K-State Slate: 4.11.15 - Big wins and a big departure

The BatCats won! The Kansas State bats were on fire last night, as the team trounced No. 3 TCU 14-4. With a season-high 18 hits and the second highest run total of the season, the Wildcats forced TCU to give up as many runs as in their last eight games combined.

Coach Brad Hill admitted to a bit of worry after Kansas State fell into a two-run hole early in the game, but a stellar pitching effort from starter Colton Kalmus and 4-of-5 day with an RBI for Tyler Wolfe (with every Wildcats player getting at least one hit) sealed the win for the BatCats.

The TCU series continues today, with first pitch at 2 PM. Brandon Courville will get the start for Kansas State.

There has been plenty of speculation, but we now have confirmation: Defensive tackle Terrell Clinkscales is leaving Kansas State football (Kellis Robinett, Kansas City Star).

The announcement came via a series of tweets from Clinkscales, where he admitted things had not worked out as expected in Manhattan for him. (His twitter feeds is protected).

After Bill Snyder said “[h]e and I are at odds right now,” Clinkscales' departure does not come as much of a surprise, though he is the third of a vaunted group of junior college recruits to leave the program recently, with D'Vonta Derricott and Isaiah Riddle, both redshirts last year, also leaving Kansas State.

The women's golf team had a particularly bad day at work yesterday at the SMU Invitational in Dallas. Shooting 41-over-par 617, the team is now in 11th place in a seventeen-team field. Low Wildcat on the day was Madison Talley who shot a team-leading 8-over-par to tie for 32nd place. Oklahoma State is currently in first place.

The tennis players did not fare much better than their golfing sisters, losing 4-2 to No. 29 Oklahoma. The Sooners won the doubles point with wins in the No. 1 and 3 doubles matches, though the Wildcats No. 2 duo of Iva Bago and Livia Cirnu were leading 5-2 in their doubles match when play was halted. Kansas State kept things interesting by winning singles matches at the number two (Palma Juhasz) and four (Cirnu) spots, but Oklahoma won the other three matches to stave off the upset.

Kansas State continues its weekend series with a trip north to Stillwater to take on No. 9 Oklahoma State at 1 PM today.

It was not all bad news on the distaff side, however, as two Wildcats notched big wins in track events. At the Jim Click event in Tuscon, Akela Jones, competing in her first ever heptathlon, finished in second place, with a particularly strong showing on the first day. Her 6,049 points in the event is the best for a Wildcats athlete since Austra Skujyte set the record mark of 6,275 points at the European Championships in 2002.

Meanwhile, at the Mesa Classic, distance runner Laura Galvan also made her mark. Shattering the meet record with a time of 16:40.52, she cruised past the field of 22 to win the 5000m event. This was the fastest race for a Wildcat since All-American Beverly Ramos set the school record (15:51.82) in 2010.