shooting with 4.9 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 28.6 minutes per game. He led the team in free throw percentage (73 percent), while he was third in scoring, field goals, field goal percentage, offensive rebounds (66) and minutes.

 

Budke’s time at Hutchinson came after a standout prep career at Beloit High School, where he helped the Trojans to a 71-23 record in four years capped by a berth in the Class 3A state tournament his senior season in 2012-13. He was a First Team Class 3A All-State selection by the Kansas Basketball Coaches (KBCA) and Wichita Eagle as well as an all-class, all-state selection by the Topeka Capital-Journal as a senior, averaging a team-leading 23 points on 47.2 percent shooting to go with 10.1 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.1 assists per game.

 

A 6-foot-3, 195-pound guard from Andover, Kansas, Winter started in 34 of 35 games for the Blue Dragons as a sophomore in 2014-15, averaging 4.4 points on 39 percent shooting with 3.2 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.2 steals in 26.8 minutes per game. He led the team in assists, while he was fourth in 3-point field goals and minutes and fifth in steals.

 

Winter was a three-year lettermen at Andover Central High School, where led the school to a 17-5 overall record as a senior in 2012-13. He was named Second Team Class 5A All-State by the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association (KBCA) and to the Wichita Eagle’s All-Metro Team as a senior, as he averaged a team-leading 18.4 points on 45.9 percent shooting with 7.2 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 2.9 steals per game.

 

A 6-foot-6, 200-pound forward from the Little Apple, McAtee was a three-year lettermen at Manhattan High School, where he helped the Indians to a school-record tying 18 wins and their first-ever Centennial League title as a senior in 2014-15. The squad, which posted an 18-3 overall record and 12-1 mark in Centennial League play, lost to Washburn Rural in the Class 6A sub-state semifinals. He averaged 14.3 points and 7 rebounds per game as a senior en route to earning honorable mention Class 6A All-State honors from the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association (KBCA). He was also selected as the Manhattan Mercury’s All-Flint Hills Boys’ Basketball Player of the Year and was the Sports Radio 1350 KMAN/McDonald’s Student-Athlete of the Year.

Kansas State senior safety Dante Barnett was one of 80 players nationally to be named to the watch list for the 2015 Bednarik Award as the College Defensive Player of the Year, the Maxwell Football Club announced Tuesday.

Barnett is coming off a season in which he tallied 77 tackles, four tackles for loss, three interceptions and 11 total passes defended, Barnett earned Second Team All-Big 12 honors from the league’s coaches in addition to earning all conference accolades from ESPN and Phil Steele.

Barnett’s inclusion on the list marks the sixth time a Wildcat has been named a candidate for the Bednarik Award.

Semifinalists for the Bednarik Award will be announced on November 2.

 

JEOLINAMDO, Korea – Behind 23 points from guard Frank Mason III, the USA men’s basketball team jumped all over Chile from the start in posting a 106-41 win in its third contest of the World University Games Tuesday at Muan Indoor Gymnasium in Jeolinamdo, Korea. The facility is located an hour west of Gwangju, the host city for the Games.

With the win, the USA, which is comprised mainly of University of Kansas student-athletes and staff, improved to 3-0 in Pool D play, setting up a contest of undefeated teams when it will play Serbia on Wednesday, July 8, at noon local, 10 p.m., July 7 in Kansas. Also on Tuesday, Serbia defeated Turkey 61-43 to also improve to 3-0. The top two of six teams from each of the four pools will play in the medal bracket in the World University Games.

Guard Nic Moore recorded two of his four first-half three-pointers within the first three minutes of the game. Guard Wayne Selden, Jr., sandwiched another three-pointer between Moore’s two to give the Americans a 9-2 lead. On USA’s next possession, Perry Ellis made a lay-in and then Carlton Bragg, Jr., hit a jumper to pile onto the Americans’ quick start, 13-2. USA led 22-11 at the end of the first quarter. Bragg, without his mask worn from a broken nose suffered in practice, started the game for USA.

Selden ended the contest with 18 points, while forward Hunter Mickelson scored 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting. Moore had 15 points, all from three-point range. Ellis had nine points and eight rebounds, while forward Landen Lucas led all rebounders with 14 boards to go along with six points. All-in-all, 11 of the 12 USA players reached the scoring column for the contest. Fernando Schuler led Chile with 17 points.

“We haven’t shot the ball over here very well at all,” head coach Bill Self said. “So it was great to come out like this and Nic (Moore) got us out to a good start. Of course, Wayne (Selden, Jr.) is playing at a ridiculously high level right now. Frank (Mason) made shots. Even though it wasn’t as competitive of a game, it was good to see our guys score real points to give ourselves a big lead.”

Mason led all scorers with 23 points, which included three traditional three-point plays. He had all 11 of his first-half points in the second quarter, which included two three-point plays and another trey from beyond the arc. USA took its largest lead of the first half, 47-19, which was the halftime score, when Mason completed his second three-point play with 1:30 before intermission.

“It was huge,” Ellis said of the start. “We haven’t been getting out to quick starts these first couple games and coach was emphasizing that. We got out tonight and knocked down some shots and played some great defense. It was great for us.”

The second half was more of the same as the USA team scored 11 of the first 13 points after intermission with Mason scoring six, Selden three and Ellis two on one of many dunks for the Americans for the contest. In the fourth quarter, the USA team went on a 16-0 run to make the score 100-36.

USA dominated the boards for the second-straight game. The Americans outrebounded Brazil 50-27 on July 5 and then Chile, 52-28, Tuesday afternoon.

UP NEXT
The USA team will return to Dongkang College Gymnasium to take on Serbia in the battle of the Pool D undefeated teams on Wednesday, July 8, at noon, which is 10 p.m. on July 7 in Kansas. The game will be televised on ESPNU and seen on the Watch ESPN app.

KUAthletics.com: The official online source for Kansas Athletics, Williams Education Fund contributions, tickets, merchandise, multimedia, photos and much, much more.

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – The game between the Tampa Bay Rays and Royals scheduled for Monday night has been postponed with tornado warnings in the Kansas City area.

The game was called off about an hour before it was set to begin as heavy rain fell.

The Royals and Rays will play a day-night doubleheader Tuesday, with games at 1:10 p.m. and 7:10 p.m.

KansasState Wildcat men’s basketball attracted 12,54ans per game to 17  home games this past season to rank 26th nationally and third in the Big 12 Conference. Kansas led all league schools with an average of 16,383 fans, which placed seventh in the country.

The NCAA released its attendance figures for the 2014-15 season.

Syracuse led the nation in attendance with an average of 23,854 fans per game.

The Mid-Plains League All-Stars rallied from a 2-0 first-inning deficit and went on to defeat a Puerto Rico summer collegeiate baseball team at Rathert Field Sunday night 11-6.

Aaron Marshall of Baldwin City, Jonathan Valenzuela-Reece of Rossville, and Cade Bunnell of Rossville all hit home runs for the Mid-Plains League squad.  Their head coach for the game, Seth Wheeler of Junction City said he thought the performance of the team showed the talent in the league. I think it proves that we have a lot of good talent in our league. All of our arms were 86-88 with breaking balls, and then we had some guys who could really hit too.”

The Mid-Plains squad tied the game 2-2 in the bottom of the 1st inning and then just kept adding one or two runs each at-bat through the seventh inning, as they rolled to the victory.  Every one on the team played in the contest, and they used six different pitchers.

The general manager for the Junction City Brigade, Cecil Aska estimated attendance totaled approximately 300 people.  Corvias Military Living Military Appreciation Night was also a part of the activities, and they sponsored a post-game fireworks display put on by Bennett Fireworks of Junction City.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Eric Hosmer drove in Lorenzo Cain with nobody out in the ninth inning, helping the Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins 3-2 on Sunday for a split of their four-game series.

Cain drew a leadoff walk against Twins reliever Blaine Boyer (2-4) to start the ninth after Ervin Santana had nearly shut Kansas City down in his return from a drug suspension.

Twins manager Paul Molitor called upon Aaron Thompson to face Hosmer, who ripped a pitch down the right-field line. Cain sprinted around third base at full speed, and a throw from Torii Hunter in right field was nowhere close to getting him at the plate.

Greg Holland (2-0) earned the win with a scoreless ninth inning.