SLATE: Kansas State NFL Draft chatter

It’s that time of year when the NFL Draft previews start popping up, and so far two Kansas State players have had the attention of sportswriters.

In today’s pile of stories, Andrew Parish of Last Word on Sports has Briley Moore pegged for a sixth-round selection, while Mia O’Brien of WTLV in Jacksonville is dead certain that if he’s still around in the seventh round the Jaguars will snap him up. As for Wyatt Hubert, Ian Cummings at Pro Football Network thinks he might have some value to certain teams in the seventh round, but isn’t sure he’ll be drafted.

Of course, since his workouts with Kansas City have apparently pleased both parties, going undrafted and signing a deal with the Chiefs might work out better for Hubert anyway.

Baseball

It’s been a few days since the NCAA has updated national stats; the morning of April 23, to be exact, which means this weekend’s games haven’t been dumped into the hopper yet. At that time, K-State was in eighth place in Division I on the home run chart with 51.

The BatCats tacked on six more against West Virginia during their three-game set, pushing them to 57. On Friday, Auburn and LSU were tied for third with 55, so it’ll be fun to see how things shook out for the teams ahead of the Wildcats.

Four of those six homers came Sunday afternoon at Tointon as K-State rallied for a 9-4 comeback win to take the series two games to one. Carson Seymour failed to get out of the third inning, departing with a 3-1 deficit, the lone Wildcat run coming on a Nick Goodwin homer in the first inning which probably didn’t land until K-State had taken the lead; it was a 468-foot blast to left, the longest homer hit by K-State this season.

In the fourth, Kamron Willman popped a two-run jack to tie the game at three; West Virginia regained the lead when Hudson Byorick scored on a wild pitch, but that would be the only real black mark on Kasey Ford’s record for the day. Ford (3-0) hurled 6²⁄₃ innings of relief, allowing only three hits and the lone unearned run.

Meanwhile, K-State scored two runs in each of their final three innings to put the Mountaineers away. In the sixth, they did it the old fashioned way; singles by Willman and Dylan Caplinger scored Chris Ceballos and Caleb Littlejim, respectively, to give the BatCats a 5-4 lead. Dylan Phillips bashed a two-run homer in the seventh, and Caplinger did likewise in the eighth to cap the game.

The win leaves K-State at 23-16, 6-9 in the Big 12 and tied for sixth place. West Virginia falls to 15-8, also 6-9 in conference. The extra innings loss on Friday stings even more now, as the Cats would be tied for fourth, just a game out of third, had they pulled that one out.

Next up is a single-game visit from Missouri on Tuesday, followed by a three-game set hosting Texas Southern. The week’s schedule marks K-State’s final non-conference action of the season.

Golf

The men’s Big 12 Championship begins this morning with a grueling 36 holes at Prairie Dunes Country Club right down the road in Hutchinson. The event begins at 8:00, but K-State’s fivesome won’t begin hitting the tees until 9:07, starting from the tenth tee. The second round, or holes 19-36 on the day if you like, begins at 1:52; K-State tees off from the first hole starting at 2:37. Rounds three and four will take place Tuesday and Wednesday. No TV or streaming, but you can track the Wildcats’ progress at golfstat.com.