SLATE: K-State baseball pulls out the brooms at Tointon over the weekend

Baseball

This time last week, we were all pretty worried about the Kansas State baseball team. The BatCats had just dropped two of three to a not-good Baylor squad in Waco, and then would go on to split a series with St. Thomas in Manhattan, to give them just their second D1 win ever, as they are leaping up from D3 to D1 this year. And with Oklahoma on deck for this weekend, a Sooners squad that had just taken two of three from TCU, it looked like things might be headed south pretty quickly for the BatCats.

But then K-State jumped out to a 1-0 series advantage with a strong showing in a 7-1 win over the Sooners on Friday night. Owen Boerema pitched a gem on a cold and rainy night in MHK, giving up just six hits and one run in six complete innings to push his record to 4-0 on the season. Ty Ruhl finished the final three innings with no hits and just one walk, and faced just one over the minimum to complete the victory. The Cats were led at the plate by Brady Day, who snagged two RBI and a run off two hits and a walk.

Saturday morning, in a game that got moved up thanks to the K-State basketball game later that evening, the Cats took a a 6-1 lead early on thanks to a 5-run 4th inning. But a Sooner charge tied the game in the top of the 6th, but Roberto Pena hit a go-ahead RBI double in the bottom 6th to give the Cats a 7-6 advantage, and Mason Buss (3-0) and Tyson Neighbors pitched 3.2 shutout innings to record the win and save (respectively). The five-run 4th was punctuated by a 3-run RBI double from Pena, and a two-run blast from Brendan Jones for his third homerun of the season.

On Sunday, it looked like the Sooners would run away with the finale after the Cats blew a 3-0 lead, thanks to back-to-back homeruns from Cole Johnson and Raphael Pelletier, by giving up 6 runs to OU in the 4th. One more run from the Sooners in the 7th game them a 7-3 advantage, but the BatCats came alive in the bottom of the eighth, as a Nick Goodwin double followed by a Brady Day walk to load the bases led to a 2-run RBI from Cash Rugely and then a 2-out 2-run RBI double from Pelletier to tie the game at 7-all. Tyson Neighbors struck out two batters and forced a fly-out in the top of the 9th as he faced the minimum, then a walk, mis-handled sac-bunt, and another walk loaded the bases for the Cats, and then Brady Day came back to the plate. Day took three straight balls and it looked like he might walk-in the winning run, but then two straight strikes loaded the count for the sophomore. But with one out and a full count, Day nearly went yard for his second hit of the afternoon, and his hit off the right-field wall scored the winning run, for an 8-7 final.

It was the first sweep of a Big 12 series since 2013, when they took all three against KU during the run to the Big 12 title under Brad Hill. And it was the first sweep of OU since 1990, when the Cats took four-straight from the Sooners on their way to a second-place Big Eight finish under Mike Clark. The Cats, now 17-8 overall and 4-2 in Big 12 play, are off to their best start in conference play under Pete Hughes (and overall since a 5-1 start in 2013), and currently sit in a tie for 2nd in the Big 12 with Oklahoma State and TCU.

Next up for the BatCats is a two-game stint in Colorado Springs, as K-State is set to face Air Force today and tomorrow at Falcon Field. Today’s matchup is set for a 1pm MT start (2pm CT), while tomorrow’s game is set for a 1pm CT start. Both games will be streamed on the Mountain West Network, and can be heard in Manhattan on KMAN as well as online at kstatesports.com/watch.

Following the midweek trip west, the Cats will be back at Tointon Family Stadium this weekend for a series with #24 West Virginia.

Basketball

The K-State women’s squad saw their season come to an end in the Super 16 of the WNIT on Friday with a 55-48 loss at the hands of Washington. The Cats held a 25-17 lead at halftime, but a dismal 3rd quarter led to just 7 points for the Cats and 20 for the Huskies, and K-State just couldn’t muster enough in the 4th to catch up. The MittieCats finish the season at 19-17 overall, but went 0-10 on the road, with their only wins away from Bramlage coming on neutral courts. The Cats finished the regular season losing 3-straight before earning a win in KC to get them to the WNIT. They won their first two games, both in Manhattan, before needing to head out to Seattle for game 3.

There is significant optimism for next season, with the expected return of All-American center Ayoka Lee, as well as the returns of guards Gabby Gregory, Serena Sundell, and Jaelyn & Brylee Glenn. Gregory will be using her Covid year, while Sundell and the Glenn twins will be headed into their third year in the program after having spent all this season as featured parts of the squad and without being able to rely on Lee’s prowess in the paint.

The K-State men’s season came to an end on Saturday in the Elite Eight, again, marking the eight-straight program exit from the NCAA Tournament at the regional finals. The TangCats just could not overcome missed opportunities to stretch their leads, as well as only having Keyontae Johnson for 18 minutes do to foul trouble from a few very questionable calls. Despite that, the Cats still had a chance to tie in the final seconds, but couldn’t get the shot up before the clock hit zero, and fell to Florida Atlantic 79-76 to extend K-State’s Final Four drought to 59 years.

Despite losing All-Americans Markquis Nowell and Keyontae Johnson, as well as seniors Desi Sills and Abyomi Iyiola, there is a renewed optimism about the future of K-State basketball thanks to Jerome Tang. There’s three really good high school recruits signed for next season, as well as the possibility of adding some instant impact through the transfer portal. Plus a full offseason, something Tang didn’t really have this year due to spending most of the summer building his first squad, to grow and develop guys like Nae’Qwan Tomlin, who showed he could be a star despite still being raw and relatively inexperienced.

It’s not K-State, but in a shocking move, the University of Texas did something Not Dumb, and have decided to retain Rodney Terry as their regular head coach after he aced the 3-month interview as the interim head coach following the firing of Chris Beard in January. Terry led the Longhorns to their deepest run in the NCAA Tournament since 2008, both the last time the Horns advanced out of the first weekend and the last time they made the Elite Eight. So they next time you think about all the first weekend exits for K-State over the last 15 years, just remember we didn’t blow nearly as much money as Texas did — and we even got a couple Big 12 titles in there.

Football

The football Wildcats haven’t been sleeping with all the basketball going on, and just picked up their 4th commit of the 2023 class, 3-star linebacker Jake Stonebraker from Castle Rock, CO. Stonebraker (great football name, btw) is currently rated as the best prospect in the state of Colorado by On3, and gives K-State two of the Top 3 with 3-star QB Blake Barnett from Erie. Stonebraker is a 6’1”, 205lbs athlete that looks much like Austin Moore on film, which is a very good thing.

In case you’re wondering after seeing Deuce Vaughn in the “highlight reel” video from Friday, yes, the pro-prospect Cats are back in town for the K-State Pro Day, which will be held this Friday. NFL scouts will get one more good look at Deuce Vaughn, Felix Anudike-Uzomah, Julius Brents, Malik Knowles, Josh Hayes and others before the NFL Draft in Kansas City later in April. Brents has flown up the draft boards, and is currently sitting in a zone that could see him go as early as round one.

Other

Congratulations to Gene Taylor, who was named as the 2022-23 Cushman & Wakefield FBS AD of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA). Taylor is one of four AD’s honored this year by the NACDA, who gave out awards at all four NCAA levels (D1 FBS & FCS, D2, & D3). The awards comes on the heels of a great two-thirds of the 2022-23 athletic season, with the Big 12 Championship football team and the basketball squad’s run to the Elite Eight, as well as the completion or near-completion of several major building projects (all being done without state funding...) including the new Shamrock Indoor Football Facility and the Morgan Family Volleyball Arena and Olympic Training Center.