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Baseball
Thanks to those scrubs in Ames who decided that they wanted to be the only Big 12 school without a baseball team back in the early 2000’s like a bunch of losers, your Kansas State Wildcats will take a break from Big 12 play this weekend for a series against UC Irvine. The Cats and the Anteaters haven’t played since 2008 when they split a mid-week series in Manhattan. UCI enters the weekend at 21-13 and 9-6 in the Big West, and that record includes a win over Oregon State in Corvallis, as well as a sweep of Arizona State in a mid-week series. K-State will be looking to continue their winning ways, as they have picked up wins in four of their last five games, including that important series win over Texas last weekend. Today’s first pitch, should weather hold, is set for 6pm CDT and Blake Adams is set to take the bump. Saturday’s game game is set for 4pm, and while no starter for K-State is listed, expect Connor McCollough to continue his impressive season on the mound in the start. Sunday’s first pitch is earlier than normal, and is set for 11am CDT, presumably to help Irvine with travel back home. Speaking of weather, expect a lot of offense with 30-40mph winds projected through the weekend coming out of the south and west, making it very easy to put balls out of the park at Tointon Family Stadium.
Basketball
Jerome Tang has add another impressive name to his impressive first staff, this time stealing the strength and condition coach from Miami (the one in Florida) for the same role at K-State. Phil Baier has been in Manhattan for at least a week or so, but was officially unveiled yesterday by K-State. Before joining Miami last season, Baier had spent time at Arkansas State and North Texas, making him very familiar to assistant coach Jareem Dowling.
There is at least one important transfer visitor expected on campus today, with Detroit Mercy guard Antoine Davis travelling to Manhattan. Tang will be looking to go 3-for-3 with impact transfers his week, as he attempts to snag the nations active-leader in scoring to replace Nijel Pack’s scoring production.
Tennis
The 9-seed Wildcats battled back from an early hole after dropping the doubles point to take a 4-2 victory over 8-seed TCU in the opening round of the Big 12 Championship yesterday. Of course in tournament play it’s a quick turnaround, and the Wildcats face off against 1-seed OU today at noon CDT.