Kansas State blows 9-run lead over Baylor, loses by 8

How do you know you’re doomed?

K-State, needing to win one more game this weekend than Oklahoma State in order to sneak into the Big 12 baseball tournament, looked like they were off to a good start. The BatCats (27-26, 6-16) ripped off a ridiculous 11-run third inning to take a 12-3 lead over Baylor (34-17, 12-10) last night in Waco...

...and by the fifth inning they were losing, getting hammered 18-1 through the final seven innings of play in a 21-13 loss.

(More from Brice Cherry, Waco Tribune)

The only good news: Oklahoma State didn’t win last night, but only because the opening game of Bedlam in Tulsa was rained out. The Cowboys and Sooners will play two in Oklahoma City today, while K-State and Baylor will also play a doubleheader. The Cats must win one more game than the Pokes today, or it’s all over.

There really are no words to describe the epic collapse. Had K-State held on to that seemingly insurmountable lead, they’d be in eighth place right now, and would only have had to match Oklahoma State today. Losing the lead was bad enough.

Losing the lead and then giving up another nine runs on top of it? Unacceptably awful.

Football

For the second day in a row, K-State took top honors in ESPN’s post-spring Big 12 position rankings as they were named the class of the league on special teams. With all the post-spring rankings in, how do the Cats compare to the pre-spring rankings?

The team which came out on top before spring, TCU, was downgraded pretty seriously. Counting “points” as the teams’ rank at each position, meaning lower is better, TCU had 24 points in the pre-spring rankings. But the Frogs lost five this time out to end with 29. They remained just ahead of K-State, who went from 28 to 30. However, ESPN’s big 12 bloggers were pretty impressed with Oklahoma State this spring; the Cowboys, who had 29 points on the first go-round, improved to 26 this time out to take top honors.

But all three remain ahead of Oklahoma and Texas, who both registered 34 before spring practices, and who both ended up with 31. The interesting change is at the bottom, though. If the position rankings predict performance, Kansas may not finish in the cellar, because Texas Tech — predicted ninth in the pre-spring rankings — slipped to a dead even tie with KU this time out.

Meanwhile, it’s your favorite day of the year: the day you get to go rag on Bill Connelly, who dropped his K-State preview yesterday. The raw numbers say 7-5. The projected results of each game, individually, add up to 8-4. And Bill’s gut? He thinks 9-3 is completely doable if things gel by October, and doesn’t rule out a Big 12 title.

Scout’s Gabe Brooks talked with Cedar Hill (Tex.) 3-star defensive tackle Shabazz Dotson, who Mo Latimore and Charlie Dickey are working pretty hard. Dotson, Scout’s 37th-ranked DT for 2018 and 6th-ranked in Texas, plans a summer visit. K-State is fighting Michigan and Houston for Dotson; Texas is also interested, but hasn’t offered. Some other schools, notably Tech and Iowa State, have offered but don’t seem like serious contenders.

Men’s Basketball

The Star’s Kellis Robinett tells the story of former Wildcat assistant Delonte Hill, who’s put his life back together and is now a brand-new assistant under newly-hired Austin Peay head coach Matt Figger (who, of course, followed Frank Martin from Manhattan to South Carolina).

Matt Kawahara of the Sacramento Bee reports on the Kings’ pre-draft workout Thursday. The focus of his story is Cal-Davis guard Brynton Lemar, but the reason we’re linking it because someone else worked out for the Kings on Thursday: Wesley Iwundu.

Other Stuff, quick hits:

Cliff Rovelto is, for the third time but first since 2002, the Big 12 Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year. Nina Schultz, meanwhile, becomes the third straight Wildcat to earn Outstanding Freshman of the Year, following A’Keyla Mitchell in 2015 and Shadae Lawrence last year.

The Star’s Blair Kerkhoff profiles UMKC’s new head women’s basketball coach, former Wildcat assistant Jacie Hoyt.