KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Yordano Ventura, Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis combined on a four-hitter and the Kansas City Royals beat the Cincinnati Reds 3-0 on Tuesday night.

The Royals, who beat the New York Yankees 6-0 on Sunday, logged consecutive shutouts for the first time since Sept. 29-30, 1992, when Dennis Rasmussen and Rick Reed blanked the California Angels.

The Reds have lost four straight, matching their longest streak of the season.

Ventura (3-3), who was 0-3 in his five previous starts since a victory on April 12, allowed four singles, struck out six and walked none. He reached a three-ball count on only four hitters and retired all of them, lowering his ERA to 4.56.

Herrera gave up a walk in the eighth, but nothing else. Davis worked a spotless ninth, claiming his seventh save in as many opportunities.

Mike Moustakas went 3 for 4 with two doubles and drove in two runs. His double in the fifth drove in one run and his seventh-inning double made it 3-0.

Infante, who had two hits, drove home the other run with a two-out single in the second.

Reds right-hander Johnny Cueto (3-4) allowed three runs and nine hits, while walking one and striking out four.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Reds: LHP Manny Parra (strained neck) struck out all three Norfolk batters he faced to begin a minor league rehab assignment with Triple-A Louisville on Tuesday. . DH Devin Mesoraco (left hip impingement) did some catching drills. He has not caught since April 12. . LHP Sean Marshall will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery Wednesday. Mets medical director Dr. David Altchek will perform the procedure.

Royals: LHP Jason Vargas (flexor strain) threw a bullpen session Tuesday and is penciled in for a simulated game Friday. . C Erik Kratz (torn left plantar fasciitis) will likely start a minor league rehab assignment at the end of the week.

UP NEXT

Reds: RHP Jason Marquis, who has given up 17 hits and 11 runs in 8 2/3 innings in losing his previous two outings, will start Wednesday.

Royals: RHP Jeremy Guthrie has pitched well in interleague play, going 2-0 with a 2.15 ERA in five outings.

 

The Junction City Lady Jays saw their season come to an end in the first round of their Class 6A Regional Tournament on Tuesday at Olathe Northwest.

Junction City to Olathe Northwest 7-1.

Lady Jay coach Jeff Childs reported that the score was 2-1 in favor of Olathe Northwest going into the bottom of the sixth inning, but then the Ravens scored five runs.

Junction City finished the season with a record of 7-14.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Former NL Rookie of the Year Rafael Furcal is retiring after 14 major league seasons.

The 37-year-old signed a minor league contract with Kansas City during spring training, and the Royals placed him on the voluntary retired list Tuesday. He hit .240 with one double in 25 at-bats for Class A Wilmington and Double-A Northwest Arkansas.

“To play in the major leagues for 14 seasons was a dream come true,” Furcal said in a statement. “I love the game, but at this point, I don’t feel like I can play up to my standards anymore and want to spend more time with my beautiful family.”

A three-time All-Star who won a World Series title with St. Louis in 2011, the 37-year-old shortstop hit .281 with 311 doubles, 113 homers and 314 steals for Atlanta (2000-05), the Los Angeles Dodgers (2006-11), the Cardinals (2011-12) and Miami (2014). He won the rookie award with the Braves in 2000.

An All-Star in 2012, Furcal missed the 2013 season after right elbow ligament-replacement surgery that March. He appeared in nine big league games last year, leaving what turned out to be his finale on June 21 after injuring his left hamstring.

The  Class 6A Regional track meet scheduled this week in Hutchinson, Kansas is being moved up a day. It was originally scheduled on Friday, but will now be held on Thursday ( May 20).

The Junction City Blue Jays and Lady Jays will be among the teams competing in the meet.

The threat of rain on Friday is the reason for the change in days.

The meet will begin with field events at 2 p.m. on Thursday. Track preliminaries will start at 4:30 p.m.

MANHATTAN, Kan. – After helping lead K-State to its third straight series win at KU, Nate Griep and Tyler Wolfe were named the Big 12 Pitcher and Newcomer of the Week, respectively, for the period ending May 17, the

conference office announced.

 

Griep, who was last week’s Pitcher of the Week after throwing a three-hit shutout against Oklahoma on May 8, held the Jayhawks scoreless in his seven innings of work on May 15 while matching his career-high in strikeouts with eight in K-State’s 11-0 win, the Wildcats’ largest shutout in the all-time series vs. KU. Wolfe, meanwhile, had a multi-hit and multi-RBI effort in each of the three games of the series as he was the conference’s top hitter with a .571 batting average (8-for-14) while also driving in six runs.

 

Griep is the first Wildcat ever to win Big 12 Pitcher of the Week in back-to-back weeks while he is just second player in program history to earn it twice in one season (Brad Hutt, 2006). Griep is also the second player this season to earn the conference’s top pitcher accolade in consecutive weeks as he is joined by Oklahoma State’s Michael Freeman (March 23 and 30).

 

Griep finished the regular season with a consecutive scoreless inning streak of 16 frames. The redshirt sophomore posted the fourth-best ERA (1.96) in the Big 12 in conference-only games while his overall season ERA (2.35) is currently the lowest by a Wildcat starting pitcher since A.J. Morris (2.09) in 2009.

 

For Wolfe, it his third Newcomer of the Week award and second in the last three weeks. The Des Moines Area Community College transfer is K-State’s top hitter in Big 12 action, batting .366 (30-for-82) in all 24 games. Wolfe is the first newcomer to lead the Wildcats in batting average in conference-only games since Jon Davis in 2012.

 

The Maple Plain, Minnesota native was among the Big 12 leaders last week in hits (T-1st), OBP (2nd), triples (T-2nd) and RBIs (T-2nd). The everyday shortstop also threw a career-high two innings on Sunday, not allowing a run and surrendering just one hit in his third appearance of the year.

 

K-State has garnered 10 total Big 12 player of the week awards this year, the most in a single campaign in program history. Prior to this season, the Wildcats had never won more than five.

 

The Wildcats are en route to Tulsa, Oklahoma where they will play in the 2015 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship later this week. K-State, the sixth seed, opens its portion of the double-elimination tournament with a 4 p.m. contest against third-seeded Oklahoma on Wednesday at ONEOK Field.

 

The Junction City Blue Jay golf team has qualified for the Class 6A State Tournament.

In the regional tournament Monday at Rolling Meadows Golf Course the Blue Jays finished third out of eight teams, with the top three teams advancing to state. Washburn Rural claimed the team title with an overall low score of 307, followed by Manhattan at 324, and Junction City at 345.

Steve Kim led the Blue Jays with a fourth place finish with a round of 75.   Other finishes for Junction City included a 12th place finish by Logan Roether with a round of 87, Shane Lee 14th  with an 89, Madison Roether 20th with a 94, Trey Reynolds 21st with a score of 96, and Michael Youngs 29th with a score of 113. All of those Blue Jays are now qualified to compete in the state tournament.

The Class 6A State Tournament is scheduled Tuesday, May 26 at Carey Park in Hutchinson.

NEW YORK (AP) – Rookie of the Year Andrew Wiggins of Minnesota is the only unanimous selection for the NBA’s All-Rookie first team.

Wiggins ( former Kansas Jayhawk player ) received all 130 votes Monday from a panel of sports writers and broadcasters in the U.S. and Canada. He averaged 16.9 points, tops in the class, and his 36.2 minutes per game ranked fourth in the NBA.

The rest of the first team was Chicago’s Nikola Mirotic, Philadelphia’s Nerlens Noel, Orlando’s Eldrid Payton and Lakers guard Jordan Clarkson.

The second team included Boston’s Marcus Smart, Minnesota’s Zach LaVine, Brooklyn’s Bojan Bogdanovic, Denver’s Jusuf Nurkic and New York’s Langston Galloway.

The panel chose five players for the first team and five for the second, regardless of position. Two points were awarded for first-team votes and one for a second.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Mitch Morse would have been hard-pressed to find a better opportunity.

Start with the fact that the rookie offensive lineman was drafted by the Chiefs, just down the road from where he played in college. Throw in the fact that he was picked well before most experts anticipated – and what that meant for his first contract.

Then consider this: The Chiefs watched their starting center sign with the Oakland Raiders in free agency, leaving a gaping void in the middle of their offensive line.

Suddenly, the second-round draft pick could be counted on by a playoff contender.

The Junction City 12 and Under Brigade (AA) won the Hawaiian Hitfest this weekend.  The Brigade went 3-0 in pool games and earned the number 2 seed in the bracket.  On a long Sunday afternoon, the boys went 3-0 winning the final game over the Marysville Dawgs 14-0 to become the champions.  The victory in this tournament brings the Brigade’s record to 11-2 on the season.

Players from left to right: Russell Wilkey, Rhett Spell, Mason Dusseault

Anthony Hamilton, Trevor Laughlin…Back row, James Hancock, Braden Rains, Andrew

Khoury, Bodie Tillman, Nate Green and Ricky Reynolds.

 

 

 

LAWRENCE, Kan. – K-State surrendered a five-run lead in the

Sunflower Showdown series finale on Sunday as Kansas outscored the Wildcats 9-1 after the top of the fourth to claim a 9-6 win at Hoglund Ballpark.

 

The loss for the Wildcats (26-28, 10-14 Big 12) in the regular season finale snapped their five-game winning streak in Lawrence. However, by winning the first two games of the set, K-State was able to claim its third consecutive road set in the all-time series against KU (23-32, 8-15 Big 12).

 

Carter Yagi drove in a career-high four runs, all with two outs, while Tyler Wolfe went 3-for-4 with two RBIs to help put the Wildcats in the lead in the early going. Yagi hit a bases-clearing triple in the second to make it 3-0, and in the fourth, the senior preceded Wolfe’s RBI double with a run-producing single as K-State led 5-0 going into the bottom half of the frame.

 

KU, though, went on to score nine of the next 10 runs with three runs in each of the fourth, fifth and seventh frames. A two-run home run by Blair Beck highlighted the fourth for the Jayhawks, while three doubles off K-State reliever Corey Fischer in the fifth led to a tie game at 6-6.

 

“[Blair] Beck’s home run was a big deal,” said K-State head coach Brad Hill. “The two-run home run just gave [KU] some life. We couldn’t get any stops after that.”

 

KU seized the lead for good in the seventh when Fischer, who took his fifth loss of the season, gave up three consecutive hits to start the inning. The second of the three hits was an RBI single by Beck that drove in Michael Tinsley, who singled and stole second and third, and gave KU a 7-6 advantage. K-State’s shortstop Tyler Wolfe was forced to relieve Fischer after the third hit, but a sacrifice fly by Ryan Pidhaichuk and a fielding error by Yagi at second base allowed KU to tack on a pair of insurance runs.

 

Fischer finished the day responsible for five runs, four earned, on seven hits in two innings. The junior, who last appeared in a game on May 10 vs. Oklahoma, allowed four doubles among his seven hits.

 

“Fischer wasn’t sharp today, unfortunately,” said Hill. “He got hit around pretty good.”

 

In total, the K-State bullpen, which entered the game with a sub-3.00 ERA in Big 12 play, surrendered all nine runs on 14 hits over six innings. Wolfe, who has appeared in three games this season as a pitcher, threw two innings and allowed just one hit and one walk while Mitch Plassmeyer (3 ER, 3 H in 1 2/3 IP) and Mark Biesma (1 ER, 3 H, 1/3 IP) also logged time.

 

“We just ran out of arms, to be honest with you,” said Hill. “We couldn’t get extended days out of Biesma or Fischer. Credit to [KU]. They kept playing, got on a roll, and hit a lot of mistakes.”

 

K-State used the help of eight two-out walks to load the bases three times in the first five innings. While Yagi cleared the bases in the second with his fourth triple of the year following a passed ball third strike and two walks, K-State reloaded the bases in fourth when Shane Conlon and Tyler Moore drew free passes after Wolfe’s double. The staged threat was nullified, though, when Max Brown popped out. In the fifth, the Wildcats loaded the bases for the final time after a leadoff single by Alex Bee and back-to-back two-out walks by Jake Wodtke and Yagi. Wolfe responded with a single through the right side off Sam Gilbert to drive in Bee to make it 6-3 K-State, but Wodtke was thrown out at home by KU right fielder Dakota Smith to end the frame.

 

The Wildcats, who were doubled up in hits by the Jayhawks, 14-7, had just one hit after the fifth inning, a one-out single by Clayton Dalrymple in the ninth.

 

“We needed a couple more big hits with two outs, bases loaded,” said Hill. “I think that would have helped some things out.”

 

KU reliever Hayden Edwards earned the win after retiring the only batter he faced in the seventh. The right-hander spelled Gilbert, who allowed one run despite two hits and four walks on 62 pitches over three innings pitched.

 

Stephen Villines, who took the defeat in game two of the series on Saturday, notched his 13th save of the season after holding the Wildcats to two baserunners over the eighth and ninth innings.

 

Both starting pitchers did not factor into the decision as K-State’s Colton Kalmus did not allow a run or a hit in two innings of a scheduled short start. KU’s Sean Rackoski surrendered three runs, all unearned, on two hits and three walks in 1 2/3 innings.

 

K-State will learn its 2015 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship fate following the conclusion of the second game of a doubleheader between Texas and Baylor. The Wildcats could finish sixth if Texas wins or seventh if Texas claims the series.

 

 

NOTES

Despite the loss, K-State is 23-8 vs. KU over the last 31 meetings, including 10-4 in Lawrence.

 

The Wildcats, who started their Big 12 schedule with a 2-7 record, won eight of their last 15 conference games to claim their most Big 12 victories since 2013 (16-8).

 

K-State has lost four straight regular season finales. The last time the Wildcats won the last game of their regular season was in 2011 when K-State beat KU, 10-6, in Lawrence.

Release by Chris Kutz, Assistant Director, Athletics Communications