Great relief pitching earmarks K-State’s four wins.
The Wildcats continued their 10-game homestand last week with a solid 4-1 record. The Wildcats took the first four games of the week–sweeping a mid-week, two-game series with Northern Illinois–and, then, took the first two games of a three-game set from a solid University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley team. K-State fell to the Vaqueros on Sunday.
Tuesday: The game was tied 6-6 with NIU (3-13) entering the bottom of the 8th inning. The Wildcats then broke out for three runs including back-to-back RBI doubles by Chris Ceballos and Dylan Phillips. The surge gave the Wildcats a 9-6 victory. Mid-week starter Kasey Ford didn’t have his best stuff on Tuesday, and it meant that K-State was in a hole right from the start.
The Wildcats’ bullpen saved the day by pitching 7 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing only one hit over that span.
Wednesday: The Wildcats were able to sweep the series with an 8-3 win on Tuesday. The Wildcats trailed 3-1 entering the bottom of the 5th before their bats woke up. K-State took the lead 4-3 and scored four more runs to salt away the win. The Wildcats collected five extra-base hits on the day, including a triple and homer from Caleb Littlejim. Virginia Tech transfer Zach Kokoska also homered. The Wildcat bullpen was fantastic once again, pitching 4 1/3 inning with no runes and only one-hit baseball.
Friday: So far this year, Friday nights have been an Achilles heel for the Wildcats. Would that trend continue? It looked that way. UTRGV’s ace Trevelle Hill (4-1) took the mound against KSU’s spot starter, Griffin Hassall. Hassall got the start because Tyler Eckberg has been shut down temporarily due to an arm injury. Hill performed as expected by going the distance, but Kansas St. did what it had to do to pull out the win, 3-1, scoring its runs by way of two sacrifice flies and a single by Thomas Hughes. Hassall threw the first 4 2/3 innings before turning over the ball to the bullpen.
The pen came through for the third straight day–throwing 4 2/3 innings of two-hit, shutout relief.
Saturday: The Wildcats continued their win streak by making it four in a row, winning impressively, 7-1. In what may have been the most complete victory of the season, Freshman standout Jordan Wicks (3-0) was as good as advertised. He threw 6 1/3 innings and allowed one run on five hits while walking one and striking out six. On the offensive side, the Wildcats banged out 10 hits. Chris Ceballos was red hot, hitting his 2nd and 3rd homers of the season and driving in four. Freshman Dylan Phillips homered as well.
Sunday: The Wildcats’ win streak ended at four when K-State came up short, 6-5, in the final game of the three-game set. It was a game marred by delays, controversial calls, and umpiring reviews. The game was delayed for 20 minutes in the 5th inning when a piece of the mound turf came unglued. Then in the bottom of the 7th, the Wildcats had runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs with leading hitter Will Brennan at the plate. Coach Pete Hughes instructed Brennan to bunt and he did, popping it up.
Even though camera replays showed that the ball was trapped, the call on the field was that the bunt was caught and then converted into a double play to end the inning–in effect, constituting a triple play.
UP NEXT: The Wildcats will play another five games this week, starting with a two-game, mid-week series against Canisius (4-14) to end the 10-game homestand. Then, over the weekend, K-State will begin Big 12 play by traveling to Stillwater to play the 12-6 OSU Cowboys.
