SLATE: Big 12 Baseball tournament on tap for this week

Baseball

The Big 12 Baseball Championships start today from Globe Life Field in Arlington, TX (home of the Rangers). The 7-seed Wildcats are set to face off against 2-seed Texas Tech at 4pm CDT today in the opening round, and Kansas State is looking to snap a four game losing streak after dropping all four games last week in the Virginias. Last time the Cats and Top 10-ranked Red Raiders squared off, Tech swept the series in Lubbock, thanks to a walk-off win in the Sunday game. The Cats started their 2022 season at Globe Life Field, dropping all three of their games in what eventually became a 5-game losing streak to open the season.

The Big 12 championships are double-elimination, so K-State will get at least two games before their season is officially over. But the Cats are 1-8 against their projected foes (they play either OU or WVU on Thursday), so expect a quick exit. Both Wednesday and Thursday games (and basically all the games of the championship) will be on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.

On a somewhat positive note, four Wildcats earned spots on the All-Big 12 Teams, led by Dylan Phillips who received a snubbed nod for the All-Big 12 Second Team as a utility player (which really should have made him higher on the list considering he won weekly awards for both batting and pitching this season...). Phillips was joined by Kaelen Culpepper, Nick Goodwin, and Dominic Johnson, who all appeared on the Honorable Mention List. Culpepper, who starred at third base this season, was also named to the All-Freshman Team. Johnson would have been a shoe-in for an “All-Newcomer Team” after leading K-State in all three slash categories, and Goodwin may have gotten his nod after leading the conference in fielding errors with an impressive 16 recorded for the season (wait, now I’m being told that’s a bad thing...).

Basketball

The K-State women’s basketball team will again be facing off against the South Dakota State Jackrabbits in Kansas City’s Municipal Auditorium, with the 2022 match-up set for Saturday, December 10th and 1pm. The Cats and the Jackrabbits, who won the regular season Summit League crown last season and won the WNIT after getting upset in the Summit tournament championship game by 2-seed South Dakota, faced off last season in Brookings with the Cats earning a 79-73 win.

Football

Chris Klieman had another big addition to the 2022 class yesterday, with the commitment of JUCO linebacker Gavin Forsha from Tyler Junior College in Texas. K-State was an early favorite in the recruitment, and held off a late charge from Lincoln Riley and USC to secure the commitment. Forsha becomes the third new Wildcat from Tyler JC this offseason, joining teammates Kobe Savage (who has been on campus this spring) and Justice Clemons. Forsha is a long-term add at the position, and he will have four years of eligibility remaining to play three seasons after having only been at the junior college level for a single year.

Track & Field

Athletes from the K-State track and field squads will be looking to keep their season alive after a dismal team showing at the Big 12 Championships. Today and tomorrow, 18 Wildcats will be in Fayetteville, AR for the 2022 NCAA West Preliminary, and will be looking to lock in their place for the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships in a couple weeks. Events are already underway, and the evening events can be seen streaming on the SEC Network.