K-State Baseball: Wildcats Rebound Against Creighton, Winning 8-5

In a game that was close much of the way, K-State’s bullpen proves stronger than Creighton’s in an 8-5 victory for the Wildcats. The win moves the Wildcats to 16-10, 1-2 on the season, and drops Creighton to 12-8-1. While all wins are important, getting a big road victory is important for these Wildcats who haven’t looked so great away from home, improving to 6-10 in games away from Manhattan.

Senior Jared Moore (5-1) got the start and win for the Wildcats. In just over five innings of work, Moore gave up five runs on six hits and generally did just enough to keep the Bluejays from pulling ahead. Junior Jake Whaley and Freshman Ethan Landon, who recorded a save, came in to pitch four innings of scoreless relief. Landon, who is pitching well in the late innings so far this season, never faced more than the minimum in the final three innings, and struck out two of the nine he faced. The Wildcat defense also came up big in several key situations to help limit the damage the Bluejays could inflict.

Senior RJ Santigate led the BatCats at the plate, going 3-4 with 2 RBI on the afternoon. Freshman Tanner Devinny, wasn’t far behind, recording a 2-3 game with 3 RBI. Overall on the afternoon, six Wildcats recorded hits, with four recording multiple. Senior Ross Kivett, Devinny, and Santigate all extend their hitting and on-base streaks. Ross is now at 12 straight games with a hit, which is a season-best for the Wildcats, and continues a career-high on-base streak which now sits at 24 games. Santigate and Devinny are tied right behind Kivett with 11 straight games with hits. Kivett also recorded his 190^th single, and moved into first-place in the all-time K-State career singles list yesterday with his 189^th.

Sophomore Austin Groth (1-2) got the start and loss for the Bluejays after giving up five runs on seven hits in four and a third innings of work. The Bluejays deep bullpen was also not able to keep K-State off the scoreboard, giving up three runs on four hits between five pitchers.

The Bluejays were led at the plate by Sophomore Reagan Fowler and Freshman Nicky Lopez, who each went 2-4 on the afternoon. In what seemed to be the story for much of the game, Creighton’s batters also matched the Wildcats, with six Bluejays recording hits.

The series concludes tomorrow at 1:00pm CT at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha. The Wildcats are scheduled to send Freshman Nate Griep (2-0, 1.42), who shined against OU last weekend, to the mound, while Creighton has not named a starter for the Sunday game as of this posting. As with the today and yesterday tomorrow’s game will be available in Manhattan on 1350 KMAN, or free online at either 1350KMAN.com or K-StateSports.com.